Blog carnival: For the women who hold up my world

I prevent cancer for all of the amazing women in my family who devote their lives to helping others. We live in a pink-washed world where breast cancer awareness blankets the United States every October, but every month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month when you have a family history of breast cancer – as I am reminded every time I visit my doctor.

The women in my family are smart, powerful and socially conscious. My mother got her masters degree in electrical engineering and became a public school teacher because she wanted to inspire young women to study math and science and give them the kind of support so many girls never find in STEM fields. My aunt can’t see a stray dog on the street without feeling the urge to feed and care for it until it finds a home and has five dogs as a result. My sister has spent her free time coaching and refereeing youth soccer games for as long as I can remember because she wants to share her love of the sport with others and provide them with a safe environment in which to learn the game. All of these women give so much to their friends, family and communities. I prevent cancer because they deserve to have someone looking out for them too.

I prevent cancer because there are hundreds of thousands of women out there like them who make the lives of everyone around them better – women we couldn’t get by without. I want to see all of the amazing things that these women will do for those around them and how they will change the world we live in – so I prevent cancer because over 225,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the end of 2013 and, as far as I’m concerned, that’s too many.

This post is part of the Prevent Cancer blog carnival.