October is breast cancer awareness month and it provides a platform for education which will help women with early detection and give them the best chance possible for a full recovery. Whether your a trust fund baby who has not had to put in 8 hours of work your entire life, a self made millionaire who writes books, and blue collar worker who puts in the steady 8 hours every day, 5 days a week and then works part time fixing cars on weekends to pick up some extra money, work part time at Mcdonalds and get public assistance but are barley getting through day by day or a homeless women who lost her home in a fire, had no insurance and can't find work, cancer can rob anyone of years of life, steady job/income, family, happiness and even sanity.
There are people that can be predisposed to developing cancer but there is no test that's going to give you a yes or no answer. That's why it's such devastating news to hear because it's not just an individual that's facing "the BIG C word" oftentimes it's families, friends and co-workers facing it together in an ideal support system. Although it can change the lives of all corners of our society the problem is people are left wondering how am I going to pay for all these tests? Wait, how many different medications do I have to take daily? Who is going to bring me to these appointments? Where is the closest specialist and how am I going to drive 2 hours each way? If I can't drive myself then who can take full days off from work 3-4 days every week just to bring me?
Now you can see where people of different tax brackets see the bad news in entirely different ways. Everyone is supposed to be treated the same, get the same access to the same doctors, get prescribed the same amount of the same medication for the same amount of time and get the same number of treatments and checkups....how many of you actually believe it works that way? Does that down on her luck, broke, homeless women who lost her house make an appointment with the top specialist in the field to review the initial doctors findings before any decisions are made? How's she going to make it to the office for the first time, let alone get to a seperate "specialist". When there's a 4 month wait to start treatment maybe that trust fund women digs into one of her accounts and donates to the research department and surprisingly a cancellation happens the end of that first week and she gets a call....bam she's already on her way to being cancer free and back to living the high life while our blue collar worker is already out of work but still has months before she's beginning the process and everyday struggles with a combination of depression and anxiety but doesn't want to burden the family anymore. She feels guilty that she's not working already, thinks ppl are starting to resent her, it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed, distances herself from friends and loved ones more and more and by the time the big day comes to start treatment she drives herself there alone, tells no one, and trys to take on this monster alone.
Obviously I'm exaggerating the examples somewhat but i'm sure there has been similar stories around the world. This is one monster with a far reach, bigger then King Kong and scarier then Jaws, The Predator, Freddie+ Jason combined.
Try and remember that although you want to be supportive don't push yourself on them. Let them know your there when they want to talk, when they need a ride, and when the highs and lows start to be more drastic you'll soften the fall because they see that they do have people that didn't forget about them....causes like the Susan G. Komen for the cure, pink pin initiative are what's going to get us closer and closer to the cure eventually.
Google partnered with the Susan G. Komen foundation and used an interactive website to promote businesses to use the various google products such as maps, youtube, picasa, google plus, and they could register the business at PINKPIN.COM along with pictures, videos and posts about their expierences in addition to an option to donate. Then some businesses took it upon themselves to step it up even more by doing things like matching a customer's donation up to $100 by providing free services to them. That just shows how deeply they felt about making a difference, every dollar donated could be the one that gets that scientist the funds necessary to find that cure....I'M VERY IMPRESSED WITH THIS STEP BY GOOGLE AND WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THE DRIVE BECAUSE I CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HELP OUT.
I'm going to leave you with this....a real man or women does the right thing when no one is looking, from this moment forward you have the chance to make a difference just by doing the little things, its not all about money. If you hear about a food drive in your town ask what you can do to help, whether it's opening the door for the elderly, handing out canned goods, or helping clean up the cafeteria we all can do our part to help our fellow citizens, it's the least we can do.
OFFICIAL GOOGLE BLOG: Raising awareness for breast cancer with the pink pin initiative
There are people that can be predisposed to developing cancer but there is no test that's going to give you a yes or no answer. That's why it's such devastating news to hear because it's not just an individual that's facing "the BIG C word" oftentimes it's families, friends and co-workers facing it together in an ideal support system. Although it can change the lives of all corners of our society the problem is people are left wondering how am I going to pay for all these tests? Wait, how many different medications do I have to take daily? Who is going to bring me to these appointments? Where is the closest specialist and how am I going to drive 2 hours each way? If I can't drive myself then who can take full days off from work 3-4 days every week just to bring me?
Now you can see where people of different tax brackets see the bad news in entirely different ways. Everyone is supposed to be treated the same, get the same access to the same doctors, get prescribed the same amount of the same medication for the same amount of time and get the same number of treatments and checkups....how many of you actually believe it works that way? Does that down on her luck, broke, homeless women who lost her house make an appointment with the top specialist in the field to review the initial doctors findings before any decisions are made? How's she going to make it to the office for the first time, let alone get to a seperate "specialist". When there's a 4 month wait to start treatment maybe that trust fund women digs into one of her accounts and donates to the research department and surprisingly a cancellation happens the end of that first week and she gets a call....bam she's already on her way to being cancer free and back to living the high life while our blue collar worker is already out of work but still has months before she's beginning the process and everyday struggles with a combination of depression and anxiety but doesn't want to burden the family anymore. She feels guilty that she's not working already, thinks ppl are starting to resent her, it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed, distances herself from friends and loved ones more and more and by the time the big day comes to start treatment she drives herself there alone, tells no one, and trys to take on this monster alone.
Obviously I'm exaggerating the examples somewhat but i'm sure there has been similar stories around the world. This is one monster with a far reach, bigger then King Kong and scarier then Jaws, The Predator, Freddie+ Jason combined.
Try and remember that although you want to be supportive don't push yourself on them. Let them know your there when they want to talk, when they need a ride, and when the highs and lows start to be more drastic you'll soften the fall because they see that they do have people that didn't forget about them....causes like the Susan G. Komen for the cure, pink pin initiative are what's going to get us closer and closer to the cure eventually.
Google partnered with the Susan G. Komen foundation and used an interactive website to promote businesses to use the various google products such as maps, youtube, picasa, google plus, and they could register the business at PINKPIN.COM along with pictures, videos and posts about their expierences in addition to an option to donate. Then some businesses took it upon themselves to step it up even more by doing things like matching a customer's donation up to $100 by providing free services to them. That just shows how deeply they felt about making a difference, every dollar donated could be the one that gets that scientist the funds necessary to find that cure....I'M VERY IMPRESSED WITH THIS STEP BY GOOGLE AND WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THE DRIVE BECAUSE I CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HELP OUT.
I'm going to leave you with this....a real man or women does the right thing when no one is looking, from this moment forward you have the chance to make a difference just by doing the little things, its not all about money. If you hear about a food drive in your town ask what you can do to help, whether it's opening the door for the elderly, handing out canned goods, or helping clean up the cafeteria we all can do our part to help our fellow citizens, it's the least we can do.
OFFICIAL GOOGLE BLOG: Raising awareness for breast cancer with the pink pin initiative
Your time can be just as valuable as money, if you have time do what you can, it's important.
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