Senator Parker Recognizes October As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

(Brooklyn, NY) - Senator Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) today announced that October 2013 is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and encouraged Central Brooklyn residents to take the time to promote breast cancer awareness and early detection.

“Today we recognize October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but I urge all New Yorkers to join me in saving lives by spreading the message not only in the month of October but all year round,” said Senator Parker. . “As we know, Breast cancer is usually not fatal if discovered early and treated, but more than 2,600 women lose their lives each year, many of whose deaths could have been prevented increasing public awareness of practices that lead to early detection and treatment, and ensuring that treatment is available to more New Yorkers.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, other than skin cancer, for women in the United States, and it is second only to lung cancer as the most deadly.  Excluding skin cancer, nearly 1 in 4 cancers diagnosed in women is breast cancer. Though 95% of diagnoses are in women aged 40 and up, younger women and roughly 2,000 men are annually diagnosed with this disease.

In New York State, between 14,000 and 15,300 women battle breast cancer each year, and where breast cancer is discovered early through frequent mammograms and self-exams, outcomes improve dramatically.

“Breast cancer is a terrible disease and we need to make every effort to reduce mortality rates and to someday find a cure. That is why I introduced a bill this year (S-1352) that would establish a distinctive "Pink Ribbon" license plate and provide for the use of the service charge for breast cancer education and support,” concluded Parker, a five-term Brooklyn legislator. 

For more information about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please visit:

http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/cancer/breast/index.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/

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About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse Brooklyn community that consists of 318,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope.  He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee and Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Assistant Democratic Leader for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Chair of the Democratic Task Force on New Americans.

Contact: Sonia. A. M. Daly | SDaly@nysenate.gov | 718-629-6401 ph | 347-699-0693 cell