Recap: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

If you’re on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you might have bumped into this: #pinkoctober. If you have been in the mall in the month of October, you probably saw shelves packed with pink products. Pink was just everywhere last month? But did you wonder what was that all about?

Take a guess!

Ooh, wait, the headline already gave you a clue, right?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This cancer awareness campaign is ubiquitous and it involves thousands of organizations across the globe.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer that affects a lot of women around the world. Each year, this deadly disease takes thousands of lives of our beloved friends, sisters, nieces, mothers, and aunts.

It is believed that an estimated two-thirds of all cancers are preventable. This is one of the reasons why you should join the campaign and raise awareness of it. You never know, you might save a life.

ALSO CHECK: Self-Examination of Breat Cancer - Why it is so Important?

 

Such campaigns as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month are important because they provide an opportunity to help educate different publics about cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, the health impact of breast cancer and the impact of heredity on cancer risk. The ultimate end goal is to significantly reduce illness and death caused by cancer.

Although we are now in November, it's still important to talk about breast cancer awareness all day every day. As long as that ugly disease is still out there, you and I don’t have to wait for October 2020 to spread awareness it.

So, here is an article that talks about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in the month of November.

How did the Breast Cancer Awareness Month Start?

In the United States, the Cancer Awareness Month is a national event, hence the name National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). This campaign began in the US in 1985. It was established as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries.

 

What is Breast Cancer?

The name is probably self-explanatory, isn’t it? Anyway, breast cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the female’s breast. Cancer starts when cells begin to grow abnormally. Breast cancer usually forms a tumor that can be felt as a lump or seen on an x-ray scan.

Most of the people affected by breast cancer are women, but men can also get affected by breast cancer, too.

Do not be alarmed when you feel a lump on your breasts, sometimes people can grow non-cancerous breast tumors which are benign. But if you feel a lump on your breast, it’s wise to get checked by your doctor because some types of malignant breast lumps can increase one’s chance of getting breast cancer.

Breast Cancers can Begin from Different Parts of the Breast.

• Most breast cancers start in the ducts that carry milk to the nipple, and they are known as the ductal cancers.
• There are cases where breast cancer can start in the glands that make breast milk, and these are referred to as lobular cancers.
• Other types of breast cancer are not so common, and these include angiosarcoma and phyllodes tumor.
• Although they are really not considered to be breast cancers, sarcomas and lymphomas also start in other tissues in the breast.

Breast cancers come in different types, shapes and sizes. The most common ones include invasive carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ. As mentioned earlier, angiosarcoma and phyllodes tumors are less common.

 

How to Observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month

There are many things you can do to observe the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Some people observe the campaign by wearing pink while others spread the word through the use of hashtags on Social Media. Here are some of the things you can do to participate in this worthy cause:

Share a story

Cancer survivors, medical professionals and caregivers have a chance of sharing their stories of how cancer impacted their lives. This is done so as to encourage and motivate some other people who are battling cancer. If you go on Google and type ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Month’, you will definitely see thousands of organizations and various links that will take you to a platform where you can share your experience.

Wear Pink

Pink is the dress code that is associated with the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s not just about the dress code, but some organizations show their support by changing their websites’ background colors to pink for a whole month. Some companies hold Pink Days so as to encourage their employees to get involved in the campaign.

Donate Money

Every cent count, and when it comes to combating cancer, no donation is little. The donated money funds life-saving cancer research. Large and small companies use this Campaign to make donations. You don’t have to have a company to donate, whatever you can give is appreciated.

This content is edited by Flymedi Medical Editors in November 2019.