It is all about pink this October as we bring into consciousness, awareness, attention and care to one of the most prolific of diseases in our world today.
Breast Cancer.
Source: Globocan 2008Breast cancer is by far the most frequent cancer among women with an estimated 1.38 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2008 (23% of all cancers), and ranks second overall (10.9% of all cancers). It is now the most common cancer both in developed and developing regions with around 690 000 new cases estimated in each region (population ratio 1:4).Incidence rates vary from 19.3 per 100,000 women in Eastern Africa to 89.7 per 100,000 women in Western Europe, and are high (greater than 80 per 100,000) in developed regions of the world (except Japan) and low (less than 40 per 100,000) in most of the developing regions.The range of mortality rates is much less (approximately 6-19 per 100,000) because of the more favorable survival of breast cancer in (high-incidence) developed regions. As a result, breast cancer ranks as the fifth cause of death from cancer overall (458 000 deaths), but it is still the most frequent cause of cancer death in women in both developing (269 000 deaths, 12.7% of total) and developed regions, where the estimated 189 000 deaths is almost equal to the estimated number of deaths from lung cancer (188 000 deaths).
This issue is special to me and is close to home. My mother died because of it. I'm still coming out of that depressing world but I told myself that it is time to be strong and when I was not much of a help and a daughter to my mother in those bleak days, I came to a resolution that I could still make help. And that is by bringing awareness and supporting campaigns.
But supporting such a cause is not only limited to the month of October. Breast cancer does not limit itself to a certain time frame and it especially does not discriminate whom to victimize (#dafuq). It should be an all-the-time undertaking and one should not sit around waiting but take the fight to the next level.
I bet she'll be proud of you.
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