The One in Which I Talk About Cancer Awareness and Support

Long before I was diagnosed with brain cancer, I had associated the color pink with breast cancer. They have done a great job with their campaign to build that "brand recognition" - pink yogurt tops and even an NFL day when football players wear pink. The Pink Brigade is strong!

True story: when I first started googling "brain cancer", among the top 10 possible links were always one or two "breast cancer" links - like it was a typo, and they are trying to helpful. Really?!?! Oh, google...sometimes you disappoint me...


Honestly, I didn't even know that every type of cancer had its own color. Did you? Look at all these! (There will be a quiz later. j/k!)

Do you know that lung cancer is one the top killers among the list, and its ribbon color is white? Something to think about. It also receives the least funding of any of the major cancer types. It's complicated. [Source: SF Gate]

Except, I knew dark blue was associated with colon cancer because my Rock Star Running Friend, Liz, does such a great job advocating since her diagnosis. <--- She's one of my role models and my heroes!

 When I found out that the color associated with Brain Cancer was gray/grey* (U.S. spelling/U.K. spelling), I'm not gonna lie. I was a little disappointed. Not that I'm a super-girly girl and have a lot of pink ribbons in my closet. But I didn't think grey was very compelling either...but now I've embraced GREY, and you will see me wearing it every day of May, Brain Cancer Awareness Month. Look out, Instagram and Twitter!  I went to Savers (local thrift store - hey, I'm not proud!) and T.J. Maxx to get a good supply of cute grey clothes!

I got a pin from zazzle.com to help start the conversation rolling.

So, what's the point of "awareness" anyway? Unfortunately, chances are, we will all be touched by cancer in one way or another in our lifetime. I think the latest statistics is that 1 out of every 2 males and 1 out of every 3 females will have cancer at some point in their lifetime. [Source: Cancer.org] Those are some sobering statistics. Awareness hopefully leads to two key things: 1) Prevention and 2) Funding for research to find a cure. Does it work? If the Pink Brigade is any indication - Yes.

The fact is that, at the moment, funding for research is not evenly distributed or distributed proportionately to the number/percentage of people that are diagnosed and/or die from that particular disease. Funding for research comes from lobbying (AWARENESS). So...what to do, what to do?

For a start, for the next month or so I will be doing two critical things:
I will be raising funds for all my fellow Cancer Warriors. Cancer is cancer is cancer - and all of us Warriors need support - survivors, angels, caregivers, family and friends...I got your back!
and
I will try to raise awareness of Brain Cancer during the whole month of May. (see above)

My Steven Kent Winery Family has been supporting the American Cancer Society for several years by participating in the Relay for Life. This year, I was honored to be asked to join the team, and they've even changed their name to "June's Wine Girl Ninjas"! Of course, we'll be honoring lots of Cancer Warriors from all our lives, too! Please visit my page to learn more about how to support our team! Thanks!!

June's Wine Girl Ninjas Relay for Life Page

And who knows? Maybe someday we'll see the NFL wearing GREY for a day and the cheerleaders shaking around GREY pom-poms? It may not be as "cute", but I would argue that the BRAIN is worth it!

*I am going to be using the U.K. spelling of grey because most of the awareness material out there is spelled that way - which is an interesting little tidbit of information. The U.K. seems far ahead of the U.S. in building an infrastructure for Brain Cancer Survivors to support each other (in my humble opinion).

[I know there is some controversy about the use of these colored ribbons - especially the pink ones -  and how much money actually goes to the cause from these corporate campaigns - but I would prefer to leave that out of this discussion. Thanks!]