| 25 October 2009
During a Jaguar game a couple weeks ago, a few of the people who we have tailgated with for years brought a bottle of pink body paint and when we were about to start walking towards the stadium, a couple friends proceeded to paint the Breast Cancer ribbon on every one's arms, legs and even faces to who ever that was willing.
When they started to paint every one's arms and faces, I thought to myself "Now why didn't I think of this!". Running a website that talks about sports and gaming from a woman's perspective would naturally be a place to show support for Breast Cancer research. And then I thought, "who do I know has been affected by this terrible disease? And how can I get the word out about it?".
Luckily, no one in my family has had Breast Cancer; not to say that someone, or myself, could never get it but it was also the realization of how much sports can really impact a community to raise awareness about life threatening diseases.
Continue reading to find out sports leagues are doing to raise awareness for Breast Cancer research.
The NFL is one of the more recent companies to try and significantly raise awareness about Breast Cancer and it proves to be helping with examples such as myself. At the same Jaguar game I had my arm painted with the Breast Cancer ribbon, all the fans were given pink towels with the Jaguar head logo on it that said "Annual Screenings Saves Lives". The towels were part of the NFL campaign called the "Crucial Catch" that encourages yearly mammogram screenings.
Other items that bear the pink breast cancer logo and Crucial Catch motto have been seen on the NFL fields over the past month are:
- Players wearing pink cleats, wristbands, gloves, sideline caps, helmet decals, captains’ patches, sideline towels and quarterback towels
- Pink sideline caps for coaches and sideline personnel and pink ribbon pins for coaches and team executives
- On-field pink ribbon stencils and Crucial Catch wall banners
- Pink goal post padding in end zones
- K-balls with pink ribbon decals
- Pink coins used for coin toss
Its not just the NFL that has ramped up Breast Cancer Awareness programs, leagues like the MLB have been supporting the cause for years including this year when the players used pink bats, wristbands and even lineup cards.
Rather than following the pink October trend, the NHL has a program running called "Hockey Fights Cancer" where they show support using Lavender, which represents all kinds of cancer, not just Breast Cancer. 
NASCAR is another sport that chose to represent Breast Cancer in which 4 teams painted thier car pink just this past weekend at Lowes Motor Speedway.
Sports joining the cause to raise awareness is very important and brings that reminder of getting tested early and often. Testing early saves lives and I commend any organization that brings awareness to a disease to the forefront of their marketing efforts. More awareness leads to more donations.
***Just because a company slaps a pink "something" onto their brand to benefit Breast Cancer doesn't necessarily mean the funds go to where you think its going. As always, check out the company you are donating to before believing your money will actually end up where it should. "Think Before You Pink" helps you to understand which companies are honest about their awareness campaigns or just trying to scam you into thinking they are.
- Breast cancer is the fifth leading cause of death in American women, following heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and other respiratory illnesses.
- Barring a cure, an estimated 5 million Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer over the next 25 years. More than 1 million could die.
- About 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no known risk factors for it at all.
- On average, mammography will detect about 80%-90% of breast cancers in women without symptoms.
- 61% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed before the cancer has spread outside the breast; 5-year relative survival rates for these cancers is 98.1%.
- About 6 out of every 100 women will develop breast cancer between their 50th and 70th birthdays.
- Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer-related death (after lung cancer), in American women.
- 31% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed after the cancer has spread outside the breast (to regional lymph nodes, but not beyond). The 5-year relative survival rate for these cancers is 83.8%.
Special thanks to Niki Becker, Mike, Kristina & Lisa Mullen for coming up with the idea of bringing the pink paint. They even had custom made their jerseys to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness.
