SERENA SAYS ‘TOUCH YOURSELF’

In honor of October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, international tennis superstar Serena Williams released a recording of herself singing the Divinyls classic, I Touch Myself, to her 9.9 million followers on Instagram. The bold video, which encourages women to regularly conduct breast self-checks, was made as part of the I Touch Myself Project, a tribute to Divinyls lead singer Chrissy Amphlett, who died due to breast cancer in 2013.

STAND UP TO CANCER

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, organized its sixth biennial ‘roadblock’ on September 7. The hour-long live television event was made possible by ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and several other commercial broadcast television networks donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime from their respective channels to broadcast the event across more than 170 countries. Through its six editions, to date in a span of 10 years, the initiative has raised over $261 million for the cause.

BREAK THE SILENCE OF OVARIAN CANCER

The ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaign launched by Public Health England aims at highlighting blood in urine as an indicator of cancers of the bladder and the kidneys. ‘Look before you flush’ is one of the key action points being highlighted in this campaign, which urges people to visit their doctor even if they have spotted blood in their pee at least once. Those aged 50 years and above are the most at risk to develop these cancers. And a survey shows that only 16% of this population checks the color of their pee every time.

GO FOR GOLD

Commemorating the International Childhood Awareness Month, KidscanKonnect, the teenage and young adult group of CanKids, launched the ‘Go Gold India’ campaign to prompt central and state governments to prioritize childhood cancer awareness and treatment in India. They hosted the 4th National Childhood Cancer Survivors Conference in Delhi, which saw the participation of 119 childhood cancer survivors.The event saw the launch of the Survivor Passport, a website which will have the complete medical records of the survivors’ treatment and medical advice from doctors.