THUNDER BAY -- Breast cancer death rates are dropping fast, but the disease is still the most common cancer in Canada.
It is also still the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in women, with one-in-nine expected to develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Early detection is the key to survival, said Canadian Cancer Society volunteer Helen Knudsen, a cancer survivor herself who on Thursday spent the afternoon launching the organization’s Women to Women campaign.
The month-long effort is urging women over 50 to go for a screening examination, to get support through the Canadian Cancer Society and to give generously of their time or donate money to fight the disease.
“You can sign up on the Canadian Cancer Society website,” Knudsen said. “Basically what the program is, is to empower women to help each other in the fight against breast cancer.”
While the fundraising aspect is always helpful, frank discussion about the disease can also create awareness, she added.
“Talk to women over coffee, at your church group, book clubs or over a dinner at home about the need to have regular mammogram examinations,” Knudsen said.
The group, who took over the entrance of a local clothing store at Intercity Shopping Centre, also handed out special thing-a-ma-boob key chains, adorned with plastic marbles indicating the escalating size of breast lumps found during regular mammograms compared to the size of the lump when detected by a self examination.
The difference is astounding, Knudsen said.
“We have found over the years that certainly research has brought treatment for breast cancer a long, long way. But the key to any type of cancer is early detection. And certainly breast cancer is among them,” she said.
For more information, visit www.cancer.ca/fightbreastcancer.
