Think before you Pink

Who really makes money out of the Pink Ribbon industry?  How much actually goes towards research?

The silly season is about to explode on us with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.  So many things will be pinked, and will promise to donate 'x' amount to a charity, but note that many of them will say that they will donate a maximum of £xxx to that charity.  So if the amount that they raise from the sale of those pinked products is more than that they will be pocketing the difference as well as all the money from the boost in sales from those who think they are supporting breast cancer charities and research.  In fact I have become rather jaded about charities as a whole and cancer charities in particular.  I would love to feel that the money I give is really achieving something, but I am not convinced that it is.  I asked Cancer Research UK how much of their research budget was spent directly into research into metastatic cancer of any sort.  It was about 4%!  Metastatic cancer is the cancer which KILLS, this is what people die of and they direct 4% of their research budget to it.

I know that it is wrong that people automatically think that cancer is a death sentence, it is not, but there again too much of the breast cancer charity 'industry' likes to portray it as a curable form of cancer which is all about 'survivors'.  The likelihoood that I will survive it for another 6 years is statistically about 2%.  I am a metavivor, a term coined by an American BC website/charity, which more accurately describes my situation.  I am living with metastatic (or secondary) cancer.

For thousands of people it is about living with breast cancer rather than surviving a long time with no evidence of disease.  It is about quality of life and knowing that you have to make the most of each day at a time.  The fact that there are companies that only see this disease as a source of profit is wrong.  Is this what Western countries are really about - profit?  Destroying the world...for profit...destroying people's health...for profit...having more and more things which we really don't need.  We should have the things we need and occassionally have the things we want, and not the other way round.