October is the month for breast cancer awareness. It is a month long campaign to increase the awareness of a terrible disease, but also to raise money for charitable organizations to fund research for a cure. National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) was founded in 1985 as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries. The purpose of NBCAM, at the start, was to promote mammograms, an x-Ray of the breast, which is the best way to prevent breast cancer.

The story of the pink ribbon that has been associated with breast cancer awareness is a pretty simple story. In the fall of 1991, the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to runners in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors. The ribbon was taken from the popular red ribbon for AIDS awareness. Evelyn Lauder founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and established the pink ribbon as its symbol.
Many prominent actors and celebrities have participated in the NBCAM, but NFL players are the most prominent figures to wear pink with their uniforms in October. Many Americans watch football on Sundays, so this is one of the best platforms to show off for the NBCAM. In addition to NFL players, buildings and landmarks across the world shine themselves in pink light to commemorate all of the survivors of breast cancer. Past pink landmarks include the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, the Harbour Bridge in Sidney, Constantine’s Arch in Rome, and almost all of downtown Atlanta.
Show your support for the NBCAM by either donating money for research or wearing pink and helping survivors in need. Breast cancer is a very serious disease that affects 232,670 annually in the United States. With your support, we can accomplish something extraordinary and eventually cure cancer entirely.