“Cancer is not a pink ribbon, it is a public health crisis.” A group of women with breast cancer gathered in six cities in Spain – Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Donosti, Valencia and Pontevedra – to demand more public investment, earlier detection, lowering of the screening age and, in the midst of the debate on “flexible sick leave”, a “thorough review of workplace measures”. “Let no woman be left behind because of where she lives, her economic situation or lack of support,” her manifesto says.
Around a hundred of these women gathered in front of the Ministry of Science and Innovation in Madrid. “All cancers are brown”, “more research for those who were, for those who are and for those who will be” were some of the slogans and demands displayed on the participants’ banners.
“We are tired of typical campaigns that try to sell through pink. They label us with a color, but more than a color, we are mothers, friends, patients, sisters, grandmothers, aunts who suffer every day from this disease. “We want to see our children grow up and we want to wake up one day knowing that the fear is behind us because we have a future full of research,” the protesters demanded.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in Spain. 6,677 people died in 2023 and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) estimates that almost 36,400 patients will be diagnosed next year.
The organizers recalled that breast cancer is a disease “which leaves physical and emotional consequences for life” and called for a “more realistic and more human approach” to treatments. “These include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, mastectomy, reconstruction, ovarian removal, lymphedema, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, treatments like hormone therapy for 5 or 10 years or sometimes chronic” , they emphasize.
They also criticize the “pinkwashing” that some companies use to promote their products and services: “Only a small part of these revenues goes to research, a large part of which goes to the laboratories themselves who then benefit from the treatments we need . ” live. »
“We demand that private companies stop capitalizing on a disease with promotions in which a small part of all the profits they make are donated,” the women gathered in Madrid also demanded. “They are playing with an illness and a reality that many people experience. Furthermore, this type of promotion makes the user and patient responsible for donations, while serious institutional investment in research and science is needed for this to be eradicated,” they insist.
