The pink ribbon that seems to wrap around the planet every October is widely regarded as the official symbol of breast cancer - at least the female variety. It is easily recognizable, has a strong psychological appeal, and its origins are described below.
In the early 1990s, a woman named Charlotte Haley began making handmade peach ribbons. Her daughter, sister, and grandmother all had breast cancer. She distributed thousands of ribbons in supermarkets with cards that read: "The National Cancer Institute's annual budget is $1.8 billion; only 5 percent goes to cancer prevention. Help us wake up our lawmakers and America by wearing this ribbon.
Word spread, and Haley was approached by companies and media outlets for permission to use her ribbon and message, but she turned them down because she felt it was too corporate. But "Self" really wanted her ribbon. The magazine consulted its lawyers and was advised to find a different color. It chose pink, a color that focus groups had found to be soothing, comforting and healing. Soon, Charlotte Haley's grassroots peach ribbon was history, and her original idea became the pink ribbon that has become the global symbol of breast cancer.
It's a crusade that should unite us all at every level. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, pink ribbons appear on everything from snack packs and cereal boxes to T-shirts, shopping bags and children's socks at Little League games. That pink ribbon, after all, is the pretty tie that sits on top of the box in which the gift of life was wrapped and the hope of a cure waited to be released - the perfect gift for each of us who knows cancer all too well.
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