Coming home on the plane from Orlando, I read the entire Delta Sky magazine, including a very large article on the marketing strategy that has led to the entire month of October being dedicated to raising awareness of and money for breast cancer research. Delta airlines has made an enormous commitment, including selling Minute Maid pink lemonade during flights, 100% of the $2.00 price goes to breast cancer research.  Their flight attendants also have the option of purchasing t-shirts and pins to wear during flights, with proceeds being donated. Every attendant on my flight was wearing one.

I couldn’t believe it had been 10 YEARS since Yoplait first introduced the concept of saving the lids from their yogurt containers and sending them in for a donation of ten cents each. The Estee Lauder corporation, who came up with the pink breast cancer ribbon pin, has over 70 countries participating in 2009 Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign “World Pink. World Without Breast Cancer.™ Wear a Pink Ribbon. Make a Difference”, and will donate $500,000 to the cause.

All of the donations, the ribbons, the yogurt lids, you might be wondering if it’s really being used to find a cure for breast cancer, and the answer is YES. One new treatment uses the results of clinical trials on breast cancer and adjuvant therapy. On the site for a drug called Herceptin, I learned that “Adjuvant” means “additional treatment given after the main treatment plan to decrease the chance of recurrence. Adjuvant therapy for breast cancer can include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation therapy, or biological therapy.”  The Herceptin website has a ton of information on treatments for breast cancer, links to videos, articles, and a glossary of medical terms, and a community page.  On the community page, users can read stories from breast cancer survivors, find patient ambassadors to help answer questions.

If anyone reading this wants to learn more about breast cancer treatments or knows someone diagnosed who could use more information, I hope this post helped, and that you’ll check out the information on http://www.herceptin.com/. It used to be a subject no one talked about, but darn it, it’s 2009. And if you see a product in the grocery store or at Target or Walmart or wherever and the package says that a portion of your purchase price will go to Breast Cancer Awareness, please consider making that purchase. It’s for such an important cause.