Barbara Ehrenreich and Breast Cancer Action (BCA) have launched an online Flash movie and email campaign that exposes the lack of coordination among more than 30 federal agencies and dozens of private foundations and pharmaceutical companies funding research on breast cancer. The campaign marks the initial phase of BCA's Breast Cancer Puzzle Project and calls for greater coordination of research funding.
The campaign launched in time for October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which BCA calls Breast Cancer Industry Month. During October hundreds of organizations and companies-from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to Avon-will host events raising money for breast cancer. The email and Flash movie point out that despite the estimated millions of dollars pouring into breast cancer research, no one knows exactly how much money is being raised and spent every year, or where all the money is going.
"What we do know is that far too many of us are getting and dying from this disease. We can't let this fractured approach to breast cancer research continue," says Barbara Brenner, Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action. "Solving breast cancer is like a jigsaw puzzle. But currently, the researchers and funders aren't looking at the big picture and working to fit the pieces together." Brenner was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and again in 1996, after which she had a mastectomy. Since her first diagnosis, she has focused her personal and political efforts on ensuring that the next generation of women will not face the same scourge of breast cancer facing women today.
Despite all the research conducted for breast cancer during the 20 years since corporations created Breast Cancer Awareness Month, breast cancer rates continue to rise. Every 2.5 minutes another woman is diagnosed. Every 13 minutes a woman dies from the disease. We need more than awareness; we need action.