I love the month of October because when I turn on my TV on Sunday afternoons the football field is decorated in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The pink gloves, coins, shoes and ribbons are raising awareness of the Crucial Catch Campaign, a partnership between the NFL and the American Cancer Society to encourage women to get their annual mammogram beginning at age 40.
ACS CAN is also a part of the campaign, so while the NFL is raising awareness on the field, the two groups are working together to engage Congress in the fight against breast cancer. Specifically we're asking Congress to support the CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, a lifesaving program that has provided free early detection tests to thousands of uninsured low-income women for over twenty years. In fact, this month marks the 10 millionth screening through this program! You might remember the event we held to commemorate this milestone earlier this month with Tanya Snyder, breast cancer survivor and wife of Redskins Owner Dan Snyder.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the current funding levels for this program allow fewer than one in five eligible women to get screenings. Greater funding of this program will permit more detection and help to save more lives of the women we love. That's why ACS CAN and the NFL are appealing directly to Congress through a new print ad that will run in D.C. this week. We're raising awareness for this issue on and off the field.
Even as Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, ACS CAN will keep working year-round, across the country and with both state and federal lawmakers, to advance the public policies we know will reduce the burden of breast cancer.