Breast Cancer Awareness Month and What is Pink Washing?

      Hi, I am a 1 in 8 warrior or a Breast Cancer Warrior and to a lot I am a Pink Sister. There’s so much that can be said for having breast cancer, especially in 2020 during the peak of the Covid pandemic. On June 3, 2020 i was told I am sorry but you have breast cancer. I didn’t cry, scream or really have any emotions, I just said okay. This happened when everything was opening back up but you couldn’t have anyone with you at a doctors appointment. I was alone and my husband couldn’t hold my hand to even say it would okay. No, I was in this alone. I had 19 days to make a lot of hard decisions. One was the fact do I have a double mastectomy (dmx) or just the cancerous breast removed. It came down to the dmx and staying aesthetically flat. June 22nd came and my husband walked me in and was then told to leave. We said our goodbyes and that was it. That night it was over with and I was flat. I went through 12 weeks of aggressive chemo and then started more chemo. I am now 16 months remission.

      Now let’s talk about pink washing and why so many of us are against it and would love for it to stop. So many years ago the pink ribbon was made to symbolize that we weren’t in this alone. Those who wore it were our family, friends and our supporters. It was nice to know we weren’t in this alone, unlike now where you can click on to social media and join support groups. Unfortunately, the pink ribbon is being used by so many companies and people who want to use it for profitable gain. We call this pink washing. You can walk into just about any store and the wave of pink and pink ribbon will hit you in the face. It is no longer on a shirt or bracelet, no it is now on anything and everything. Sadly so many companies swear they are making these huge contributions to research, but in reality they are not. If you look into these companies that put the pink ribbon on labels with the will contribute $250,000 to research, are making billions off of us. Their small, very small contributions don’t help us. All this is doing is exploiting families that are by their loved ones praying and begging to not loose them. We need and want change, we want a cure for all cancers. Please do your research when you get ready to make a donation. 

      From one pink warrior to everyone out there, thank you for being an ally and supporting use.