Pink is Amy Wadsworth's favorite color. But when she entered a wig store decorated pink for October -- Breast Cancer Month -- in 2010, she felt that the "awareness" display was revolting.
She was undergoing chemotherapy at the time for breast cancer and had just buzzed off her hair in anticipation of losing it all.
"It doesn't feel like a pretty pink ribbon, is what it kind of amounted to. There's nothing pretty about this," says Wadsworth, 31, of South Thomaston, Maine, remembering her cancer journey. "It's traumatizing. It leaves a little hollow place."
Now that Wadsworth is cancer-free and feeling healthy after seven rounds of chemo and a double-mastectomy, her attitude flipped. She loves the prominent appreciation for breast cancer awareness this month and hopes to one day have her own breast cancer fund to focus on holistic treatments.
Awareness is a tricky thing.
Some women who have been through breast cancer embrace the outreach activities this month, participating in races and other fundraising events. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is perhaps the most recognizable player here, using the color pink and pink ribbons to promote various ways of raising money and "awareness."
Not everyone feels part of the pinkness.
Women with metastatic cancer, which has spread beyond the breast and is more likely to be fatal, sometimes feel left out when the focus of awareness is on curable, small tumors, says Christopher Friese, an oncology nurse and assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing.
"The clear message is that breast cancer is not a single, or a simple, story," Friese said. "Depending on the stage and the involvement of the tumor, the story could be very different for women at various stages of breast cancer."
There are women such as Ann Silberman of Sacremento, Calif., who aren't necessarily on a road to recovery.
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