When is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM)?

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in women. Therefore, there are now a lot of communities associated with breast cancer in many countries. When is breast cancer awareness month (BCAM)? October is the breast cancer awareness month.

You may also like to read prevention tips and myths of breast cancer, before continuing!

In the U.S, BCAM is also referred as NBCAM or National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (founded in 1985), which is an annual health campaign to increase and encourage the awareness of this cancer, and get more funds to support more researches for this disease (including causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention). This international campaign is also aimed to support and provide more information for those who have higher risk of the disease or for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Furthermore, BCAM is also purposed to campaign the importance of early detection of breast cancer. You should clearly understand, the early diagnosis that is made in early stage will be so helpful to increase the success rate of the treatment. For those who have higher risk of breast cancer, they should do screening tests (like mammography) for certain periods of time -- talk with your doctor to get more detailed information.

And the following are some moments & events to support the campaign on fighting breast cancer in breast cancer awareness month:

1. On October 2010, more than 50 comic strip artists involved in the pink comic strips with the words “Cartoonists care”.
2. There are now many activities to support BCAM for each October, like a pink day with all people who participate to this activity will wear pink accessories or clothing. One of popular ‘pink day’ activities is ‘Global pink hijab day’ which is also aimed to encourage the awareness and raise more funds for the researches or other associated charities for breast cancer.
3. There are also some football leagues of some countries that promote breast cancer awareness during the month of October, such as; a football player that use pink captain patches, gloves, or other accessories during game.
4. And there are also many landmarks illuminated in pink light from many cities of the world during October, such as; full of pink color lights in Tokyo Tower (Japan), The Dam Square (Amsterdam - Netherlands), The Empire State Building (New York - USA), etc!

October is special month for certain festivals or even Halloween, but don’t forget to one of special campaigns that we should always remember, a month of breast cancer awareness.

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Image credit to ‘Getty Images /Flickr’ for illustration