Pinktober Revolution
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I just reviewed Komen's annual report and it appears that they are addressing several items pointed out by their critics, by highlighting men with breast cancer, working on better reaching communities where minorities are disproportionately impacted by breast cancer, participating in a consortium regarding metastatic breast cancer, etc. I still think their funding needs to shift more to research and MBC plus the projected image of cancer as something pretty and pink needs to be better addressed. They are one of the entities who helped with the daunting co-pays on my chemo drugs so I may well be biased.
http://ww5.komen.org/AboutUs/FinancialInformation....
As to the American Cancer Society handing out products with potential carcinogens, I wonder if critics have appealed to their favorite companies that don't have said ingredients and petitioned them to donate? I don't know how many companies have the resources to support a national program like that. Would it be better to simply abandon the program altogether? Personally, I very rarely wrote makeup in the 30 years leading up to my diagnosis so it was not a likely culprit for me, but I think it's great to encourage companies to find safer alternatives that eliminate ingredients of concern.
Lyn
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That's great news Lyn. I certainly agree that Stage 4 folks need more, since they are the ones dying and they are the ones who often get quite put off by the pink hoopla.
Good on Komen for helping you with co-pays, since financial assistance for individuals can be the most useful help of all.
You can read the Charity Navigator report on Komen here:
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=sea...
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BCO have a plan for pinking up Halloween to raise funds for this website. Is this a fair thing given the cause, or should this kids day be left to them?
Follow the discussion here:https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/114/topic...
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The photos above are so ridiculous (pink rolls etc.) They are a slap in the face to those of us who actually deal with the disease. Freya said above, "What I don't appreciate is MBC being sexualised and trivialised to make other people feel better." Well said!
Thank you, Traveltext, for pointing out that the stage iv people especially are in dire need of research funding.
I think Komen may be starting to get some of our messages. Someone posted on another thread that they are doing an mbc conference this fall, and it appears that there is no registration fee. We should praise any efforts at good behavior.
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Thanks for the link, Traveltext. I'm broke, but Charity Navigator is the "go to" I recommend to those in better financial condition.
Shetland Pony speaks to a point I was trying to make, albeit not very well. Rather then demonizing charities, I think it's best to acknowledge help for cancer detection, treatment or research when it's been provided while addressing improvements still to be made. I also believe in trying to offer solutions instead of just criticisms. For example, I don't know what criteria is used in determining which makeup ingredients are potentially carcinogenic, I wonder if critics could approach the more successful companies using gentler ingredients, such as Burt's Bees or Jessica Alba's company, to see if they would participate in the "Look Good, Feel Better" program, then present the product proposal to the American Cancer Society. I suspect it's not easy to find companies both willing and able to support a national program of this magnitude.
Whether people with breast cancer like it or not, the color pink is associated with the disease. Companies abusing that association and not contributing to research can be called out on social media. Similarly, the products that are so clearly offensive to those with metastatic breast cancer can be addressed on social media from the perspective of those impacted by the disease, either themselves or loved ones. I'm an advocate of being polite, persistent and persuasive rather than using profane language. I understand the justifiable anger, but that approach makes people immediately become defensive and often terminates any discourse or helpful exchange of ideas. It also alienates those who have good intentions, but haven't properly considered how their approach may be inappropriate.
Lyn
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Just posted here: dontpinkforme.causevox.com/lynn-edwards
Lynn Edwards
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 2016 at the age of 42, fifteen years after undergoing treatments for stage 4 non-hodgkin's lymphoma. My daughters and my family have seen me battle this disease twice. It's something you get weary from experiencing and I hope for nothing more than to find an end to the ordeal that is cancer. The past year and my journey through breast cancer has indeed been the toughest, most eye-opening months of my life.
The first time I battled cancer, my daughters were very young. This time they were teenagers. It is one thing for them to have seen my deterioration during chemotherapy with loss of hair, stamina and presence. But the hardest thing, tougher than all, was the look in their eyes after I came home without breasts. As three teenage girls, you can only imagine the subtle fear it must instill in them when they see that THIS, this is the option for treatment and cure. I just pray that they don't think this is what their future holds if for any reason they had to travel the same path as I did. It is truly an ugly and horrible experience.
That is where Breast Cancer Action comes in. This grassroots organization is fighting to stop the causes of breast cancer. They do not take any corporate funding from any company that profits from or contributes to breast cancer. They treat breast cancer as the epidemic and health crisis that it is. Breast Cancer Action is a watchdog organization that gets to the source of causes and injustices, unlike the "awareness" movements and organizations that profit in a sea of lucrative agendas that have yet to offer a real solution.
I ask you to please, please consider where your donations are going and to what extent it is making a difference. As breast cancer "awareness" month approaches, I ask you to consider the desperate need for meaningful change.
Instead of buying into all of the pink ribbon products this October, consider the "Think Before You Pink" campaign and make a donation to Breast Cancer Action.
Don't "pink" for me!
Love to all.
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I just had to block a page on Facebook that was selling the most ugly shoes and other items all in the name of "raising awareness and fighting for a cure" of several diseases such as BC. In one of their vain attempts to try to get people to buy their junk, I said as a survivor I am angry and appalled that they would try to make profits off the misfortune of those who are dealing with a serious illness.
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I just had a great laugh at a commercial today trying to sell this UGLY pink license plate frames. I mean even if it is metal, which it doesn't look it, only 5% of the sale goes to "cancer research." Yeah, do the math. What a fuckin' joke! Hate pink thankfully, and most certainly pinktober! :X
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Weight Watchers is chiming in with this program:
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For a second year, Weight Watchers is collaborating with the American Cancer Society on Project L.I.F.T.— Live Inspired. Fight Together. — a movement that aims to inspire and guide breast cancer survivors tackling the unexpected weight gain that can occur post-treatment.
Here's where you come in:
1. Walk with Weight Watchers Join Weight Watchers at an American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer® Event in your area and help us reach our Making Strides fundraising goal of $100,000. To join a local team, please visit: MakingStridesWalk.org/WeightWatchers.
2. Purchase Project L.I.F.T. Limited-Edition Products* Visit our Online Shop and your meeting room† for products from our limited-edition collection. All profits from the sale of these products will go to the American Cancer Society to help save lives from breast cancer.
3. Learn More & Spread the Word Visit the Project L.I.F.T. Hub for free resources, member stories, and more ways to get involved.=========================================
Lots of advice for women or friends of women going through cancer treatments such how to avoid weight gain during cancer treatments or how to talk to a friend diagnosed with breast cancer. All pictures are of women. Not a peep about men nor MBC. Survivors and post-cancer life mentioned a lot. The most negative thing I found were the mortality rates in this passage. "There are more than 3 million breast-cancer survivors in the United States, with improvements in early detection and treatments helping to reduce mortality rates by nearly 40 percent since the 1980s. The five-year survival rate has increased from less than 80 percent in 1985 to more than 90 percent today."
There you go: survival rates are now more than 90 percent. Yeah!! Guess our odds are pretty good, right?
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Freya, that's a classic which I've posted on Facebook and Twitter under the hashtag #whyisthispink
Mominator, gotta love those rubbery stats. Anything to prove that handing over a few bucks is helping.
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I don't know where they got those statistics. From the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (mbcn.org):
'Mortality rate trends:
[for women] Down by 2.2% annually between 1990-2007, "attributable to both improvements in BC treatment and early detection." [ACS Breast Cancer Facts & Figures, 2011-2012]'
That's right. Two percent.
MBCN also notes that the death rate for breast cancer is "Approximately 40,000 per year for the last 20 years [ACS]" That is not a "40% reduction in mortality rates" as those phonies claim.
As for their five-year survival rate, golly, I have survived five years. Do those people want to put money on my making it another five? Or getting anywhere near a normal lifespan? Didn't think so.
Not trying to be a downer, but so much of this Pinktober stuff is dishonest and disrespectful. Let's get real. It's a disease, not a marketing opportunity. I'm preaching to the choir here, I know.
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Saw this on local news today
WHAT WE DO
We send Pretty Packages
Hope, strength and beauty all wrapped in pink
"Pretty Packages" are care packages intended to empower women battling cancer to feel strong, beautiful and fierce; a reminder that they are amazing and truly "Fighting Pretty!"SEND A PRETTY PACKAGE
We share strength
A symbol of strength and hope.
Every Pretty Package includes a pair of mini pink boxing gloves. When founder, Kara Skaflestad was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, she was given a pair by her best friend's mom (another survivor) and they hung on Kara's bedpost every day as a reminder to stay strong and fight!When Kara's fight was "over," she passed them on to another fighter, who also passed them on. The mini pink boxing gloves are a reminder to every woman battling cancer to never give up. And when she is ready to pass on her strength, she can pass her mini pink boxing gloves on too
We create community
Join in the fight!
We are always looking for individuals and companies to help create Pretty Packages, donate product and fundraise for Fighting Pretty to further our mission and help even more women battling cancer feel strong and beautiful.GET INVOLVED
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Oh, if I just had one of those boxes and a pair of mini pink boxing gloves, I would feel so much better. (NOT) Oh, and yes, I'll be sure to pass them on when my pretty "fight" is over...in my WILL! I guess that will mean I "gave up" eh?
What if they directed that time and money to research aimed at finding better treatments and a cure, and to assisting patients with living/treatment expenses?
Ok, I really need to get off the computer before I rant any more...
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But Shetland Pony, there's a pretty scarf in the box too!
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Dare I suggest a use for it?
Thanks for the laugh, Marijen!
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The lady who started this "non-profit" thinks she's cured. They send these boxes all over the world.
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They send coloring sheets for the kids.
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Wow, a charity devoted to sending out boxes of pretty pink things. How many women here feel "fighting pretty" going through treatment, I wonder. As SP suggests, how much better would an offer to help fund out-of-pocket expenses be.
Fake facts, along with misreported statistics, and maintaining a warm pink glow is the common methodology at this time of year as the pink charities go all out to harvest the dollars that are there for the taking.
Subterfuge they engage in in order to meet fundraising goals in these competitive tims include:
1. Posting pics of young bc moms when they well know that women under 30 make up one percent of new cases (the same as men of all ages) and when the average age that women get this disease is in their mid-fifties.
2. Banging on about awareness when people have never been more aware and when Stage 4 research receives just 7% of total funds.
3. Pushing mammography as the key to detection, when many people with bc aren't detected this way.
4. Playing down Stage 4 because promoting bad news is not the best way to raise funds.
5. Despite low community awareness levels of male bc (around 30-40%) there's little publicity that men get this disease too.
6. Playing down the importance of genetics in the male hereditary line, when chances of inheriting both bad and good genes is 50-50.
7. Failing to lobby for BRCA men to be a part of public screening programs, despite BRCA 2 men having a 1 in 8 chance of getting bc.But some progress is being made in my neck of the woods, as the biggest pink charity in Australia is putting aside a day (20 October) to publicise maleBC. Woohoo.
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Well, I obviously can't fight then, since I am losing every round. But best make sure I am at least a pretty corpse so I am not a complete loser.
<<gagging>>
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I have mixed emotions. I think there is plenty of good being done. With that said there is improvements that need to be made. It is really shameful more isn't put into stage 4 breast cancer. As far as glamourizing and sexualizing breast cancer....I find it very unappealing and appalling. They should stick with real life pictures of women from all generations to remind us it is affecting our loved ones rather than giving us some image we should look like pink sex kittens. That pours salt on open wounds when in reality many of us struggle from losing eyelashes, brows, hair, boobs, weight issues, skin issues, general health issues etc....
Edit to add: more awareness needs to be done for men and breast cancer
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More "awareness"...on bananas🙄
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I'm so glad that those bananas are out drawing attention to breast cancer and educating us all on the benefits of early detection!
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I have a slightly different take on this. I do wear pink in solidarity with my fellow breast cancer patients, as well as something blue to honor the men. I try to educate everyone I can that the goal should no longer be raising "awareness" of breast cancer--it sucks but nobody walks around whispering the "C word" or refusing to talk about breast cancer. By now, damn near everyone is "aware" of breast cancer but most are unaware that men get it too, that breast-self-exam (I even went to Planned Parenthood in my 20s to examine the fake breast for fake lumps) and mammograms don't always detect cancer, especially in dense breasts; and that the focus needs to shift to finding the cure--which means not just minimizing recurrence risk but also curing MBC as is already possible for some other Stage IV cancers. I donate to BCO. I will check out Metavivor. Lynn Sage Foundation is concentrating on supporting researchers. Even the wincingly-named PinkAgenda (Giuliana Rancic's org.) has a quiz on its site to educate people on different kinds & stages of breast cancer, that men get it too, and that everyone has the BRCA gene--it's the mutation of that gene which gets tested for and exponentially raises the chance of breast (and other) cancer and recurrence.
I wear pink from my closet, sock drawer, underwear drawer (where nobody can see it), jewelry box and accessories. (Even my AppleWatch band). I happen to look good in it and I refuse to let it be hijacked by charlatans & opportunists,. What I DON'T do is buy "awareness-themed" merchandise, except when 100% of the proceeds go to a responsible breast cancer charity (Ford "Warriors in Pink," whose t-shirts don't scream "AWARENESS!" and the latest Real Bears Fans Wear Pink tees--which are sold by Advocate Health System for its breast cancer clinics, research, and assistance to patients & their families, and feature pink graphics on blue fabric--the blue to emphasize that men get breast cancer too. It used to be black on pink).
Street gangs have hijacked sports-team logo, Disney and Looney Tunes apparel--even some religious symbols (my son's dojo made him take off his Star of David necklace before karate classes because the Latin Kings had appropriated it as their symbol). Not gonna let clueless and sexist morons, grifters and greedy bastards hijack pink too.
"Pinktober sucks if it's used to make bucks." Take back the pink! (And blue).
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That's a very thoughtful and well-argued policy for Pinktober ChiSandy. It really is up to the consumer to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to pink products, but I fear most people don't and therein lies the con. Many companies offer to donate a very small percentage of the retail price and end up using the month to raise sales and profits rather than raise awareness.
I like that you include some blue amongst the pink, and we really need to push the pink charities to demand this on the products they endorse. It's only a small splash of blue, just enough to indicate that this disease is actually genderless, but the charities won't even come at this.
I hate conspiracy theories, but after banging on about this for a few years, I believe pink charities seem to think it's a fundraising downer to bring men into the equation, so they ttry to keep the message simple and sexualised for maximum returns. So, we're collateral damage, really, and consigned to later diagnoses and poorer prognoses for no good reason other than intransigence, and their wilful neglect is very highly unethical and immoral.
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I think I am having a bit of an anger episode. God, I can't stand all these "studies" and people who gobble that stuff up. The healthy BMI direct correlation to prevent breast cancer and these people are making money off it.
All the Las Vegas news is making me on edge, turned tv off, not looking at yahoo. Now pink october.
I want some good news. I am so thankful I am still NED, wish all my BCO friends were NED too.
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In my email today. "Drink Pink and Support Breast Cancer Research!" ...excuse me?!...
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Hmmm, sup with the devil. That's a fine example of how to self-perpetuate this disease while enjoying yourself. Oh well, drink responsibly, as they say.
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Like ChiSandy, I resent that these marketers have taken over a perfectly lovely color and associated it with breast cancer. I resented that for years before I got cancer.
That wine is a fine example of pinkwashing, sbelizabeth. Take a product that can increase cancer risk and slap a pink label on it.
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Today my local newspaper's front section was printed on pink paper!! I'm amazed at what some think passes as "Breast Cancer Awareness!" I'm so done with "awareness" and want a cure found. When will Pinktober end? Never liked pink to begin with!!!!
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