The Pink is a Liar! Fight Pinkwashing Using Social Media

Mbcalliance.org??

We are more than a damn brand for someone to make money out of.

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Notice there's no indication of how much from each sale is donated.

Hate Pinktober! We all deserve better!

Celia, more like 70% don't get a recurrence. And with your low stage an grade, honestly, you are in a very low probability of getting it back. But, ask your medical team to be more honest with you and hit them with any questions you have.

I also did not have a lump--my IDC was discovered on my 20th annual mammogram. While it's true that 30% of those first diagnosed with "early" breast cancer will develop metastases, the definition in that statistic of "early" includes all stages short of IIIC. Some of us with ER+ Stage IA (and I know at least one originally dx'ed with ER+ DCIS)l, if we live long enough to not have died of cardiopulmonary/vascular disease, dementia, infection or physical trauma, will have recurrences because over time ER+ cells can mutate to produce their own estrogen to facilitate their mitosis and eventually migration as mets. But most of those of us first diagnosed with DCIS or Stage IA ER+ well past age 60 won't live long enough to see it come back (though perhaps the pathologists will find it during our autopsies).

That being said, I wholeheartedly agree that there is too much bullshit about "awareness" and "early detection saves lives:" sometimes in an asymptomatic patient, Stage IV is the initial "early" diagnosis. "Saving the girls" (never mind the offensive synonyms) is not the point: often to save the patient "the girls" have got to go. There is already more than enough money funneled to "awareness" and detection. BUT there needs to be more research into how to prevent progression to Stage IV, as well as to figure out how to cure metastatic breast cancer--there have been cures of other cancers that have progressed to Stage IV, and not enough research dollars have been funneled into how to crack the code when it comes to MBC.

However, though I used to, I no longer share the general antipathy (much less revulsion) here towards the color pink, nor what it symbolizes. I wear it (from my own closet, jewelry box, sock drawer and lipstick tray) in solidarity with sisters & brothers (blue too afflicted with breast cancer at all stages. I wear it in support of volunteer organizations like Immerman Angels and the Pink Fund, which, respectively, give peer-to-peer support and financial assistance to breast cancer patients, and now that I've learned of it, Metavivor. (And of course, BCO). I won't buy pinkwashing merchandise from vendors--it's unintentionally deceptive at best and a callous scam at worst. But I will contribute directly to responsible and ethical breast cancer charities, not just during October.

I will even wear the pink ribbon. But not one I bought one month out of the year, sold as a PR gimmick. The research and the fundraising--especially for prevention and cure of MBC--must go on year-round.

Thanks Shep for the visual on mets occurrence as 3:10. I'm sure I've heard the numbers, but it hit me differently.

It might be best to focus, on this thread, on educational images to post on social media, as the OP suggests. That way this thread can be the go-to place when we need an effective way to communicate facts necessary for awareness of the truth about breast cancer. We have the very good Pinktober Revolution thread to share shameful pinkwashing images and discuss the problem of pink marketing. We have a specific thread to comment on BCO's Take the Fright Out campaign, and I think it will be most effective to concentrate our comments about the campaign there.