Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Oct 6, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders fan Dr. Death holds a breast cancer awareness flag before the game against the San Diego Chargers at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

As you may well know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The NFL does it’s part which is why football fans see a lot of pink during the games. I have heard a lot of people complain about seeing pink. I have also heard questions asking: “why just breast cancer and not all of the other cancers?” or “what about other diseases or health issues?”

Brandon Marshall and mental health issues come to mind.

While it would be nice to see the NFL and other major organizations promote and raise money or awareness for every valid and meaningful cause; there are so many worthy causes out there it is just not possible to promote all of them

The NFL partnered with the American Cancer Society in 2009 and created their “A Crucial Catch” campaign to promote breast cancer awareness.

"[The] program provides outreach and breast cancer screenings to women in underserved communities."

Throughout the month player and coaches wear different items (shoes, shirts, jersey patches, hats, etc) and those items are auctioned off. All proceeds go to the ACS.

Personally I don’t mind it. Perhaps other organizations attempted to partner with the NFL and perhaps not. The ACS was successful with this particular campaign, and that’s okay.

Breast, prostate, skin, liver, lung, bone, esophageal, leukemia, rectal, cervical; the list of cancer types is long and almost shocking.

Cancer is not a respecter of persons; big, little, old, young, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, wealthy, poor; it doesn’t matter. At some point in your life, you will be affected by cancer in one form or another, whether you have it or a friend or loved one has it.

Cancer Sucks.

I hate cancer. I really do. I extremely dislike the Packers, Lions, Vikings, Seahawks and Cowboys, but I HATE Cancer.

My Mother Diane was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. She fought the disease for 2 years before going into remission. After another couple of years, it came back, only this time with a vengeance. The cancer was in her bones, her lungs, her kidneys, her lymph nodes as well as many other places. I watched my sweet Mother suffer through treatments and a slowly deteriorating quality of life. At one point she was given 6 months to live; she passed away 5 1/2 months later in 2006. She was fairly young at 62 years of age.

She was, like so many other cancer victims, taken from her spouse, her children and grand children. Losing a loved one to any disease is a terrible thing to go through. May is still a really difficult time of year for me and many in my family because of my Mother’s death.

Many say that it’s not fair that the NFL promotes Breast Cancer awareness month and does not promote awareness of any other cancer or disease; well,
life’s not fair either.