Look at the special section in this edition of Beaufort Today.

No, you don’t have pinkeye.

But you or someone you know and love just might have breast cancer. Millions of women do.

Scientists say something like one in eight women have or will have the disease … one in eight.

The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month program is dedicated to increasing public knowledge about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. The program is a collaboration of 15 national public service organizations, professional associations and government agencies.

Throughout the month of October, Beaufort Today will join many other newspapers across the country in recognizing National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by printing in pink, taking the whole “pink ribbon” thing one step further. It’s that important to us.

We will feature stories on breast cancer survivors, on identifiable risks, on the value of a good diet, on the risks of too much alcohol, on why and how to exercise, on advances in cures and preventions, and what to do if breast cancer – once beaten – returns again. It can. And it can be beaten again.

Nobody wants to think about breast cancer, about self exams, about Mom or the Mrs. maybe getting sick and dying. But we can’t wish it away. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and think it only happens to someone else. It does not.

Breast cancer is, assuredly, something you should know about and be prepared for.

This doesn’t mean you should panic. Again, breast cancer can be beaten.

But without some clue of the warning signs, about how to check for lumps, about how mammograms work and about how to prevent the disease, breast cancer can progress quickly from the early, treatable stage to the later, scary, maybe fatal stage.
Don’t let it get there. It doesn’t have to.

Breast cancer can happen to anyone, but it can be beaten if you know what to look for.

Think pink this month.

(For more information about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, visit www.nbcam.org or call one of the following toll-free numbers: American Cancer Society,
(800) 227-2345; National Cancer Institute, (800) 4-CANCER; Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, (800) 221-2141.)