It’s always an amazing day, and this year’s Race for the Cure more than lived up to my expectation: more pink-clad racers, walkers and survivors than ever (The CA said more than 14,700 signed up), with more than $900,000 raised. My favorite sight this year: That terrific guy Ron Olson (that’s us, left) put on a pink skirt in honor of the new Skirt! magazine! Be sure to see more of Ron’s great legs in our November issue, out Wednesday, and you can hear me talk to Ron and Karen every Thursday morning about things both Diva and Skirt! on FM-100.
Other happy sights …
The Skirt! staff dressed to race (left), as well as our intern Chasity (below)
handing out copies of the October issue to one and all. (We ran out before the race even started; they’re available free at boxes and racks all over town.)
And by far the most overwhelming picture from Saturday is the one I snapped as we all took off. A virtual river of people — women, men, kids, young, old, black, white, Asian, Muslim — all of us whose lives have been touched, sometimes tragically, sometimes not, by this disease that ONE IN EIGHT women will get in their lifetime. Now on my key chain is a set of pink discs, four of them, that say “I AM THE CURE.” The smallest is the average size of the lump found when comparing previous mammogram films to each other. The next biggest, the size a first mammogram finds. The next biggest, the size a woman finds herself, without mammography. And the biggest, about the size of a half-dollar, is the size you find by accident, because you’ve never really looked.
So be brave. Examine your breasts. Get your mammograms. We can stop this crazy disease.
What’s your best memory of this year’s Race for the Cure?
Responses to “Pink inspiration.”
October 30th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
I see “Skirt” mentioned on this blog but I have never seen it and don’t understand what it is. Today I was at Bogie’s on Mendenhall and there was an empty “Skirt” stand next to the RSVP and Memphis Flyer racks.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:30 am
Oh, Tadpole, I’m so sorry you found empty Skirt! racks, but look again — today the November issue hits the streets. Skirt! is a new monthly women’s magazine, that’s a combination of great essays about topics I think you’ll really dig as well as local profiles, shopping tips, product shout-outs and trend advice. I’m the editor; October was our first issue. Write me again when you’ve found us, and tell me what you think. Thanks!
October 31st, 2007 at 11:29 am
Empowering Stats for Breast Cancer
October 31st.
Halloween.
The last day of October.
And the end of the “pink blitz” for breast cancer awareness.
I look at those words, though, and I am reminded as impressive as it is that our country takes an entire month to campaign for awareness, we cannot let this subject become a focus only in October.
Unfortunately, breast cancer strikes 365 days a year in over 200,000 women per year. Of those, about 40,000 will die of the disease. And, of those stricken by breast cancer, almost 4,000 of those women will be diagnosed in Memphis. And how many people in the USA know a new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every 2 minutes?
Probably the most important number I can pass along is that over 80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer do NOT have a history in their family! I hear survivors say all the time, “there was no breast cancer in my family.” People simply don’t know only 5-10 percent of all breast cancers are thought to be genetic, and therefore, considered rare.
Statistics are boring, and some of these sound pretty scary.
But, positive numbers abound everywhere on this battleground:
Most people are ingrained with the statistic there is a 1 in 8 lifetime chance of a woman having breast cancer, but how many people know there are currently over 2 million women right now in the USA living with breast cancer? Are you personally aware that mammography will detect 80-90 percent of breast cancers? And, everyone needs to know that 80 percent of the time breast lumps will turn out to be benign–(nothing!) For more good news–early detection of breast cancer confined to the breast, will provide a 98 percent cure rate. Pretty fantastic odds of surviving this disease.
So to recap all we’ve heard the month of October–practice good breast health measures–get those mammograms and do those self-exams. And remember, there is still not a cure for breast cancer, but knowing these odds of early detection should empower women, not add to their fear.
Ellen Stucker, 18-year survivor from a long line of breast cancer survivors.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
My little group was just cookin’ along in the Family Fun Walk and this family of 3…dad, son and daughter grabbed my attention.
I had to get close enough to see the pink sign on their backs…Ginger Howard. It was all I could do not to sit on the curb and cry. Ginger was diagnosed with breast cancer at 19 and recurred 10 years later. She was spunky and she fought hard, but she died a few years ago. But I think part of that funny woman is still with us in her daughter…I told her that I knew her mother was up there watching her walk. This little third grader gave me a look and said, “Well, I sure hope so; otherwise, I’m just wasting my time!” That was the big moment for me at the Race…spunky Ginger’s spunky daughter!