My mother has stage 4 breast cancer and it terrifies me the increase chance I too will get breast cancer but stats like these provide some relief.

This reminds me of the ‘salmon ribbon’ story. Charlotte Haley originally used salmon colored ribbons to represent the small amount of money going to cancer prevention and screening compared to ‘searching for a cure’, like a salmon swimming up a stream of money. When the mortality rates of women who detected breast cancer early was looked at, screening every 6 months had a NEGATIVE mortality. Women still died from breast cancer, but seeing a doctor every 6 months had the knock on effect of catching other things earlier. Having breast cancer and catching it before 6 months meant you were less likely to die than the general public. Essentially, ‘the cure’ is just having everyone get screened every 6 months.

Corporations wanted to write big checks to pharma companies, not raise money for screenings, so they changed the ribbon to ‘pink’. However, Haley had the last laugh, as her story made an impact on Obama and free cancer screenings were made a big part of the ACA.