In my office today, many people are wearing jeans. Many people are wearing jeans in an office that does not have Jeans Day on Friday. Why are we bucking the tradition? Because they were awesome enough to allow people here to wear jeans with a donation of five bucks towards a breast cancer charity – either my favorite, the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (to support me) or to any other organization, if they had one they preferred.
Can I just take a minute to say how AWESOME this is?
So, I thought I’d spread this around a bit – because chances are, you’re wearing jeans at work or at home today and you want to donate five bucks to fight breast cancer, that would be awesome. If you need a few more reasons… here’s FIVE.
1. Every three minutes there is a new diagnosis of invasive breast cancer.
That’s a lot. That’s too much. Within the past year, a family friend was diagnosed with a very aggressive breast cancer. She’s younger than me. Friends have had members of their family fighting the disease. There’s a tremendous advantage to awareness and early detection – but whoa if that number of people diagnosed isn’t staggering. It’s too many. It’s an awful disease that needs a cure.
2. Every 13 minutes a life is lost to breast cancer.
Early detection means more people are kicking this disease’s butt… but EVERY 13 MINUTES. Think about that number for a second. It’s devastating.
3. Early detection helps save lives.
The Avon Walk doesn’t just fund research. It funds programs to get treatment for those who are fighting the disease. BUT it also helps promote early detection. In 2011, outreach programs navigated more than 125,000 people into mammography screening and clinical breast exams in 2011 and reached a half million people with critical education and information (*source: Avonwalk.org).
4. Because I’ve already walked nearly 120 miles to fight breast cancer.
And this year I’ll walk 39.3 more. And next year, another 39.3. I’ll keep walking because I believe the work I do fundraising, blogging about, tweeting about, talking about – it all makes a difference. Avon has a saying, “In it to end it.” And I am. I have friends fighting breast cancer. I have friends who are survivors. And I walk for them. But not just for them – I walk for my daughters, so they never have to fear a breast cancer diagnosis. I walk for your daughters. Your moms. Your sisters. Your friends. And not just the women, because you know? Men can get breast cancer too.
5. And if those reasons weren’t enough – you should donate because I’ll be sending something awesome to one randomly selected donor.
If you are more motivated by fun stuff (and sometimes, hey, fun stuff is a motivator) – I’ll be randomly selecting one person who has donated to me this week – be it a $5 donation or a $500 donation – and sending something cool. Something from me and my heart and outta my own pocket – because I appreciate your support and your love.
Click HERE to donate. Your support makes a difference.
Join me in the fight against breast cancer.
My other half has done the marathon midnight walk in London twice – the “Moon Walk” – or as everybody calls it the “Boob Walk”, because everybody does it in their bra…