What is associated with pink? You guessed it, women. Even though we live in a time of equality, pink is still a ¨girl color,” which is a stereotype; but that is not what I wanted to write about.

As some of you may have already heard, pink is the color of breast cancer, and October is known as the breast cancer awareness month.

Breast cancer is a vicious tumor, and it mostly occurs in women. Only 1% of all illnesses occur in men. Every year 332,600 people, located in The United States, are diagnosed with breast cancer and 41, 400 thousand people in the United States die from breast cancer every year. The 5-year survival rate for people diagnosed with breast cancer is 90%, which is quite a lot, but there is still 10%.

Especially in the United States, the medication is expensive, especially if you do not have a health insurance. Even if you do, most of the people have to pay extra money for the different medicines, which can be quite expensive. That means that a lot of people do not have access to the medicine they need. 

Officially October called the ¨National Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” and is organized by the major breast cancer charities, such as the “California Breast Cancer Research Program.” Its purpose is to increase awareness of the disease, and to raise funds for research, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure. 

A variety of events all over the world are organized in October, including walks and runs to raise fundraisers. People wear pink to show their support. You can show your support by wearing pink t-shirts or bracelets (I remember Hard Rock Cafe had pink bracelets a few years ago), also donate money to breast cancer charities. 

What is going on at Lincoln?

Lincoln High School is involved in the Breast Cancer Awareness Month; starting a few years ago, they sell extra pink Lincoln Lion Football t-shirts at the student services to show the school’s support. Also, this year the leadership comity, planned a whole week in October dedicated breast cancer awareness which will take place on October 22nd through October 26th.

Monday is Pink Pyjamas Day, Tuesday a Pink Ribbon Day; they plan to get a guest speaker for advisory Wednesday will be Pink Accessory Day (they’ll be selling some!). Thursday is a Pink Sock Day, and on Friday they want everybody to wear pink. Also there will be a photo booth, a tattoo station, and face painting all in the quad. In addition, there will be jars in every classroom all over the week to raise money for the awareness.

Lincoln Lion Tales talked to Ms. Newton, who owns one of the pink t-shirts sold by Lincoln. She told Lion Tales that she really likes to wear the t-shirt, because it shows school spirit, also because it shows support for breast cancer. Even though she hasn’t had a personal experience with breast cancer, she knows how many people are affected by it. 

Ms. Newton told Lion Tales: “It is very important to have conversations with students about it [Breast Cancer], and make it a safe space, if people want to talk about it, or want someone who will listen to them because they have been affected by it, I want students to know that I am there for them as well.”