Here we are, fresh off of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s hard to miss when the pink ribbons come out in full force every October. I myself am guilty of purchasing all the pink office supplies I can every year, since I love pink more than the average person and also love being able to justify buying more pink school supplies by telling myself that it’s for a good cause.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month has become a highly commercialized venture, which has garnered criticism for taking away from the charitable nature of the observance. However, though Breast Cancer Awareness Month is well publicized, many other equivalent awareness months are not as well known.
Many people are unfamiliar with any other awareness months, even though every month has at least one cause. For example, you may not know that Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is September, and Brain Cancer Awareness Month is May. September has the most designated causes with seven.
Something that is very important to my family and me but many people are unaware of is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, which takes place in November.
My grandmother died of lung cancer when I was fourteen. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer on a Wednesday, she caught pneumonia, and she died the next Thursday, two days before my mother’s birthday. It was sudden and shocking and it hurt to see such a strong woman who had always seemed so healthy defeated by this awful disease, when I was convinced she would live forever.
I’m going to try very hard not to turn this paragraph into a public service announcement against smoking, but my grandmother used to smoke in the 1950s when it was considered “cool” and before people really talked about how hazardous it was for your health. That’s not to say that only people who smoke heavily for their entire lives get lung cancer, because that is untrue of course. While there are exceptions of course, and people can develop lung cancer from secondhand smoke, the moral of the story is don’t smoke please.
Just because this month does not have pens, or bracelets, or socks adorned with ribbons does not mean that the cause is not important. Meaningful causes always seem more attractive to consumers when wrapped up in pink ribbons.
Lung Cancer Awareness Month is represented by a white ribbon, which may not be as pretty as a pink ribbon, or plastered all over office supplies all month long, but this cause is very important to me, and I wish that it received more recognition.
Related article: http://www.hercampus.com/school/sonoma-state/why-i-walk-reflection-relay-life