HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — It doesn't matter where you come from. No matter your age, gender, race, social economic status, or how rich you are, cancer affects everyone. Every October is recognized as breast cancer awareness month.
Here's a look at some numbers about this far-reaching illness: 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. For men, the number is smaller. In their lifetime around 1 in 833 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer. This year 27 hundred men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 530 men will die from breast cancer.
Nearly 288 thousand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 43-thousand women will die from breast cancer.
Nearly 4,300 of those 288,000 will occur in the state of Alabama. Unfortunately in the state of Alabama, there will be nearly 730 deaths as a result of breast cancer.
To bring more attention to these statistics is a group of men that every October joins together to raise awareness for breast cancer in men and women.
"Real Men Wear Pink is a national campaign that the American cancer society has been doing for several years this is our seventh year here in north Alabama. What we do is we recruit guys from Huntsville, Madison, really all North Alabama and we task them with doing two things in the month of October: One is wearing pink every day and Two is raising the minimum of $2,500" Says Brian Anderson with the American Cancer Society here in North Alabama.
But why men? While men can also get breast cancer, it's not normally a disease we associate with the male population.
"Women are wives, our daughters, our aunts, they are your moms. When they have breast cancer it affects us too so it's good to have this kind of campaign where men are leading the way saying we're there for you we're here for you we're there to support you and it's just kind of a fun gimmick. We're wearing pink saying we're the ones that are going to do this and I think that's really fun.
this year, there are 22 men taking part in the real men wear pink campaign here in north Alabama.
I'm proud to be one of those men for the fourth year in a row.
for more details on the campaign or to donate to my personal fundraiser visit fox54.com. You can text Donate to 256.382.2692
You can also learn more about the American Cancer Society's Real Men Wear Pink campaign by visiting The Real Men Wear Pink Page.