Reflecting on Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Pink Hub team has been busy engaging with other impactful organizations this Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To support the great work of The American Cancer Society, Pink Hub participated in their annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. The American Cancer Society started this walk to unite communities, companies, and individuals with a collective goal to end breast cancer as we know it. As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to an end, the Pink Hub team wants to emphasize the importance of raising awareness for breast cancer all year round and doing so in a meaningful way.

As someone who had breast cancer when she was a young mom at 37 years old, our founder Carolin Dohle knows firsthand the importance of not limiting raising awareness for breast cancer to one month. Women should make it a routine to perform breast self-exams throughout the year. The National Breast Cancer Foundation suggests that women give themselves a breast self-exam once a month and should be looking 'for any changes in breast tissue, such as changes in size, feeling a palpable lump, dimpling or puckering of the breast, inversion of the nipple, redness or scaliness of the breast skin, redness or
scaliness of the nipple/areola area, or discharge of secretions from the nipple". Gentle reminders should be given to women throughout the year to stick to this routine, and companies with large platforms can have a lifesaving impact by spreading the message.

Although it is helpful for corporations to acknowledge and participate in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it is essential for those participating to do so in a meaningful way. Breast Cancer Action coined the term "pinkwashing" in 2002. A pinkwasher is defined as a "company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces manufactures and/or sells products containing chemicals that are linked to the disease". If a company is passionate about this cause, it should be actively taking steps to change its formulas to ensure that its products are free of cancer-causing chemicals. Pinkwashers should also be open to criticism and have conversations to move their company in the right direction.

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