October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and, as such, Student Wellness will be holding several events throughout the month to raise awareness. To kick off the awareness month, Student Wellness held a table Wednesday afternoon in the BSC selling pink hair extensions to students, helping to spread the message about breast cancer.
Alyssa McDermott, a junior, and Madison McCall, a sophomore, ran the table, and had some interesting points to make about breast cancer and why it is so important to realize even today.
Breast cancer is a disease that affects many women every year, and although it can be treatable, it is very difficult to fix, and treatment and recovery can be a very long process. Breast cancer, along with many other forms of cancer, has been a growing problem within the past few years, and it is very important for people to become aware of and educated about.
Knowing how to identify breast cancer early is crucial, and Wellness, in their Toilet Talk, discussed “feeling your boobies.” Doing self-examinations can be critical, because once you know what you normally feel like, you will be able to identify if something is not right, and often that something could be the starting point of breast cancer. If breast cancer is identified that early, it is very treatable, whereas if it is found in later stages, it could prove to be much more difficult to cure. Breast cancer, like so many other cancers, can be a deadly disease if it is not treated in the early stages, and that is why Wellness and people around the country want to make the importance of it known.
This is not the first time that Wellness has organized an event like this. Over the past few years, Wellness has set up the pink hair extensions table, and the table often attracts a lot of students, both females and males. The money raised from the event goes toward various charities.
This year’s hair extension money was donated to the Feel Your Boobies Foundation, which is an organization that aims to help others understand the importance of breast cancer, and very simply wanting people to know their bodies so that they can know what to do if they think something is amiss and can get the proper treatment.
Wellness will also be hosting another event relating to breast cancer awareness later in the month on Oct. 14, called PINK Out. They want students who have pink clothes to wear them. The idea of this event is pretty much the same as the hair extensions, in that they want to help raise awareness for breast cancer, and help students to start thinking about its importance. This event will also lead up to a girls’ volleyball game, and people will wear their pink clothing at the game to show their support for both the team and those fighting against breast cancer.
Understanding breast cancer, how to prevent it and how to help educate others on it can make the difference in someone’s life because there are many who have breast cancer, and many others who have survived it.
Those working in Wellness, as well as many of the students attending the events in October hope that in the future breast cancer can be cured. So, when you walk around campus this week and in the coming weeks, look to see who bought their pink hair extensions from the Wellness table, and who is wearing pink in support of breast cancer. It might be surprising to see how many people want to raise awareness for breast cancer. The more people that work toward this cause, the more people will know what to do, and, in the long run, the battle against breast cancer will be won.