The Facts: One in eight women will develop breast cancer over their lifetime. For the past 25 years, the month of October has been dedicated to increasing awareness and fundraising for breast cancer.
Our Opinion: The month of awareness is necessary to spread awareness and decrease the mortality rate or breast cancer. The current efforts of the students and faculty should be commended, and further efforts encouraged.
Breast cancer holds a special place in the hearts of the Wolfpack these days. The loss of Kay Yow will always remind us of the tragic toll the disease can take and faculty members like Mindy Sopher, who has survived breast cancer four times, will continually underscore the resilience of the survivors. Absent of these daily reminders, it is brought to the forefront of our consciousness as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The American Cancer Society estimates 230,480 women this year will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and 39,520 will die as a result of breast cancer.
At N.C. State, students are doing their part in the fight against breast cancer. In their game against Central Michigan, the football team wore pink on their jerseys, a symbolic color of breast cancer support. Two Student Government committees joined together Friday to host a fundraising and awareness event, Pack 4 Pink. Perhaps, one of the more impressive undertakings to raise funding, awareness, and education for breast cancer has been the work of Zeta Tau Alpha.
Zeta Tau Alpha organized a Pink Out Week for the week of the Oct. 23. The week began with a golf tournament that raised over $20,000 for various charities. Monday they painted the Free Expression Tunnel pink and Tuesday they provided free Jimmy John’s subs and pink lemonade for anyone who wore pink. Amanda Brookie, philanthropic chair of Pink Out Week, gave the reasoning for ZTA’s involvement.
“It’s everywhere,” she said. “One in eight women are affected by breast cancer. I think that says
