Every 69 Seconds a Woman Dies from Breast Cancer – Komen for the Cure Wants People Globally to Take Action
DALLAS – September 30, 2010 – On the eve of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® today launched one of the world’s largest one-day social media/online efforts designed to turn the world digitally pink and to challenge everyone to try in their own way to help find a cure.
Komen for the Cure’s central theme on this digital day of activism asks “What will you promise?” The intent is to create a global convergence of breast cancer engagement and education among private citizens, non-governmental organizations, Komen Affiliates, corporate and international partners, public policy advocates, celebrities and the media.
“No one can look into the future and predict we will cure breast cancer by any certain date,” said Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder and CEO. “But the reality of today’s statistics are grim and can’t be disputed. Every 69 seconds, a woman on this planet dies from breast cancer. That is simply unacceptable. Each of us must promise to do something.”
Brinker’s most important promise came nearly 30 years ago, when she pledged to her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything in her power to make sure breast cancer was conquered and cured. Promise Me, Brinker’s current New York Times best seller, chronicles the details behind that promise and how it grew into the world’s largest breast cancer organization
Komen’s main focus during this one-day social media/online event is to ask people to change their Facebook and Twitter status to reflect the fact they are determined to #fightbreastcancer as well as taking action on www.69-seconds.org by choosing one or more of the following:
- Sign Komen’s petition to make cancer a global priority by including it in the UN millennium goals.
- Illustrate the strength of the global breast cancer movement by uploading a photo to Komen’s digital photo mosaic.
- Take a breast health quiz to test your breast health awareness and share that information with others.
Those who participate in this global one-day event can also create or engage in Passionately Pink for the Cure® events, learn about other NGOs and Komen partner groups, become a Komen advocate (Komen Advocacy Alliance) or can make a donation.
More than 1.3 million women will be diagnosed this year alone with breast cancer. Almost half a million will die – 40,000 of them in the United States.
“We’ve made incredible progress. We now have five-year survival rates in the U.S. of 98 percent from cancers that haven’t spread from the breast, compared with 74 percent when our founder, Nancy G. Brinker, made her remarkable promise to her sister,” said Elizabeth Thompson, president at Komen for the Cure. “Still, today, too many women are diagnosed too late. Too many do not have access to even rudimentary health care. Too many suffer from complex and aggressive breast cancers whose cures are in sight, but still elude us. Every one of us should take 69 seconds to do our part, as a global family, to end this disease.”
