A New Way to Promote Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness
by the METAvivor Team
Many people are trying to get the word out on Metastatic Breast Cancer. One supporter came up with an ingenious idea that all began when she went to the grocery story. Here’s her story.
At the end of September I went to a local store and they were totally decked out in pink – ready for the Pinktober onslaught. My first thought was, “I won’t be able to come to this store for the whole month of October.” I knew they would be asking for money for awareness, for research and to support non-metastatic survivors. But knowing what I know about stage IV and the lack of funding and support for our disease, I knew I would not be able to keep my mouth shut. And the total lack of estrogen in my body can be verbally ugly.
When I got back home, I saw the MBCaware site and realized that I could be proactive. I made a business card based on the MBCaware site to use as an introduction to the “rest of the story”. I decided to use the card instead of exploding in some stranger’s face. So you might say that I generated the “business card” from the “Elephant in the Pink Room” campaign strictly for self-preservation reasons.
I did go back to the “pink” store. After a young female manager gave a pep talk over the loud speaker about donating to “pink” (not kidding), I calmly approached her and handed her a card. I briefly told her about the 30% of women who reach stage IV and the paltry 5% of funding for stage IV in the western world that is shared by all metastatic cancers. She said she didn’t know! I asked her to go to MBCaware.org and read about the rest of the pink story. She said she would do it … and I felt better. I did the same thing at the pharmacy. At the drive-in window the pharmacist was all decked out for Pinktober. I commented on her attire. She boasted how supportive she was of everything pink. I returned my clipboard with an MBCaware card while mentioning that she could learn the rest of the story by going to the website. She accepted it with great enthusiasm!
We think this is a great idea. Our team is now using it and we hope you will too! We welcome other stories on how people are getting the word out on metastatic breast cancer. Email your stories to [email protected] or [email protected]. Be sure to let us know how or if you wish to have your name associated with your story article. We look forward to hearing from you!
The card layout has been optimized for easy reading and can be copied and pasted into any 3.5” x 2” business card template. Here are links to a downloadable PDF or JPG copy of the above image that will fit a business card template; just click on either link and save the PDF or JPG to your computer: MBCaware Card PDF, MBCaware Card JPG. When you click on the JPG link, once it comes up, right-click on it & select ‘Save picture as…’ to get it on your computer.
