Kiera Blake – Special to the Southern News –
The month of October kicks off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to educating, spreading awareness and contributing to the cause of curing breast cancer while honoring its victims and survivors. Southern Connecticut State University has gotten in on the activism as well by holding events dedicated to the cause such as the third annual ZUMBA Pink class and a call for donations to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer foundation on Oct. 1.
The local dining hall Connecticut Hall even aired the recent football game between the Houston Texans and the New York Jets on October 9th, where the players rocked pink attire and played on a field newly adorned by designs featuring the trademark breast cancer symbol; the pink ribbon, in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Junior journalism major Kristina James said she thought it was “great that grown men can run around wearing pink for breast cancer awareness, because it shows that they can look past the [childishness] and actually show their support for women and anybody else who suffers from breast cancer.”
Defined by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, breast cancer develops through the division of cells located in breast tissue. When the cells in the breast tissue divide and grow uncontrollably, a tumor forms. The resulting tumor is either benign, not cancerous, or malignant, which is cancerous; malignant tumors in the breast are the breast cancer.
Graphic design student Karren Saldi, a junior, shared her thoughts about Southern participating in spreading the word about the disease.
“I think it’s great [that Southern holds these events]. It calls attention to the issue: finding a cure. Many people also forget that it affects both men and women,” Saldi said.
A 2009 statistic from the website for Susan G. Komen for the Cure reveals that men are indeed susceptible to developing breast cancer, though rarely: for every 100,000 men tested, approximately 1.2 of them get diagnosed with the disease, compared to 125.7 of every 100,000 women. There are an estimated 2,000 diagnoses of breast cancer in men per year, and approximately 400 men die from it yearly as well.
“Initially, when I hear breast cancer I think of women,” marketing major, sophomore Dillon Woodley said. “Now that I know men can get breast cancer too, I can think about it a little more.”
Unfortunately, Saldi and James—both commuters—said that they’re not made aware enough to participate in the events that Southern plans on campus.
“I commute, and I don’t even know about anything going on around campus because the school doesn’t really advertise them that much,” Saldi said. “They should really do better with notifying students of events.”
James sympathized with Saldi and said she “didn’t even know that it was homecoming week” because of it. Both said that the campus’ events committee should work on advertising more often for those who commute and would like to participate.
Woodley cheerfully gave suggestions for more breast cancer-centric campus events, excited about the possibilities.
“I definitely like sports. I’m a sports guy, so I’d like to play some for breast cancer,” he said. “It’d also be cool because it would reach out to a lot of the other guys that play sports here.”
Saldi suggested doing like her hometown of Seymour, CT does yearly and holding a walk to raise awareness. However, a similar campus event scheduled for Oct. 10 was cancelled due to bad weather.
