- Conference
- 2005 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 21 October 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Last year, Conference called for action which would raise the importance of trying to stop breast cancer before it starts. This is about more than having an adequate national screening programme that merely detects a disease which already exists. It is about funding research into why it is that one in every nine women in the United Kingdom continues to develop this disease at some point in her lifetime, and then having the will to remove the causes of the disease. Towards this end, Conference agreed to campaign to change the focus of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October each year to Prevention Month.
The Think before you Pink campaign organised by UNISON and the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) was one outcome from last year’s debate at Conference. This targeted cosmetic companies who were supporting pink ribbon campaigns but who also continued to use toxins linked to the development of breast cancers in their products. We challenged them to remove those toxins and put more of the money collected into prevention research.
Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to work with WEN to produce a similar campaign this year in which women members can participate by:
1)reviewing last year’s campaign;
2)identifying what resources are needed to achieve greater publicity and effectiveness this year;
3)organising the campaign in good time to achieve maximum impact in October 2005.