Colleges Against Cancer hosted its annual Pink Week to help raise awareness of breast cancer.

Pink Week lasted for five days during the campus lunch rush in Banks Student Life Center. Members of CAC provided facts about breast cancer and raised funds for their Relay for Life event in the spring.

Relay for Life is the biggest event the CAC group hosts in the spring semester. It is the largest fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

The club plans to fundraise all year to support CAC, the relay, and ACS, said senior Megan Rogan, CAC co-president.  She hopes to raise more awareness and have a bigger relay than last year. Her goal is to have more than 30 teams participate.

“If every club on campus had a team, we would exceed that goal by a lot. To exceed that goal would be amazing,” said Rogan.

Buy a Cup and Save a Cup, Save the Rack and Pink Hair and Nails are a few activities that CAC used during Pink Week. Buy a Cup and Save a Cup enabled students to buy cups of pink lemonade adorned with pink ribbons. Save the Rack was a phrase scribbled across black t-shirts with a pink ribbon offered for sale. Pink hair dye and nail polish were available. A human pink ribbon was created on the third day of Pink Week to develop campus involvement.

This year’s relay will mark the 100 year celebration of ACS and Rogan wants to aim higher to raise more funds. The goal for this year is $15,000.  Last year’s relay raised just under $13,000.

“We’re happy that the ACS are letting us aim even higher instead of having us aim lower,” said Rogan. “Normally they would go from 7,500 to about 10,000 at the most, but they are letting us scooch by that.”

CAC is different than other clubs because cancer has touched every person in some way, said Rogan.

“It’s not just your major.  It’s not just a hobby. It’s something that has touched you either personally or a friend of yours has been touched. So we have more of a community or personal connection to each other,” said Rogan.

CAC co-president and junior Kathleen Lord has a strong connection to people with cancer. Her mother is two-time breast cancer survivor, and she has other relatives going through cancer.  She also lost a high school friend to the disease. These experience have motivated her to transfer to MU for the Medical Imaging Program and becoming involved with CAC.

“I wanted to be a part of the cancer field, and I wanted to make a difference after realizing what a big part it had played in my life,” said Lord. “So immediately I decided I needed to be involved with relay and anything else that I could.”

Lord believes she is proactive with her participation in Pink Week and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and she hopes to raise money, and perhaps more important, awareness.

“I know personally it seems a little crazy that as a 20, 21-year-old to even be thinking about breast cancer because most women don’t worry about it until they are in their 40’s and 50’s,” said Lord.

She said young women often experience benign tumors as she once did.  She hopes to help educate younger women about early detection, the best way to keep the survival rate high.

“I think that it [CAC] is one of the best opportunities I ever could have taken and that I am so glad I am involved because I really made a family of friends that are all as passionate about awareness as I am,” said Lord.

Pink Week is her time to advocate for something that is so close to her heart. She hopes to use this week to help accomplish all of the goals CAC hopes to achieve this year.

“So if they have the right means to continue on, CAC is just going to grow. It’s just going to be bigger; it’s just going to be better,” said Rogan

Rogan will step down as president of CAC at the end of the year, but she is confident others will grow CAC and cancer awareness after she graduates.

Facts about Breast Cancer in the United States:

1. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.

2. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.

3. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women.

4. Each year it is estimated that over 220,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die.

5. Although breast cancer in men is rare, an estimated 2,150 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 410 will die each year.

Courtesy of http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-facts

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