Get ready... "Pink season" is already starting!

FireKracker

Lago---the friends and family members have no clue...most of them are techs...they are told to do the walk and they do it...no questions asked....they know nothing about komen and all that crap they just do the walk cause its what they are supposed to do for their job.This is where my statement was directed......

I hope i didnt offend you..if i did that was not my intention.....i just go bonkers when i see all the pink crap!!!!

lago

No grannyD you didn't offend me and I do understand what you are saying. I just don't want people to stop donating period. As we know some organizations do a better job with their money. ACS did help with funding for both Tamoxifen and Herceptin.

I'm waiting for all the pink crap to go on sale. I need something pink and warm to wear to the walk next year… but when it comes to donating you know where my money goes. (ACS has ugly pink stuff ). There are several other cancer charities out there that are very good.

I also believe that some headway has been made. We are living longer with the disease… that is a big deal. I remember a guy I went to high school & worked after school with lost his mom to breast cancer in his jr year of high school. For some reason it seemed fast. I'm guessing either triple positive or HER2+. Maybe if she was HER2+ and herceptin was around she would have been around longer for him and his family.

FireKracker

If people ask me where to donate I send them to Charity Navagator.You can find a good place to donate for research and it includes the pay of the executives....

DivineMrsM

lago, my question would be, where is the vaccine to prevent breast cancer so we don't have to live with the disease in the first place.

The very best couple sentences I read this month was from our own Joan Quilts, a member of the forum, who wrote:"Support organizations that promote research.  Remember polio?  yeah, me neither."

I mean...imagine....imagine breast cancer being irradicated from our lives, in our lifetime!!!!!  We have to go there!

FireKracker

I remember Polio...what a nightmare that was....but we now have a vacine to prevent it.

What about us????Where is our vacine??????will we ever see it in our lifetime??????

I know not in mine but just maybe my daughters,granddaughters and Great granddaughter.

As Joan Quilts says Support organizations that premote research!!!!!!

lago

There is a vaccine that in my oncs own words "looks very promising but not ready for prime time yet." Right now the vaccine appears to be for HER2+ but you all know where that leads. There are several women on the triple positive thread that are in the study. Right now it's only being done at a few locations and requires about 6 visits. Too costly for me and  now I'm past the time (no longer than 6 months after last treatment (herceptin) I think).

I support organizations that support research as well as education and assistance.

DivineMrsM

The following words are not mine but from a review of the Pink Ribbons, Inc. documentary. They are about the pink ribbon campaign, and I tend to agree with this train of thought:

~It's also hard to be completely critical of something that has brought so much attention to the subject and so much support for many women who connect with its ideals.  We can't deny its power, but must channel what it stands for toward a more progressive solution.~

The pink ribbon campaign was begun to de-stigmatize breast cancer, and it's done that.  We no longer whisper about it.  Some of us think it's time to, like the group begun this month on Facebook: 

SHIFT THE AWARENE$$ .  Let's not allow the pink ribbon to become a marketing tool for companies and organizations to profit from.  Let's take the momentum begun with the pink ribbon and use it to find the cure, to find vaccines to prevent others from ever getting breast cancer.

If you are on Facebook, you may want to check out the link and join the group.

New-girl

It seems that at least to me we give so much credit to the pink ribbons for giving us the ability to talk about breast cancer.  Older women in my cancer group tell the stories about how you used to not even say the word breast before Komen made it so openly discussed.  I personally think it is more due to the sign of our times.  We openly talk about testicular cancer and I do not remember LiveStrong taking credit for that.  It was just a cancer that Lance Armstrong had.  We openly talk about ovarian cancer, rectal cancer and a host of other "unmentionables".  My kids have grown up in a world that ED and KY are advertised every moment of tv.  Can we consider that maybe Komen had nothing to do with open dialog?

lago

Good point grt42btexan. Even if Komen was the organization that got us talking I think the real question of any organization is: What are you doing now?

Also remember that just because an organization gives all their funding to research doesn't mean other organizations don't give as much or even more. These other organizations are worth donating to as well. (Of course I'm talking about ACS but there others as well.  I know the ACS has been involved in every major break through for breast cancer and donated 16.7 million just for breast cancer research according to Jackie Bishop as mentioned at the last 1/3 of this clip. Both Herceptin & Tamoxifen have helped many of us live longer).