October....Did you get your PINK on?

How was your October? Did you get your PINK on?

October marked the month for National Breast Cancer Awareness, you may have noticed (if you haven’t already) the color PINK was all around. As someone who never needs an excuse to wear the color pink, I especially love October and wearing pink for a cause. We saw Breast Cancer Awareness promotions everywhere… at the convenience store, at the bank and even on the players on the field of the NFL football games. I loved it and I couldn't get enough.

But why pink? Well, in 1991, the Susan G. Komen Foundation gave out pink ribbons to those participating in the Race for Breast Cancer Survivors in NYC. From there, the pink ribbon buzz spread and the pink ribbon was endorsed in part with National Breast Cancer Awareness month by companies and organizations nation-wide. Today it exists as the international symbol for breast cancer awareness. As a widely recognized color for femininity, the color pink is an appropriate choice to promote breast cancer awareness, considering more than 1 in 4 cancers in women (approximately 28%) are breast cancer.

Here are some other important statistics to know about Breast Cancer:

• About 1 in 8 women in the United States (between 12 and 13%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.
• In 2010, an estimated 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 54,010 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.
• About 1,970 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2010. Less than 1% of all new breast cancer cases occur in men.
• For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer.
• Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. women. More than 1 in 4 cancers in women (about 28%) are breast cancer.
• Compared to African American women, white women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer, but less likely to die of it. One possible reason is that African American women tend to have more aggressive tumors, although why this is the case is not known. Women of other ethnic backgrounds — Asian, Hispanic, and Native American — have a lower risk of developing and dying from breast cancer than white women and African American women.
• About 70-80% of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. These occur due to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general, rather than inherited mutations.
• In 2010, there are more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S.

*Statistics provided by www.breastcancer.org

*History provided by www.wikipedia.org

So come on girls....get you pink on all year long!

Party 'til your Pink

Kelly