Cancer Lesson 10-9A: A guest post by my friend Pat Rainey
You may notice the lesson number is out of sequence. That’s because 10/9 was the day Pat got her first all clear scan after surgery and chemo.

English: A teal ribbon, which is an awareness ribbon for Ovarian cancer and Sexual assault (Photo credit: Wikipedia)after surgery and chemo. Now, that’s a definite rave!  

It Doesn’t Matter What
Color the Ribbon Is

It sure is pink a lot this month–almost everywhere, and that’s great!  It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we should see pink wherever we turn.  But let’s not forget some of the rarer, lesser-seen cancers that we should also keep in mind.  Here’s a link to a chart of many of the different cancers and their support colors:  http://www.rose-colored-glasses.com/colors.html 

No matter what comes before it, breast, colon, prostate, liver, ovarian, CANCER is a scary word and the second question you ask yourself is “How did these rogue cells get into MY body?”  Sometimes you can figure out why; most of the time there is no answer to that question.  Suddenly you look around for your color of ribbon and you hope to see it everywhere so you know people are trying NOT to let it happen to the next unsuspecting person.  You buy a few new pieces for your wardrobe, or a new shade of nail polish to remind yourself (as if you could forget) of a new obligation on your part–to advocate, pay it forward, and protect the next person from having to go through what you’re facing.

The lavender ribbon is the support color for ALL cancer awareness, and maybe we should paint the world lavender.  Or maybe we should each educate ourself in our specific colors and do what we can to advocate for more research, more funding, better treatments.  Often, a drug or treatment that is useful for one type of cancer can be used to treat another kind, or modified to target a different cancer cell.  Progress IS being made every day, and whatever color ribbon we wear, any advancement is an accomplishment.

Kym’s note: As a good example of what Pat’s talking about, I was unable to find royalty-free clip-art of a lavender ribbon. I chose teal because last month was Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and I saw very little of the color anywhere.  The only exception I’m aware of was a partnership of Avon Books and the Ovarian Cancer Alliance. http://www.ovariancancer.org/2011/07/14/kiss-and-teal-books-available/
Another great excuse to read romance!