Bringing awareness to breast cancer

It’s October again, which means the streets will be covered with orange, black, maybe a little red and... pink.

Because Halloween’s month may be fun-filled and festive with costumes and candy, it can be easy to never think about the fact that someone just received a cancer diagnosis.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I’m writing this column to just give you a reminder about it this year.

According to BreastCancer.org, about 1-in-8 women in the United States (about 12 percent) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

In 2016, alone, about “246,660 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the United States, along with 61,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer,” the website says.

Women are not the only gender to receive a breast cancer diagnosis, either.

Though it does not affect as many men, BreastCancer.org also states that “about 2,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2016. A man’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 1,000.”

There are steps that people, women especially, can take to help detect cancer earlier.

A mammogram is the classic medical test that helps screen women for cancer.

“Most doctors feel that early detection tests for breast cancer save thousands of lives each year,” a quote on the American Cancer Society’s website states. “Many more lives probably could be saved if even more women and their health care providers took advantage of these tests.”

From my research, women of average risk (meaning no previous or familial history with breast cancer) should try to start having a mammogram around the age of 40.

For women who haven’t reached that age bracket, a self-exam can be something that you can do.

You should start as soon as possible. Get to know what is normal on your body so that you can tell when something isn’t normal.

I mentioned pink earlier, and it wasn’t random.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is synonymous with a pink ribbon. Businesses will sometimes place pink ribbons on their doors, women who have been affected by breast cancer (or those that support them) will wear pink.

Even your local Relay for Life organization is holding a Men in Pink fundraising competition, just to get the guys involved.

So, when you see a pink ribbon, shirt, or really anything pink anywhere, chances are it’s a reminder. It’s a reminder that a woman, maybe someone you know, has fought a battle with breast cancer.

Take a moment and remember that this month.

Cassie Gibbs is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].