Children urged to protect mums from cancer
Initiative seeks help of youngsters and get them to push their mothers to go for a mammogram
Breast cancer is something that the people only bother about in the month of October, which is interesting because cancer kills thousands of people every year. It is interesting to note that early detection of cancer can highly increase a person's survival rate. These facts make us wonder why, in the age of Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging, people still die because they don't recognise the early signs.
Protect Your Mom (PYM) was started on Facebook to do exactly that. People always think that breast cancer is something that happens only to others, that it is hereditary, or that only older people are at risk; yet everyone knows someone with cancer.
It is time we fought back. PYM aims to do that primarily through the PYM Design and Win contest. Since mothers are usually too busy to worry about their health, the campaign targets children for three reasons.
First, they grow up to be more informed adults; second, they can use their pestering power to push their mums to have a self exam or mammogram; third, they are usually using some kind of social media and can be reached at zero cost.
The contest was started in 2011 to make mothers aware of lumps and other signs of breast cancer through music, dance, skits and arts — the language of the youth. The entries for 2011 included skits, dances, videos and posters which could be viewed by clicking on photos and videos on our page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/protectyourmom.
The contest is open to people residing in India and GCC. We invite you to tag or share the poster on our page with all your friends. Spread the word in colleges and schools and hold special events. Check the photos and videos entries for 2011 on our page for PYM. In addition to two tickets to INDIA or the GCC, contestants could win a camera and other electronic products and certificates. Twenty-year-old Mahesh Raghavan's video won two tickets to Europe last year.
In this age of information technology, no one should lose their mum just because she ignored the early signs of breast cancer. I invite the students of the world to unite for the Protect Your Mom cause. Tweet, BBM and FB about PYM Design and Win contest and the PYM campaign. Be creative for a cause. This is a zero-cost campaign and we depend on you to spread the word. We would love to hear from you.
Contact us at pym20101@hotmail.com or visit https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/protectyourmom.
— This Dubai-based reader is the founder of the Protect Your Mom campaign.
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