Remember training bras? Bras mark stages and phases of our lives from the tween years on: sports bras, pregnancy bras, nursing bras, bras to create cleavage and bras to support sagging breasts.
And then there’s the post-mastectomy bra, associated with a phase of life no woman wants to live through but too many do. More than 200,000 women a year in the United States endure breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and 40,000 of them will die.
In October, it’s difficult for any of us not to notice the ubiquitous pink ribbons, pink-clad professional athletes and multiple fundraisers. We support our family and friends who live with breast cancer, remember those who have died and hope that with continued research a cure will be found.
Prevent breast cancer
But what if one day in the not-too-distant future the answer is not a cure but prevention of breast cancer altogether? What if one day women do not have to make difficult decisions about slicing and sacrificing their breasts?
Changing the equation and making breast cancer a preventable disease by the year 2020 is the goal of the
Breast Cancer Deadline 2020 initiative (
http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/) by the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which doesn’t see early detection as the answer. The NBCC points out that it is still not known why some breast cancer spreads to the rest of the body and how its spread can be prevented.
The NBCC has engaged researchers, advocates, regulators and policymakers in Deadline 2020. Its strategy is bold, even audacious. Is developing a breast cancer vaccine and stopping the spread of breast cancer audacious? You bet. Do all of us who have lived the surreal experience of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment need such courageous risk -takers on our side? Absolutely.
Every second counts
There is no time to waste. The clock on the NBCC website is counting down to the deadline of January 1, 2020. and every 14 minutes another woman in the U.S. dies of breast cancer. October is only 31 days, but this is a battle many fight every day.
How do you think the breast cancer equation can be changed, in October and every month?
Every 14 minutes an American woman dies of breast cancer. Can researchers find the way to prevent it by 2020, as some are asking?
