. . . as far as Pinktober. I wrote this in a comment to a discussion on a Facebook friend’s post, and thought I would include it here as well. I’ve edited it and added a few things:

Some breast cancer survivors really like Pinktober, get into the pink ribbons, etc. Me? — not so much. Maybe it’s because I’m Stage IV, maybe it’s because I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) . . . For probably many reasons, I’m not fond of Pinktober. I think Tracy Clark-Flory’s Salon piece is brilliant.

However, I do know that people on FB — those who are making their profile pictures pink, the purse thing, etc. — are incredibly well-meaning. When I can try to take myself and my enormous emotions about having IBC out of it, I DO know that peeps generally mean very well. I may need to be reminded of it from time to time because, well, having this tends to make me very cranky from time to time.

Companies that profit off of Pinktober, though? — they’re a whole different story, and I really DO resent ANY company profiting off of ANY illness like some do. This is a deadly disease, not something to make a buck off of. There are some good companies, some good campaigns. I highly recommend that everyone read what the very informative website Think Before You Pink says about how to evaluate what campaigns are good, which aren’t (or are ineffective), and which are just plain bad. I used to “click every day for breast cancer” myself, but since I read TBYP’s website, I realized that free mammograms are already offered to low income women, and I learned just how many clicks it takes to get ONE mammogram:

Tens of thousands of clicks are needed for one mammogram. Literally.

Source: Breast Cancer Action

I’ve just checked Pink Ribbons, Inc. out of the library and am interested in what it says about Pinktober. I think I’ll learn a lot.
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Cross-posted to Mothers With Cancer.