Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Kudos to the Susan G. Kolman foundation for their efforts to raise money for cancer research and make people more aware of breast cancer. Their efforts lead the most organized attack on a disease in the world.

October is breast cancer awareness month. Everywhere you look you see pink. Campbell's soup has pink soup cans. Thomas English muffins have pink. Several race cars will be sporting pink that this weekend's race in Charlotte.

On October 14th, Hunt Valley, Maryland will host the 15th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This foundation has raised millions of dollars for breast cancer research, awareness, screening, treatment, and education.

A former co-worker of mine died this year of breast cancer leaving her 3 young children behind. Her oldest daughter organized a Breast Cancer 5K in Eldersburg at her middle school and there was a great turnout.

Companies are allowing their employees to wear pink to work provided they donate money to their breast cancer fund raisers. I salute their efforts and hope that they have a lot of success.

However, I do want to point out, as I have to coworkers many times, that breast cancer, though a horrible disease, is not the leading cause of death, nor is it even the leading cause of death among cancers.

Heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States. Yes, most of these deaths could have been prevented with proper diet and exercise. The second leading cause of death is lung cancer. I lost my grandmother to lung cancer. Lung cancer, like heart disease, can be argued to be a preventable disease. My grandfather smoked his entire life. My grandmother smoked for about 7 years, but gave it up because she said she didn't like it. Nonetheless, after discovering her lung cancer in October 1995, she died only 3 months later.

The third leading cause of death is colorectal cancer. This cancer affects both men and women and has a high mortality. Colorectal cancer receives very little research and support dollars.

Finally, prostate cancer is rising and like colorectal cancer, gets very little attention. Fortunately for men, statistics show that though prostate cancer is more prevalent than breast cancer in women, the survivor rate is higher.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm attacking breast cancer. I just want people to be aware that there are other diseases that are just as horrible and receive much less attention. In some cases, unacceptably low attention.