Last week, as a part of breast cancer awareness month and ovarian cancer awareness month, Myriad Genetics gave a donation to two organizations, Bright Pink and the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC). More about the NOCC in a later post, today is about Bright Pink.

Since it is breast cancer awareness month, I’m sure everyone has seen something pink that usually isn’t.  Maybe it’s been on a football team, busses, you name it.  While most people associate the color pink with the Susan G. Komen foundation, the color itself isn’t associated with them.  Komen has done a lot of brilliant marketing to associate themselves with the color, but there are plenty of other breast cancer awareness organizations out there that tie into the pink brand.  One such organization is Bright Pink.

Bright Pink stands out from the rest of the other breast cancer organizations by focusing primarily on young women.  In addition to great support groups, they have a handy little service that will send you a text message once a month when it’s time to do a breast exam.  The service, called underwire alert, is a great way to reach younger women to let them know about the importance of regular breast examinations.  Their literature is very well written and targeted to younger women in their 20’s and 30’s.  Many women at this age are single, and so have different concerns, especially when it comes to the possibilities of mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Founder and CEO of bright pink, Lindsay Avner, also has a connection to Myriad Genetics.  In 2005, she tested positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which is one of the genes that Myriad tests for.  When Lindsay tested positive right after graduating college, she started to look for support groups, but didn’t really find any that met her needs.  After watching her great grandmother and grandmother die from breast cancer and her mother get sick from the disease, she decided to undergo a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy.  At the time, she was the youngest woman in the nation to have the procedure done .  Lindsay knew that there were other women out there in her same situation and she wanted to create an organization where those individuals could find support.

It was great to have Lindsay tell us about her organization while we were at work.  It’s great that Myriad is supporting Bright Pink in helping to get the word out about breast cancer, especially with younger women.  I’m sure that the breast cancer survivors on our team are grateful for organizations like Bright Pink.