Concerned Citizen

In 2015, an estimated 60,200 cases of non-invasive carcinoma – the “earliest form of breast cancer” -- and over 231,800 cases of invasive carcinoma were diagnosed in America. And it is estimated that both of those numbers will only rise for 2016. That’s about one of every eight American women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives¹.

For women, breast cancer has proven to be one of the most lethal of diagnoses, as it is the second-most common cancerous diagnosis among American women, other than skin cancer, and has higher death rates than any other cancer besides lung cancer. Ultimately, this meant that even though death rates amongst breast cancer patients have been decreasing since the late 1980’s – when awareness first began spreading like wildfire – approximately 40,000 women died of breast cancer in 2015². That’s like the entire population of Brigham Young University, including students, staff, and faculty³.

Thankfully, the waves of breast cancer awareness have done a lot to help fight the cancer, both here in the US, and abroad. Campaigns in bright pink have spread across first-world nations rapidly over the past few decades, largely through independent, nonprofit organizations⁴. One of the most local was started through a survivor herself, Ms. Becky.

Becky, with the help of her sister, Brenda, and best friend, Denise, has been able to not only defeat her own diagnosis of cancer, but come to the aid of hundreds of others⁵. The three of them got the bug for advocacy when Becky first started undergoing treatments, and in one fell swoop, rose over $30,000 for her medical bills. Their success triggered the idea to start the Anything For A Friend charity. Since early 2010, Anything For A Friend has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and has sponsored dozens of friends, family, and strangers, inciting the support of local TV stations, marathons, universities, newspapers, and politicians all across the state of Utah⁵.

This was one of those cool stories about some of those cool people who “get off their couches” and go out and do things. This isn’t some bake sale to help the fourth grade class fund a field trip to the science museum; this has saved lives. We thought Becky was more concerned about her society than most people we know, and, further, has positively affected it on a grand scale.

It is amazing, first of all, that Becky and the trio had the drive and the guts to start something -- especially since Becky herself, is a survivor. It is equally amazing, however, that it is through small, self-motivated, nonprofit funds like Anything For A Friend that do the majority of the advocacy work. Sure, they get some tax deductions⁶. But even then, the money they save from their tax returns typically goes straight into the blogs of the people they are sponsoring. It made us curious; why do they have to pull the cart and push it, too? Isn’t there that whole pink bracelet thing? Why isn’t that enough?

A Google search of “breast cancer awareness” pulls up over 8 million results. All of them are either a) links to heavily-advertised prescription medication websites, b) informational self-diagnosis or Wiki-How sites, or c) nonprofit blogs. Turns out, Anything For A Friend is only one in a million. The National Breast Cancer Foundation (the “big one”, with all the pink stuff), apparently, is only a minor ally in the fight against breast cancer⁷. This would be like if everyone at BYU (the ones who originally died) started their own individual charities for themselves, relied on their blogs to be successful, didn’t die, and then turned around and used their charity blogs to support and sustain the other 200k people also diagnosed and struggling to afford therapies every year. All without any pink bracelets³.

We wanted to hear, from her own voice, her thoughts on all of this. What was it like fighting cancer yourself? What were you thinking when you started this organization? What has been the hardest thing about sponsoring it? Was there ever a time when you were inspired by one of the patients you helped fund?

Her voice, as we anticipated, is amazing. We thought it would be powerful to make an audio piece, highlighting her amazing voice as part of the crowd of people in similar situations as her who are doing the amazing things that she is doing of their own initiative. It is her voice, combined with the efforts and voices of the 8 million others like her, that have made the difference for the survivors.

Hear what she had to tell us. 

1. "Infographics." Cancer. N.p., 01 Jan. 0001. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

2. "U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics | Breastcancer.org." Breastcancer.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

3. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

4. "Models Of Courage." Models of Courage. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

5. "Mission." Anything For A Friend. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.anythingforafriend.com/about-us>.

6. Existing Organizations. IRS, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <https://www.stayexempt.irs.gov/Existing-Organizations),>.

7. “About Breast Cancer :: The National Breast Cancer Foundation.” Www.nationalbreastcancer.org. N.p., n.d. Web 29 Mar. 2016. http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/about-breast-cancer.