If you haven’t realized it by now, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink is everywhere, and well-meaning people are buying pink items and donating money to any organization that claims it is supporting breast cancer.
The problem is that most of the money that is donated is used for educational materials and campaigns instead of for what’s needed: a cure for breast cancer. In all this pinkness, where is the money for research to find a cure for stage IV metastatic breast cancer? Sunday is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
Metastatic breast cancer kills an average of 116 people a day and 40,000 people a year, yet it is rarely mentioned during the month of October. I personally had never heard this term before I was diagnosed with it in 2016. Despite yearly mammograms, my breast cancer was never detected until it had metastasized.
Why aren’t people being told that 20% to 30% of those with early stage breast cancer will be later diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer? Why isn’t it mentioned that early detection of breast cancer is not a cure? A metastatic diagnosis can happen during treatment or years and decades after original early stage diagnosis despite annual scans and exams.
It is time to cut the pink ribbon and to hold cancer organizations accountable for the money they are not spending on research. Consider donating to an organization such as METAvivors that uses 100% of money raised for research, not campaigns.
SUE CAPPUCCI
Penacook