Dr Deepak Bharti
The month is about more than pink ribbons. While some feel inspired, many people living with breast cancer feel like the month overlooks their experience with the disease.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month can mean different things to different people. For some, it’s a trigger – 31 days in the fall of pink-ribbon reminders of a disease that forever changed them. For others, it’s a chance to show their support for the more than 2 million women around the world who are diagnosed with the disease each year.
The history of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The event began in 1985 as a week-long awareness campaign by the American Cancer Society, in partnership with Imperial Chemical Industries, a British company that made tamoxifen. The campaign eventually grew into a month-long event.
In 1992, the pink ribbon came into play after Alexandra Penney, SELF magazine’s editor-in-chief, partnered with Evelyn Lauder, Estée Lauder’s senior corporate vice president and a breast cancer survivor, to distribute pink ribbons after the magazine’s second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue.
Understanding the goals behind the global campaign and the emotions felt by the many different people living with the disease may help you decide if and how you want to commemorate the month.
The month aims to promote screening and reduce the risk of the disease, which affects 2.3 million women worldwide. Known best for its pink theme colour, the month features a number of campaigns and programs designed to:
* Support people diagnosed with breast cancer, including those with metastatic breast cancer
* Educate people about breast cancer risk factors
* Encourage women to go for regular breast cancer screening starting at age 40 or earlier, depending on personal breast cancer risk
* Raise money for breast cancer research
Breast Cancer Statistics
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in India.
Incidence:
It accounts for about 27-32% of all cancers in Indian women.
For the year 2018, an estimated 162,468 women were newly diagnosed.
One woman is diagnosed every 4 minutes.
There is a significant risk increase in urban areas (1 in 22 women) compared to rural areas (1 in 60 women).
The incidence is rising, with a significant portion of cases occurring in younger women.
Mortality:
The death toll for breast cancer is also high, with 87,090 deaths in 2018.
One woman dies of breast cancer every 8 minutes.
Over 50% of cases are diagnosed at stage 3 or 4.
In India, nearly 60 percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stages, while in high-income countries the figure is only 10 to 20 percent. This is not destiny. It reflects how women’s health is often postponed, overlooked, or silenced. When detected early, survival rates can rise to over 90 percent. When detected late, treatment becomes more complex and expensive, recovery harder, and families more vulnerable to emotional and financial stress.
Things to do this Breast Cancer Awareness Month
If you know someone who is living with breast cancer or has been affected by the disease, check in with them to ask them how they’re doing.
Schedule your annual mammogram. Encourage your friends and family to do the same.
In India, nearly 60 percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stages, while in high-income countries the figure is only 10 to 20 percent. This is not destiny. It reflects how women’s health is often postponed, overlooked, or silenced. When detected early, survival rates can rise to over 90 percent. When detected late, treatment becomes more complex and expensive, recovery harder, and families more vulnerable to emotional and financial stress.
The challenges
Three challenges keep this problem alive. The first is the nature of the disease itself. In its early stages, breast cancer is often asymptomatic. A woman may feel perfectly healthy while the disease grows quietly. This is why regular mammography is not a formality but a necessity at the age when it is recommended.
The second challenge is silence. Stigma still surrounds open conversations about breast health. Even today, many hesitate to talk about the breast as an organ that deserves attention and care. This discomfort creates dangerous delays.
The third is misplaced reassurance. When a lump or change is noticed, many women dismiss it as something hormonal or temporary. Precious weeks and months are lost while the disease progresses. These three obstacles are not complex medical problems, but are aspects that can be solved with awareness, conversation, and the will to act.
However, an equally big challenge is that for generations, women in India have placed their health at the end of an endless list of responsibilities. Families are nurtured, careers built, homes held together, while personal wellbeing is quietly deferred. The consequence is diagnosis at later stages, tougher treatment journeys, higher financial burdens, and, too often, a loss of independence and security. An individual health issue eventually grows into a social and economic challenge.
The cost of late-stage treatment can be up to three times higher than early-stage care. It can disrupt livelihoods, strain household savings, and leave lasting emotional scars on families. A woman’s health is not only her own concern. It shapes the strength of entire communities. When she stays healthy, families stay resilient. When she delays care, everyone pays the price.
Hence for positive change to begin, the shift must start with how women value their own health. A mammogram is not a luxury. Talking about breast health is not shameful. Seeking medical advice is not weakness. These are acts of power. A woman who takes charge of her health is safeguarding her future and protecting her family’s stability. She is not taking time away from her responsibilities. She is securing the foundation that allows her to carry them.
It is vital that every woman learns about self-examination, schedules regular screenings, and seeks medical help without delay. Likewise, families should encourage and support these decisions. Joining the effort, workplaces and the community should create safe spaces for conversations as breast health must become a matter of routine, and not hesitation. No woman should have to face the darkness of a late diagnosis when the light of early detection is within reach.
Our India stands at a remarkable inflection point. Its women are shaping families, communities, workplaces, and the nation’s future in ways both visible and unseen. This collective force must also be channelled into action that prevents the onset of breast cancer and, more importantly, helps catch it early.
Finally, in a country committed to women-led development, we must ensure that women remain unstoppable in every role they play. Their health must keep pace, for it is the indisputable foundation of their strength and progress.
“Take a moment for the women
You love, your mother, wife, sister or friend.
Encourage her to get checked”
(The author is Senior Consultant Medical Oncology SMVDNSH, Katra)
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