Changing the Narrative of Breast Cancer Awareness Month – A Different Call to Action

In October 2012, I attended a brunch in Saratoga Springs, NY to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. The tables were draped in pink. I wore a pink outfit, pink nail polish, and even flashed a giant pink “diamond” ring.

Pink decor oozed from every crevice of the room. The caption under my Instagram photo said, “Pink champagne toast for all the brave ladies fighting and surviving breast cancer.”

I shopped and ate and drank without the slightest awareness of what it was really for.

Fast forward to the same month seven years later. I had no idea I would be one of those ladies fighting and surviving breast cancer. And I didn’t feel even the slightest bit brave.

I was diagnosed in 2019 in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that’s when my perception and understanding of awareness months forever changed. At the lowest point in my life, while I was facing the unknown and grappling to cope it seemed everyone around me was selling and/or buying something pink and going to brunch.

For me, this was hell. For them, this was…. fun.

Culture has glamorized this month while propping survivors up as warriors and at the same time, forgetting all about the war.

Cancer is destructive and exhausting and there are winners and losers. Not every soldier stands up stronger in the end. And many survivors just want to keep their heads down and get through it.

Fighting isn’t always pretty in pink.

But I noticed that much of this is overlooked as I saw ads for “10% of every pink lipstick sold this month goes to breast cancer research”.

Ok.

I’m not saying we don’t need research. Research has brought us a long way in fighting cancer, but often that “research” money from your donation is spent on administrative costs or to pay for someone’s salary.

I remember sitting in the waiting room during my own treatment and speaking to or hearing about folks who didn’t have much to begin with. Cancer expenses would be taking the rest. A 2018 study from the American Journal of Medicine found that 42% of cancer patients drain their life savings within two years because of treatment costs.

Research doesn’t go too far to help someone who isn’t sure how they can afford food when they leave their appointment.

That’s why I was thrilled to learn that New York Oncology Hematology (NYOH) where I was being treated, has something called the Community Cancer Foundation. It started over 20 years ago when some doctors, nurses, and staff got together and decided to meet immediate needs of low-income patients.  

What I love even more is that 100% of donations go directly to help cancer patients in the local community in the form of groceries, gas, medicine, rides to treatment, etc. Real cancer patients, maybe even someone you know, getting real help in their time of need.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I challenge you to give with community in mind. As I think on the word “community”, it invokes a higher call to action than the word “charity”.

Charity is when I go to the brunch and buy the pink things and can’t trace the path of where my money goes. There’s no connection.

Community is when I come alongside and offer to help in a way that makes a difference for someone today. I’m connecting to an immediate need, even if I don’t know the person.

People over programs.

Before you buy another pink lipstick you don’t need or pink tie that you will wear once and throw to the back of your closet, consider if there’s a more meaningful way you can assist.

And if you’re struggling to put a face to cancer, struggle no more, because you have my face. I speak for those who can’t.

Throughout the month of October I will feature a link where you can give directly to the NYOH Community Cancer Foundation and know every single dollar provides for a local cancer patient in need.

Help me change the narrative around Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And let’s get help where it’s needed most.