Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October

Just got this as an email...

Also, I just joined the Pink Army on Facebook...

Won't you join me?!

It's for Breast Cancer Awareness!

$25k Breast Cancer Awareness Month
challenge grant to Mayo Clinic

203,000+ Facebook Fans Join

“Pink Ribbon Army” in
major social media push for

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

TheBreastCancerSite.com, largest health and wellness page on Facebook, creates new badge application to build awareness and raise funds

Seattle: TheBreastCancerSite.com is observing Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October by creating the “Pink Ribbon Army,” a new badge application to raise awareness and fight the disease which afflicts millions of women around the world.

With more than 2.6 million fans, TheBreastCancerSite.com has the largest health and wellness page on Facebook. More than 203,000 Facebook users have already signed up to join the Pink Ribbon Army, creating a major head start towards an overall goal of one million members.

“Every two minutes, another woman is diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Lisa Halstead, Chief Operating Officer of TheBreastCancerSite.com. “The Pink Ribbon Army will harness the power of social media to fight this disease, with early detection, treatment and research.”

When the Pink Ribbon Army reaches one million, said Halstead, TheBreastCancerSite.com will donate $25,000 to the Mayo Clinic for breast cancer site research.

“Since the average Facebook user has more than 100 friends, mobilizing the Pink Ribbon Army on a million Facebook pages has the potential to reach an enormous audience with a message of hope,” said Halstead. “It’s an ambitious goal – but we’re optimistic because we’re more than 20% there, with Breast Cancer Awareness Month starting in just a few days.”

Clicks, donations and purchases from TheBreastCancerSite.com funded more than 6,900 mammograms in 2010 for women who were among the working poor, the homeless or the uninsured. “When we catch breast cancer early, we can beat it,” said Halstead. “But for women who can’t afford mammograms, the disease can be a death sentence. That’s why support from visitors to TheBreastCancerSite.com is so important.”

"We’re grateful for TheBreastCancerSite.com’s support for our research," says Edith Perez, M.D., deputy director, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "We are trying to individualize the treatment of breast cancer so that therapies are much more tailored to each patient and to the genes that are driving breast cancer in each patient. I am confident we will reach that goal, but we need philanthropy to get us there."

Facebook users will receive a free Pink Ribbon pin when they post the badge on their home page, and a free Pink Ribbon bracelet when they recruit ten friends to the Pink Ribbon Army. A “facepile” application shows users which of their Facebook friends has joined the cause.

Anyone can join by visiting Facebook and searching “Pink Ribbon Army.” A link to the new Facebook app will also appear on the TheBreastCancerSite.com

Members of the Pink Ribbon Army will be invited to visit TheBreastCancerSite.com, where they can click on the site’s pink home page button to fund mammograms in communities across the United States, in cooperation with the National Breast Cancer Foundation. A portion of all purchases from TheBreastCancerSite.com store also goes to fund mammograms.

In 2007, visitors to TheBreastCancerSite.com responded to a special challenge to fund an ultrasound machine at McCord Hospital in Durban, South Africa, enabling physicians and staff to provide timely and accurate mammograms for women in Durban and surrounding KwaZulu-Natal province.

Pink Ribbon products available at TheBreastCancerSite.com store include bracelets,baseball hats, travel mugs, casual shorts, rain boots and two-tone fleece jackets. A portion of the proceeds from every purchase offers crucial early detection of breast cancer, by providing free mammograms to women who otherwise could not afford them.

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About the GreaterGood Network, TheBreastCancerSite.com, and GreaterGood.org:

TheBreastCancerSite.com is part of the GreaterGood Network, a suite of websites which provide visitors with simple online ways to protect the health of people, animals and the planet. GreaterGood.org, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Seattle, distributes all donations from the affiliated sites, which include, in addition to TheBreastCancerSite.com, TheHungerSite.com, TheAnimalRescueSite.com, TheVeterans Site.com, TheAutismSite.com, TheChild HealthSite.com, TheLiteracySite.com, and TheRainforestSite.com

So far in 2011, GreaterGood.org has given more than $2.2 million to 106 charities operating in the United States and around the world.