The Pink Ribbon is About the Message - Not Necessarily the Cure

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity defines its mission as finding a cure for breast cancer.

For thirty years people have been gathering to "race for the Cure"

This entry is NOT about dissing those helped by Komen.
This entry is NOT about dissing those who feel that Komen has been of benefit to them.

I understand breast cancer - I have five friends that have had to deal with the challenges of breast cancer - 
I would not do the Komen race - cause it's not about "a cure".

This entry is about education -
Knowing where your money goes when you support a walker -
   It is not necessarily about the Cure!!
   It's about promoting hope - messaging

It probably hasn't been about "the cure" for over twenty years.
The money raised is about increasing Komen messaging - about getting and keeping the Komen name out there - to raise more money.
If there was a "cure" - Komen would be obsolete and Komen has recognized that fact.

I have not been a fan of Koman and their walks for about two decades.
I have an extremely hard time accepting the fact that an organziation that brings in OBSCENE amounts of money - has not made more strides towards a cure for breast cancer.

This week I found out why.

Snips from Salon this past week: 

Komen, already under fire for shrinking contributions for breast cancer research, paid its CEO $684,000 last year

Brinker made “$684,717 in fiscal 2012, a 64 percent jump from her $417,000 salary from April 2010 to March 2011.”

it’s considerably more than the average nonprofit CEO salary of $132,739.

Turns out that in 2011, it spent just 15 percent of its donations on research — nearly half of what it did just a few years prior.

Snips from Reuters

The organization's 2011 financial statement reports that 43 percent of donations were spent on education, 18 percent on fund-raising and administration, 15 percent on research awards and grants, 12 percent on screening and 5 percent on treatment. (Various other items accounted for the rest.)

 

"What they're best at is awareness, which you could also call publicity," she said. "Getting out the word that breast cancer exists is what they excel at - that and raising money. But if your mantra is 'end breast cancer,' screening isn't going to do it."

About the “Research 

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity defines its mission as finding a cure for breast cancer. In recent years, however, it has cut by nearly half the proportion of fund-raising dollars it spends on grants to scientists working to understand the causes and develop effective new treatments for the disease.

"It would be good if they spent more on finding the cause of breast cancer and preventing it," said breast surgeon and author Susan Love,

"They fund a lot of research on mice and rats and cell lines," she said. "But rats and mice don't get breast cancer; you have to give it to them."

That also raises doubts for some researchers about how applicable the results of lab rodent studies are to humans.

Komen, recognizing that concern, now supports studies "that have the potential to impact research and treatment in the next decade," says the cancer biologist.

IN THE NEXT DECADE?

Give me a break!

They have been raising OBSCENE amounts of money, for THIRTY years - since 1982.