Lifestyles

Breast Cancer Awareness is Over…or has it just Begun?

November 1, 2007

By Jessica Bledsoe

Waiting. That’s all she can do, besides counting the floor tiles for the fourth time. She glances at her watch again; only a few minutes have passed. The doorknob turns, and the doctor walks in. She holds her breath and says a quick prayer. Please, God, don’t let it happen to me, not to my family.

This year, an estimated 178,480 American women will experience this possible scenario and be diagnosed with breast cancer. And, according to the American Cancer Society, about 40,460 of these women will die.

October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and numerous local companies, including Missouri Baptist University, joined the fight against breast cancer and helped raise awareness for early detection.

Beginning Oct. 1 through the 31, Panera Bread—also known as St. Louis Bread Company—sold Pink Ribbon bagels. This past May, Carl’s Jr. and Hardees raised more than $650,000 to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Schnuck’s grocery stores were also “painted pink” during the month of October. The employees wore pink, the plastic sacks were pink and even certain name brand products had pink labels.

The Missouri Baptist University women’s volleyball team raised over $1,700 for the Komen for the Cure Foundation during their “Dig for the Cure” night.

Missouri Baptist University also passed out pink ribbons to students and faculty members at the switchboard operator’s desk. Cindy Payne said that nearly 30 students picked up a ribbon. She said some students would pick up two and give one to a friend. “I noticed a lot of the students who picked up a ribbon would say ‘my mom,’ ‘my aunt,’ ‘my grandma’ or ‘my sister’ has breast cancer,” Payne said.

Faith Yates is one such student. Her great aunt, Ladonna, developed breast cancer and had a mastectomy. Although her great aunt has drastically changed on the outside, Yates said that she is very full of life. “Physical attributes don’t make the person. Just because she is missing a part of her body doesn’t make her less of a person in my eyes.”

Although October is over and the pink will gradually disappear, the threat of breast cancer still exists, so our support doesn’t have to vanish.

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