Looking back on Breast Cancer Awareness Month: in the pink

The month aims to promote screening and prevention of the disease, which affects 2.3 million women worldwide.

Carlisle Breast Cancer Awareness Group member Grace Watson sells raffle tickets (Image: Jonathan Becker)

Known for its pink theme colour, it features a number of campaigns and programmes conducted by groups ranging from breast cancer advocacy organisations to local community groups to major retailers.

A washing line of bras in Carlisle city centre to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Image: Newsquest)
Its aims are supporting people diagnosed with breast cancer, including those with metastatic breast cancer; educating people about breast cancer risk factors, encouraging women to go for regular breast cancer screening and fundraising for breast cancer research.

Val Armstrong, front right, and other members of the Carlisle Breast Care Support Group at The Sands Centre in Carlisle (Image: Newsquest)
Within the month of October, there are also specific dates designed to raise awareness of specific groups within the breast cancer community. The popular Wear It Pink Day, on October 18, encourages individuals, schools, and businesses to wear something pink and raise funds to support life-saving research and treatments for breast cancer.

Carlisle Breast Care Support Group raised £1,000 for the oncology unit at The Cumberland Infirmary (Image: Newsquest)
Breast Cancer Awareness Month began in 1985 as a week-long campaign by the American Cancer Society, in partnership with Imperial Chemical Industries, a British company that made the cancer drug Tamoxifen. The campaign eventually grew into a month-long event.

Barrow MP John Hutton with Dot Price of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund shop (Image: Newsquest)
In 1992, the pink ribbon was introduced after Alexandra Penney, SELF magazine’s editor-in-chief, partnered with Evelyn Lauder, Estée Lauder’s senior corporate vice president and a breast cancer survivor, to distribute pink ribbons after the magazine’s second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue.

Elaine Lewis of Furness Cancer Support launches Breast Cancer Awareness month with fundraiser Dot Price (Image: Newsquest)

Other variations have emerged in recent years to raise awareness that not all people with breast cancer are the same. These include ribbons for raising awareness about metastatic breast cancer, men with breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer and more.

Dot Price did a sponsored silence for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Image: Newsquest)
While many welcome the campaign as a vital tool in the fight against the disease, others see it as a distraction.

Lakes College hair and beauty students raised money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Image: Newsquest)

Some are also offended by what has become known as ‘pinkwashing’. This is the term used to describe when companies use pink ribbons to sell their products, but those products may increase the risk of breast cancer.