First Lady Helps Turn Capitol Fountain Pink
First Lady Suan Corbett
Pink is the Color of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the pink fountain is a visual reminder of the importance of mammograms and early detection. “When you see the pink fountain outside, I hope you all remember that we can beat this disease if we take the time to have that early screening,” says First Lady Susan Corbett, who shared her own mother’s breast cancer survival story. “So I’m going to ask each of you to be that person who takes someone by the hand and encourages them to have a mammogram.”
The numbers drive home Mrs. Corbett’s point that early detection is the best way to fight the disease. “When breast cancer is found at its earliest stages – which it can be with a mammogram – the survival rate is 95 – 98%,” PA Breast Cancer Coalition executive director Heather Hibshman explained in an interview with Radio PA.
Every day 32 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Pennsylvania. “It blows me away,” Hibshman says. “Everybody seems to know somebody with breast cancer, and with numbers like that I believe it. We need to get that number down to zero.”
Pennsylvania is home to 140,000 breast cancer survivors who will be marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
