10.15.2009

Think Before You Pink

October is breast cancer awareness month which is a cause that is near and dear to my heart. My cousin, aunt, grandmother, and several great aunts are all survivors of breast cancer. Not quite a year ago a good friend's mother relapsed and passed away.

For a long time I thought that by purchasing everything pink that I saw I was truly giving to a cause that was so important to me. Then after doing more research I realized that it was what I originally thought it was. For example this article talks about how some companies are not giving anything to the cause just exploiting people's inclination to think that they are when they see pink. Some companies have caps or give such a small percentage of the sale that the over price is just taking advantage again.

So although I don't want to discourage anyone from giving to this excellent cause I want to make sure that everyone thinks before they jump into the pink world. The things that I remember that made the biggest impact on the survivors that I know had little to do with donations made to their cause.

My cousin tells me that someone from her work or her husband's brought or bought dinner EVERY SINGLE night of her entire treatment. Sometimes it was just a matter of gift certificates to Pizza Hut. In case you were wondering she had 10 weeks of treatment. She also had people come and keep her company during the day when she had treatments, they cleaned her house, babysat her kids, and ran errands. People sent her everything from homemade breads, a lap quilt, books, cards, flowers, and on and on.

Their time, prayers, and honest acts of kindness has forever touched her family and will be remembered forever.

So beside being conscious of how we spend our charitable funds I want to remind all of us that it's not just about the money. We don't have a lot of money to give but that doesn't mean we don't have a lot to give.

The other side of October awareness month is to be self diligent. Self exams and annual mammograms are SO important. My cousin that I mentioned found the lump on her breast less than a month after her mammogram. She told me that at first she had convinced herself that it couldn't be anything since she was just in to the doctor not more than a few weeks before. Deciding to be safe rather than sorry she went in to see her doctor right away and was told that she had in fact a very aggressive type of breast cancer.

Moral of the story is FEEL YOUR BOOBIES!

1 comment:

LegalMist said...

Thank you for this information. I agree 100% re: the gift of time being worth so much.