How is it October already? I swear, I feel like it was just the beginning of summer. October is a month that I love and hate at the same time.
I love October because the fall colors really show. It is high school football games and bonfires. It is trips to the cider mill and Halloween. It is post-season baseball and sweatshirt weather.
My mother and my grandmother both passed away from breast cancer in October, so I hate it for that. I do believe that it is ironic that they passed in October, though. If you were not aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Every year I was in radio, I always made sure that I was involved in a Breast Cancer event. It may have been a motorcycle club doing a ride for breast cancer or a classic car show. Sometimes it was at a clinic or hospital where free mammograms were being done.
From breastcancer.org:
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women in the U.S. Each year, about 32% of all newly diagnosed cancers in women are breast cancer.
- In 2025, approximately 316,950 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, with 59,080 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which is non-invasive.
- About 16% of women with breast cancer are younger than 50 years of age.
- About 66% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at a localized stage — before cancer has spread outside of the breast — when treatments tend to work better.
- There are currently more than four million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment.
- About 42,170 women will die from breast cancer in 2025.
- Less than 1% of all breast cancers occur in men.
- Approximately 1 in 8 women (13%) in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in their life.
Early detection is so important. If you are a woman, I encourage you to get your yearly mammogram. Please don’t wait.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 