From Our Publisher: Why We're Pink

NYC Community Media Publisher Jennifer Goodstein.

NYC Community Media Publisher Jennifer Goodstein.

 

A message from the new president of CNG:

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a time for all of us to redouble our efforts to eradicate the second-leading killer of women in the United States.

When my husband and I bought Community News Group in June, we realized we were taking on a big responsibility. Our publications reach more than a million New Yorkers each week, offering us a broad platform to support causes that can impact our readers and wider communities.

We are a family who lives and works in New York City, and we are committed to giving back to the communities we serve. Our pink edition for Breast Cancer Awareness Month is just the first step towards meeting that goal.

Like most people, we have had friends and family who have battled cancer, including a close friend who has survived three bouts with breast cancer.

Anyone who has watched the impact of this terrible disease on sufferers and their loved ones understands the urgent need to find a cure.

The numbers from the American Cancer Society are sobering:

• One in eight women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.

• More than 630 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every day.

• Nearly 110 of them die every 24 hours.

• Around 430 men will lose their lives to breast cancer this year.

The good news is that better early detection and treatment therapies are boosting survival rates.

We are pleased to note that some of the best work against breast cancer is being done in the metropolitan area. Our medical institutions are pushing the limits of possibility with their surgical excellence, playing pivotal roles in discovering the genes that cause breast cancer, leading to surgical techniques that are now treatment gold standards.

pink-ribbon-coverAt the grass-roots level, a groundswell of community support is financing critical breast cancer studies with innovative fund-raisers around town.

Thanks to the support of our advertisers, we’re donating $7,500 — and will provide free promotional services — to the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” campaign, whose annual October walk at locations in each of the five borough raised nearly $6 million last year to help battle the disease.

Community News Group is proud to partner with Maimonides Medical Center, Eastchester Center for Cancer Care, Aviator Sports and Events Center, Coney Island Hospital, Estée Lauder Companies, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens County Savings Bank, Winthrop University Hospital and all of this week’s advertisers in presenting our commemorative pink edition in honor of the Pink Ribbon campaign founded by the Estée Lauder Companies that is now recognized as a worldwide symbol of breast health.

We hope our pink papers will encourage our readers to turn to their families and friends and ask if they have been screened, or offer to go with them for this critical, life-saving examination.Jennifer Goodstein

This article originally appeared as part of Community News Group's recognition of October Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Gay City News continues to examine issues of breast cancer in the following issues in October.