Cancer Awareness

October is my favorite month, especially here in Virginia. The trees are fantastic with all the colored leaves, the sky is a clear, sharp blue, and the air is crisp. It's time to switch to the fluffy down comforter, have fires in the fireplace, and wear my sweaters. Halloween is my favorite holiday, too.

Then the breast cancer people co-opted October. Now I'm bombarded with pink ribbons on everything and urged to donate to "breast cancer research." "Portions of proceeds" are donated, supposedly, when women buy stuff from crackers to socks to designer handbags.

Well, every day is Breast Cancer Awareness Day for me. I have three scars and five tattoos to show for it, not to mention a numb armpit and the side effects from radiation.

Don't get me wrong--I am absolutely not complaining. I was very fortunate to have a wonderful group of doctors taking care of me and excellent health insurance. I had a small cancer that was at a very early stage, and I never even had to spend a night in the hospital. Really, I did not let it interfere much with my life at all, and very few people know I even had it. I am very glad I was not subjected to a radical mastectomy, which was done in every case even as recently as 35 years ago--but, let's face it, the research which gave rise to less invasive procedures was conducted on women who already had breast cancer. That's not prevention research, or causal research, it's clinical trial research.

I just have to wonder--with all the walks, runs, outright donations and merchandise, exactly how much is this industry taking in for "research?" How much is actually being spent on time in the lab? And with this waterfall of funds, why hasn't more been discovered?

Frankly, if I never see a pink ribbon again, it will be too soon. (You can even have a Breast Cancer license plate in Virginia.) I feel I have donated enough to breast cancer, thank you very much.