Months of planning have come to a fruition as the Budget was presented in parliament. But while the political class of the nation was engrossed in what measures will affect who, there are a groupd of people in Malta nd beyond our shores who will have been worrying about something completely different. That something is the ‘C’ word – cancer.

One in four of us will be touched by cancer at some point in our lives. Our terrible diets, propensity to pop pills for any given ailment and thee pollution that we live in day after day has driven cancer rates skyward.

This month is Pinkoctober, the month dedicated to breast cancer awareness. As you might have noticed, The Malta Independent has featured the pink ribbon on its front page since the beginning of the month, a small way to support the ongoing awareness campaign to alert women to the possibility of their contracting cancer of the breast.

We believe that for awareness to truly take root, we must all stop staring at the elephant in the room and start talking about it. Breast cancer is a reality. It can hit young women, middle-aged women and older women. It does not discriminate.

Each day, our bodies kill off cells that could potentially one day mutate into cancer. But sometimes, our bodies do not recognise cancer and the being takes hold. This is why the first step is for women, and their partners, to be aware of what breasts should look and feel like. There is no shame in it. Women should examine themselves often, and consult with material to see what looks or feels abnormal. It could be a bump, a lump, a lesion or just a growth. These are all potential cases of cancer. The government has introduced mammogram screening, and while this is helpful, there are other things which can be done, including breast ultrasounds which can identify cancers which are sometimes missed in mammograms.

If caught in time, breast cancer is highly survivable. With a combination of holistic therapy and chemo therapy, lumps can sometimes be shrunk until they no longer pose a threat. In other cases, a mastectomy or even a double mastectomy might have to be performed. Breasts are a very important part of a woman’s physiology and removal does sometimes have a devastating impact on a woman’s self worth. But society has become a lot more understanding, and there are plastic surgery options to rebuild them, along with tattooing for cosmetic purposes.

Far too many lives are lost to cancer. This type is treatable and curable if detected early enough. This is why we should all support the activities to raise awareness about breast cancer.