Student group raising breast cancer awareness all month long

Matt Lofgren

Kent State’s Colleges Against Cancer group has been celebrating breast cancer awareness month by being a presence on the second floor of the student center all week to pass out information.

Perhaps the most important information CAC had to offer was a gel mold of what to feel for during a self-exam for breast cancer.

“It’s very important for women to know how to do self-exams and when you should get mammograms or what you should do if you find something during a self-exam,” CAC President Allison Snyder said. “Over 80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease. So, women often think they don’t need to do self-exams or they don’t need to have mammograms before the age of 40 because no one in their family has ever had breast cancer. But the truth is, all women are at risk.”

Anchor Stacey Frey of Fox 8 News recently was diagnosed with breast cancer. CAC member Sarah Sweeney said this also helped raise awareness.

“Personally when I think about celebrities that have (breast cancer), I never want to say it’s a good thing, but it makes people realize that ‘oh, it can happen to anyone,’” Sweeney said. “Not only can it happen to anyone, but it gets the word out to support it, to help it, to raise money. It’s absolutely not a good thing that she got it, but it does raise awareness to the cause.”

With the trivia game “bra pong” at the table, students took a fun approach to learning more about the deadliest cancer for women. If a student correctly answered a breast cancer trivia question, the student could then shoot a ping-pong ball into different bras for a chance to win prizes.

Members of CAC began breast cancer awareness month by selling pink shirts to raise money for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Akron on Oct. 7. In total, Snyder said CAC raised more than $800.

After the walk, CAC members prepared for Pink Week in Kent. Several members painted the rock on campus pink Monday to signify the cause.

Since then, Snyder and Sweeney, as well as vice president Brenynn Butler, freshman biology major Kaitlyn Gearhart and senior architecture major Tameka Sims, have been working at the Student Center, spreading the word and preparing for the group’s biggest event: Relay for Life in the spring.

Members of CAC will be in the Student Center through 3 p.m. Friday.

Contact Matt Lofgren at [email protected].