Going pink to help their moms
dubai — While the tallest tower in the world went pink to celebrate the month for breast cancer awareness, students as young as seven have been busy doing their bit to create awareness about self examinations.
It is true that 80 per cent of lumps are detected by a simple self examination, and if the mother knows how to do it on her own then 400,000 breast cancer deaths could be avoided annually.
And kids are the most powerful people to pester them to do it do it since mothers are usually too busy to take care of themselves. A campaign, Protect Your Mom (PYM), aims to do just that by targeting children and helping them organise events in their own schools around the world.
Founded by Dubai-based Indian expat Premi Mathew, PYM campaign invites student leaders of all schools and universities to host similar events to beat the dreaded disease. The PYM website has already got standardised instructions on how to conduct a PYM event. “Students build their confidence and leadership skills organising such events while simultaneously creating awareness about self examinations which could help detect breast cancer before it is too late,” she said.
Grade 11 student Paridhi Gupta is one such PYM brand ambassador who held a campaign at Cambridge International School, Dubai, from October 23 to 26.
“We went on to organise a Pink Fair with games and activities that helped us raise a lot of money. Children as young as six and seven were helping us make a huge mural with pink handprints forming leaves on our tree of hope,” Paridhi said.
The school’s music club converted the original lyrics written by a cancer patient into a beautiful song that enthralled the audience. Students also took the PYM pledge to make their mothers take a selfexamination every month.
After the celebrations, the school raised Dh4,500 with the requisite legal permission to pay for treatment of survivors via Brest Friends and Al Jalila Foundation.
saman@khaleejtimes.com