Team raises cancer awareness
The girls on the Alberton volleyball team are taking a stand against breast cancer this month. The month of October is breast cancer awareness month and the girls decided as a volleyball team that they would take the opportunity to raise awareness and to also raise some funds.
Christie Rimmer, a senior on the team, said that they also did something similar last year. This year’s events will take place at the home volleyball game against Victor on Oct. 8.
Rimmer said that they are planning to decorate pink shirts to wear during the day and that the boys will wear them during the game. Rimmer said that while they are on the court playing, they’ll be wearing pink socks and pink headbands to support survivors, those fighting cancer and to raise awareness.
Fans can also get in on the action. If fans wear pink to the game on Friday night, they will receive a dollar discount on admission and the hope is that they will use that dollar to buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the six cakes that will have been decorated by the senior girls.
“Our hope is that people will use the dollar they get off admission to purchase a ticket for cakes we are raffling off,” Rimmer said. “Last year, we had one cake and it sold for thirty-six dollars. We’re hoping for a good turnout this year.”
Rimmer said that the girls on the team feel that it is important to raise awareness about breast cancer.
“We feel it’s important. As a volleyball team, we’re all girls and breast cancer runs in a lot of our families,” Rimmer said.
Rimmer said that all the money raised will go to help fight breast cancer. She said that there will also be a donation box set out during the game. Rimmer said that the team hopes fans will come out and help them fight the disease.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers. The chance of developing invasive breast cancer at some time in a woman’s life is a little less than one in eight. According to statistics listed on the American Cancer Society’s Web site, about 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in 2010, about 54,010 new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) will be diagnosed. (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer. This year, about 39,840 women will die from breast cancer.
Incidence rates for breast cancer decreased by about two percent per year from 1998 to 2007 after having increased over two decades. This decrease was seen only in women aged 50 or older, and may be due at least in part to the decline in use of hormone therapy after menopause that occurred after the results of the Women’s Health Initiative were published in 2002. This study linked the use of hormone therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer and heart diseases.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer. The chance that breast cancer will be responsible for a woman’s death is about one in 35. Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since about 1990, with larger decreases in women younger than 50. These decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening and increased awareness, as well as improved treatment.
Currently, there are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. This includes women still being treated and those who have completed treatment.