October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we’ll be featuring this important theme at Beck’s Cafe throughout the balance of October.  It’s an important topic from the politics of research to our personal health.  I’ll never forget the words of Dr. Susan Love at the 2009 Fenway Health Women’s Dinner.  She said that researchers she had worked with hadn’t found women for some of their research on breast cancer so they figured they’d just use rats instead.  Rats???  Well I nearly dropped my chocolate dessert (ahh, but the night wasn’t over).

That’s when Dr. Love presented to all us 1000+ women the concept of recruiting 1 million women to be a part of her Army of Women so that proper research could be done with women themselves on breast cancer.  Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.   Here are Dr. Love’s words herself on this incredible initiative (taken from The Army of Women site):

“Over and over I’ve heard scientists lament how difficult it is for them to find the volunteers they need for research studies. I’ve long believed that helping scientists overcome this obstacle would accelerate our understanding of what causes breast cancer and how to end it. By responding to this need, the Army of Women will change the face of breast cancer research.”

And here’s how this initiative works (by the way, about this point in the Fenway Dinner, while listening to Dr. Love challenge us all to join her Army of Women, I actually did drop my chocolate dessert right onto the floor next to my shoe. Only fate saved me from destroying my dress or that of my companion Diane!).

• Women who are interested register on the Love/Avon Army of Women website, providing very basic information such as name, age, city, and state of residence.
• You will receive email updates from the Love/Avon Army of Women announcing new research studies looking for volunteers just like you. The email will detail the research project and who and what the researchers need.
• If you fit the criteria and you’d like to participate, all you need to do is click “Yes Sign Me Up”, this lets us know you’ve accepted our “Call to Action”.  From there, you will be asked to log-in to your account and then directed to the next steps.
• If you accept the Call to Action by clicking “Yes, Sign Me Up”, you will be asked a couple of screening questions to make sure you qualify for the study.
• Once we confirm your qualification for the specific study, your information will be given to the researcher conducting the study and you will be contacted by the researcher for a secondary screening to make sure you meet the study criteria and answer any questions you might have about study participation.
• You will never be pressured to take part in any study. The decision to take part is yours — and yours alone. If you meet the study criteria as determined by the researcher and are interested in taking part, the study researcher will let you know what you need to do next.

You can still sign up and be a part of the army!  Just jog your mouse on over to The Army Of Women and enlist!  And many thanks to the Avon Foundation For Women for funding.