Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Friends

by Kate Catlin

For those of you living under a rock, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Increasing breast cancer awareness has always been close to my heart as a woman and also as someone who has seen it effect people I love.

·This year in America, more than 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,300 die.
·One woman in eight either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.
·Women are not the only ones who can get breast cancer – 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 400 will die this year.
·If detected early, the five-year survival rate exceeds 95%.
·Mammograms are among the best early detection methods, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had a mammogram.

Everyone can do a small part by setting their computer’s home page to The Breast Cancer Site and clicking the pink box every time they sign online. As you can read on the site, “Your click on the “Fund Free Mammograms” button helps fund free mammograms, paid for by site sponsors whose ads appear after you click and provided to women in need through the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation to low-income, inner-city and minority women, whose awareness of breast cancer and opportunity for help is often limited.”

I think it is safe to say we all know eight women. They are our mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. Encourage them to take the necessary steps toward early detection. As the National Breast Cancer Foundation says, there is “help for today… hope for tomorrow.”

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