take early action & live

This post was originally going to be about my adventures as a newly-minted grad student, but something has been on my mind the past few days and I decided I wanted to share this instead.

September is NATIONAL OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

I've never been a crusader for anything. I'm still not, but obviously this is something that's impacted my life a lot recently. I always knew that the survivability rate for ovarian cancer was WAY low just from things I've read, but since I'd never known anyone who had had ovarian cancer, I didn't think about it much. I think about it now.

Since the mama passed away I've seen ONE commercial for ovarian cancer awareness on TV. Granted, I don't watch a ton of TV and what I do watch is mostly on DVR . . . but, I've seen countless commercials, internet ads, products all promoting breast cancer awareness. It makes me angry.

Now, there's nothing wrong with promoting breast cancer awareness. It too is a horrible disease. Too many people lose their loved ones. However, statistically speaking, ovarian cancer has a much higher fatality rate because there is no early detection screening like there is for breast cancer. Too often the symptoms for ovarian cancer are diagnosed as something else until it's too late. Mama was a victim of this and while I wouldn't change anything because it was a blessing for her to be free of pain for so many reasons, I cannot even begin to express how much I miss and want my dear mama back.

Just like pink is used to promote breast cancer awareness, the color teal represents ovarian cancer awareness. TEAL is also an acronym: Take Early Action & Live. I think the color is fitting. It was one of Mom's favorite colors.

http://www.whyteal.org/#