Not just another pink October, but a message that matters
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month—although chances are you don’t need the reminder. If you haven’t already, you’ll see the pink ribbons everywhere, printed on yogurt lids, painted onto NFL jerseys, and made into key chains in checkout lines. True, sometimes it can look more like a marketing push than a public health initiative, but here’s the thing: beneath the shiny pink, the message matters.
Breast cancer is the number one cancer diagnosis in women (and yes, men get it too). Screening saves lives. And awareness, for all its commercialism, is still a prod we sometimes need.
Why do we still talk about it? Because the numbers haven’t gone down. One in eight women in the U.S. (13%) will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. That’s your aunt, your yoga partner, your neighbor, your sister, your daughter—maybe even you. The good news is that outcomes have dramatically grown better because of early diagnosis and treatment advances. Which makes the awareness component more about effective prevention than an unsure feeling: making sure you carve out time to schedule appointments for mammograms, knowing your family history, and paying attention to changes in your body.
If you’re wondering what to do with all this awareness, start small. Call your doctor. Encourage a friend to schedule her screening. Show up for a neighbor going through treatment with a meal or a ride. These actions might not look flashy on Instagram, but they’re the ones that make a difference.
OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH and a time to support each other. Photo by Ava Sol
And if you’re skeptical of pink-washed products that donate a portion of their proceeds to research, you’re not alone. Consider giving directly to organizations in the trenches—be it paying for treatment, assisting patients, or advancing science. (In L.A. alone, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, and smaller community clinics all have programs that could use your support.)
For breast cancer survivors, October can be complicated. Survivors are not necessarily in the mindset of being billboards on legs, and no one’s experience is encapsulated in a ribbon. Treatment can be depleting and recovery can be long, and the support people need typically looks more like trips to radiation or giving kids a ride than ribbons on water bottles with messages. Awareness is about seeing the unglamorous side too.
Here in Larchmont, where the neighborhood subsists on its small-town-in-the-city closeness, we’re cut out for the kind of mutual aid and support that’s needed. We know how to look out for each other. We bring soup. We catch when someone isn’t at their Saturday morning coffee perch. That’s what community health really looks like.
So October is indeed pink, and occasionally that pink can be more corporate than compassionate. But it’s also a yearly check-in, a cultural reminder seen on the fridge with a Post-it, maybe, that care is crucial, prevention is crucial, and showing up for one another is crucial. Which—cliché or not—is worth recalling.
Category: Entertainment
