2011 Race for the Cure

Get Your Run On! (Or walk...)
The 2011 Race for the Cure is coming up in a little over a month. The Race will be held September 24th, 2011 at Downtown Amarillo.
I know I personally have lost someone I love very much to breast cancer, so this event has always been important to me. The event in itself is an important one because it raises funds for our community. Up to 75% of funds raised stay in the Panhandle. Not only that, but it brings a strong call for self awareness and proactive responsibility for women.

"The Greater Amarillo Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®—along with those who generously support us with their talent, time and resources—is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in our community. We join more
than 100,000 breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Since 2004, through events like the Komen Greater Amarillo Race for the Cure, we have invested over $1,000,000.00 in local breast health and breast cancer awareness projects in the 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle. Up to 75 percent of net proceeds generated by the Komen Greater Amarillo Affiliate stay in the Panhandle. The remaining income goes to the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure Grants Program for energizing science to find the cures."

Quoted from the 2011 Resource Guide for our Local Chapter

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Greater Amarillo website has valuable information on breast cancer and even a local guide to relevant resources in the Panhandle community. I highly suggest you check it out.

The Facts
Think breast cancer isn't relevant to you? THINK AGAIN! "Despite the prevailing opinions that young women don’t get breast cancer, the reality is that they can and they do. Here are some important and startling facts about breast cancer in young women:

• In 2009, the American Cancer Society projects 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 62,280 cases of non-invasive breast cancer in females; it is estimated that 25,100 of these women will be under 45 years of age.
• One in 14 women with breast cancer is under age 40 when diagnosed. One in eight women diagnosed with breast cancer is younger than 45 when diagnosed.
• Breast cancer accounts for 26% of all cancer in females 15-39 years of age and 39% of all cancer in 35-39 year olds.
• Young women’s breast cancers are generally more aggressive and result in lower survival rates, particularly in African-Americans and Latinas.
• Increasingly, evidence suggests that breast cancer before age 40 is biologically different from the majority of breast cancer that occurs in older women. Women younger than 25 may have a third type of biologically distinct breast cancer.
• As the incidence of young women with breast cancer is much lower than in older women, young women are often an underrepresented population in research studies.
• There is no effective breast cancer screening tool for women 40 and under."

Information from the Young Survival website. You can print PDFs from their fact sheets here.

TOUCH. LOOK. CHECK.
It’s as easy as T.L.C.
TOUCH your breasts. Feel anything unusual?
LOOK for changes. Be aware of their shape or texture.
CHECK anything unusual with your doctor.

One of my FAVORITE sites on breast cancer awareness is through REthink Breast Cancer. It is a Canadian based site, but the information is current, valuable, and relevant. They focus on teaching women under 40 about breast cancer awareness and do it in a fun and honest manner for young women. If you aren't into pink ribbons, you might want to check out the information they offer.

"It’s not just an old ladies’ disease...
When young women get breast cancer it often spreads more aggressively, leading to tougher treatments and lower survival rates. Add such age-specific issues as fertility, diagnosis during pregnancy, childcare, financial security… and breast cancer becomes a triple threat to young women. But here’s the good news: When it’s caught in its earliest stages, the five-year survival rate for women ages 20-39 is almost 90%. We think that's a pretty fabulous reason for every young woman to get proactive about her breast health."

Quoted from the REthink Breast Cancer website.

Want to help give away free mammograms to women who need them? Check out thebreastcancersite.com. Every click gives funding toward free mammograms. (Paid by sponsors and not by you.)