Weekly Round Up: Keeping It Real

Time for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which I’ve wanted to share with you. Don’t forget if you have written a post which you would like readers to see, just leave a comment below.

And so the pink onslaught continues during “the Pepto Bismol dipped month of October” as Britt calls it.  Katie shares an image of Komen’s pink pig calendar which she spotted in a book store:

“I don’t appreciate a calendar that sounds like it could have been ripped from the pages of My Little Pony to be associated with something this serious.”, writes Katie.  “What other disease gets this sort of fluffy, childish treatment? Imagine how weird it would seem if there were something comparable for colon cancer, heart disease, brain tumors, diabetes, zika, or for the love of all things holy, prostate cancer??”

Becky calls out those charities who should be educating us, rather than trivializing breast cancer.

Elizabeth writes of how Pinktober is an unwelcome interruption.

Many people are active in advocacy for breast cancer research as well as for increasing access to quality healthcare. These are critically important concerns. Then the pink tsunami comes in and interrupts with new messages, one of using a disease as a marketing tactic and wrapping it in “awareness” a construct, which is vague and inoffensive.

Ann re-posts her right to the heart of  it article, originally published on Healthline, sharing her  perspective on turning from an over-emphasis on awareness to more research.

Uzma reminds us that for those living with metastatic breast cancer “every month is October.” Claudia agrees and writes:

For me, every month is breast cancer awareness month. I can’t parse out the time of year when I’ll focus on breast cancer; for me, every month, week, day and moment is a reminder of breast cancer and its aftermath.

And on a similar theme Wendi reveals the winning tweet from last week’s #BreastCancerRealityCheck event, and Terri ventures the opinion that”#BreastCancerRealityCheck should be revisited more than once a year.”

Dr Deanna Attai reminds us to “think twice about buying those pink breath mints. If you want to make a purchase to honor a loved one, make sure you know whether or not any money will be donated for breast cancer research, education, or support. If you are donating to an organization, make sure that organization is funding programs that you support.” And Vickie suggests some worthy recipients of your donations.

Elsewhere  in the blogosphere…

A lovely post from Nancy on going beyond the pink madness and reclaiming October for herself.

Jen has some news for us.

The Breast Cancer Consortium released  the latest edition of the BCC Quarterly.

Super advice from Caroline on the next steps to take when you have just been diagnosed with a serious illness.

What’s different  about male breast cancer? Elaine finds out.

Susan  shares news about her latest project – The Underbelly – and how you can support her  mission to change the breast  cancer narrative.

Sarah is also changing the prevailing breast cancer narrative – find out how on her blog.

Philippa marks her seventh cancerversary; and Jamie her fourth.

A big happy birthday hug to Beth Caldwell who celebrated her 40th birthday last week.

A really powerful post by Catherine on how our medical treatment can leave us feeling violated.

Finally this week, I leave you with a terrfic quote from Rebecca

Whether you’re sharing breast cancer information, or your personal story in words or pictures, it’s OK to be angry. Or funny. Or sad. Just keep it REAL.

 

Until next week,

Keep on keeping it real

Yours with love

Marie xxx