Pink is the colour most associated with womanhood, femininity, glitz, glamour, and fun. It’s also used as a symbol for one of the deadliest diseases that kills countless women and men. I wouldn’t have a problem with this, except that the foundation in question seems to be a lot better at finding funding sources than it is at finding a cure for the disease. I recently looked up some statistics and this is what I found: the National Cancer Institute had a $5.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2010. There are more people making a living from cancer research and treatment in the U.S. than there are people dying from the disease every year. The typical American patient spends at least $50,000 on their cancer therapy. With one million new cancer patients each year in the U.S. that translates into $50 billion annual spent to treat cancer. That’s big money. And if there’s one thing I like to do as much as climb ice and write books, it’s to follow the money. (Note: I used the most conservative figures I could find for this post.)
Cancer is real, and so are the efforts of people who have lived or died through the disease, or have loved ones who have. These people often want to help out by raising money for cancer research. I have no problem with that. I simply have a problem with a foundation that has received so much money to find a cure, and has so far come up empty-handed (global cancer rates have doubled in the last three decades.)
Maybe it’s time to invest in some of the alternatives that have been ridiculed and/ or suppressed over the past few decades.
More importantly, maybe it’s time to put research money into finding and removing the toxic substances that are causing a large majority of these malignancies.
Queen’s professor Samantha King’s book, Pink Ribbons, Inc, has just been turned into a documentary film. I look forward to seeing her take on the subject.
