PRETTY IN PINK?
SIDEBAR: How's that for an obscure TV reference? I got a million of them!!!
I know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I'm for all it. I've had friends and family with breast cancer and I've walked their walks and donated in memory of loved ones to find the cure.
With that being said, when October ends and November rolls around around, a.k.a., National Diabetes Awareness Month, I want Diabetes education, awareness and fundraising to cure diabetes to step to the forefront, and I want people to embrace the diabetes blue of it all.
So when I walked into the pink post office and asked the lady behind the desk if the USPO had planned on doing anything for National Diabetes Awareness Month in November.
Postal worker: Not that I'm aware of.
Me: Well you really should, It November is National Diabetes Month and November 14th is International Diabetes Day.
Postal Worker: Well, the main reason we focus so much on breast cancer is that we promote their stamp.
Me: Well, you had a stamp for diabetes awareness as well. I remember it well because my family and I bought a truck load of them.
Postal Worker: Oh.... yeah......we did.
And then I mentioned a multitude of Diabetes Month suggestions including, Blue Circles, blue lights, Blue Fridays and since I was at the United States Post Office, I mentioned The World Diabetes Post Card Exchange.
And then she promptly told me that I was holding up her line.
And then I left and went on to give the same old, same old to the folks at my CVS, and Hallmark, and Gourmet Market, and once again, nobody really seemed to care.
And that just pissed me off!
And once again I realized that because diabetes is invisible for the most part, even to those of us we clip our electronic pancreases on our hips - which 90% of the time has people thinking that it's a beeper, and that those who wear said insulin beeper are some sort of time & space continuum time traveller from 1992!
But, I digress........
A member of our DOC family knows this fact all to well. Barbara Campbell lives with diabetes, and was diagnosed with breast cancer,and she wrote an an amazing and eloquent post about the public disparity, sympathy, understanding and awareness regarding the two diseases, and I strongly suggest you read it. http://babscampbell.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/at-least-its-not-cancer/
So once again, it's up to us, the DOC to spread the word to the public, while at the same time encouraging diabetes organizations to work together to promote National Diabetes Month & International Diabetes Day.
But if anyone can make it happen, the DOC can ~
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10 comments:
This is so funny! You might also appreciate a story from NPR on Sunday, which I'll include a link to. Amid Breast Cancer Month, Is There Pink Fatigue? http://n.pr/pts7Ue . In my mind, I also see Barbara Ehrenreich's points as well. Beebe Gallini is a more colorful character, though!!
It pisses me off too. Yesterday, I was behind a car that had a sticker with a pink ribbon that said, "Save the Ta-tas". I was thinking how boobs are so much better positioned to get love than pancreases despite the fact that people are probably more likely to know someone with diabetes than breast cancer, and are more likely to personally affected by diabetes. It's fine if everyone wants to go crazy with pink in October because any kind of cancer is a good cause, but some blue love in November doesn't seem like a lot to ask. As you observed, people just don't care though. I don't get it. *sigh*
Great post, K2. This gets at me too, and I'm eager to do more about it. One of our community's main issues is that even with all the Blue-wearing and embracing, so often the message behind that blue gets lost... Blue is a more common color, after all, and who's to know or even think we're wearing it for a particular reason - aside from it just being a snazzy clothing color. That's why I wear my pin and bracelet and have some visible sign displaying my Blue-wearing is because of diabetes, and that sparks more awareness. Same with the blue monuments... if something is just blue, people in some places might not be any wiser that it signifies a cause like pink does for Breast Cancer. The more we get the message out, the more people will know of it and be aware. Good job writing about this and spreading word locally, as much as you can.
I feel the same way. I love and support the Breast Cancer Awareness month...but sometimes feel a little left out that not much is done for not only diabetes, but heart disease (which I also have). Heart Disease is the #1 killer of women, and yet there is not nearly the awareness that is there for Breast Cancer. I personally believe that there is a stigma still associated with Heart Disease and Diabetes such as "if you would have taken better care of yourself-this would not have happened to you". Thanks for your post...its good to see that I am not alone.
i love a good pop culture reference! :)
and yeah i agree with everything here. my husband wears his blue circle pin on his suits and gets so many comments on it. way to go for trying to raise awareness in your local community. i guess we can just keep on keepin on.
By the way, we need more support from the IDF which owns the marketing rights to the blue circle. Have you seen how restrictive they on using the blue circle (see http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org/) if you haven't. That's not an invitation to get everyone to wear blue IMHO.
Great post Kelly! Thanks for linking to mine as well. In my conversations and advocacy, I think the problem also lies in that people hear the word cancer and they immediately think you could die. As I stated in my post, most people were shocked when told that I am more likely to die from diabetes than from my breast cancer. It's definitely a matter of education and being consistant with our message. It certainly helps to have a large organization, like Susan G Komen, fighting as well.
C'mon IDF, we NEED you!
Yep...I've been thinking a lot about this lately too. I've been working at the same place for the last 5 years with a team of nurses. My little girl was diagnosed with T1 about 6 months after I started working there and I've gotten very little support as far as spreading awareness and fundraising for JDRF or ADA. However, we've recently got a co-worker diagnosed with breast cancer and everyone seems to be jumping to do fundraisers, etc for her. While I do feel it's important to support her and spread awareness about breast cancer, I feel that my efforts for T1 have been left in the dust. I think it's important to work together to support our causes as they are ALL important...not just the ones that seem to get all the media hype.
Yep...I've been thinking a lot about this lately too. I've been working at the same place for the last 5 years with a team of nurses. My little girl was diagnosed with T1 about 6 months after I started working there and I've gotten very little support as far as spreading awareness and fundraising for JDRF or ADA. However, we've recently got a co-worker diagnosed with breast cancer and everyone seems to be jumping to do fundraisers, etc for her. While I do feel it's important to support her and spread awareness about breast cancer, I feel that my efforts for T1 have been left in the dust. I think it's important to work together to support our causes as they are ALL important...not just the ones that seem to get all the media hype.
Because the normal person doesn't hear about people dying from diabetes all the time, add that people think we all caused it ourselves, and you get this attitude that Diabetes Awareness Month doesn't matter. It's sad. But we keep on. I know we're making a difference. I don't know that I'd keep doing what I do if it weren't for that fact. I blog for the connection to the D-OC, but I also blog because SOMEONE is going to search "diabetes" on the internet and perhaps they'll come across my blog and learn something true about diabetes.
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