It’s a pink wave that will sweep over the Manchois terrain throughout the month of October. 8,000 licensed sportswomen in a club received pink laces they will wear for Pink October, a breast cancer awareness operation. A distribution organized with the main sports committees of the department: football, handball, basketball and physical education and voluntary gymnastics (EPGV).
Sport, a good ground to raise awareness about breast cancer
“Sport is recognized as a vector of good health and public health”, explains Sylvain Letouzé, development officer at the Departmental Olympic and Sports Committee of La Manche (CDOS). A good ground to approach breast cancer. “It’s a difficult subject, but by bringing it through the world of sport, we make it a little more accessible.”
Especially that in sports committees, all generations are represented. “It goes from four years to more than 100 years! We have grandmothers, mothers, daughters and granddaughters”, observes Sylvain Letouzé. And even if it is women aged 50 to 74 who are most at risk of developing breast cancer, it was important for the CPAM, on the initiative of this operation, to raise awareness of all ages.
Achieve 70% screening of 50-74 year olds
“No woman is safe from developing cancer, even before the age of 50”, underlines Hélène Bouazza, innovation manager at the CPAM de la Manche. In France, one in eight women develops breast cancerduring its life, but detected early, it is cured in 90% of cases. “In the department, 57.10% of women aged 50 to 74 are screened, this is above the national average, but we would like to reach the European objective of 70%.”
To raise awareness of this screening, actions are planned for the whole month of October in the Channel. From this Sunday, races are organized in Cherbourg (with the return of the Cherbourgeoise) and Agon-Coutainville (with the Pink March).