The BCYW Foundation
The Foundation is established as a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the lives of young women with breast cancer through research, education, and survivorship. The incidence of breast cancer in young women, under 40 years of age, is increasing in the United States and most other parts of the world. After listening to the accounts of practicing oncologist colleagues describing their young patients with breast cancer asking —“Why me?”—, our founder and his team realized these young women could be their daughters or granddaughters at some future date and were inspired to create a comprehensive platform focusing solely on this age group. The Foundation’s goals are to lower the incidence of breast cancer in young women and to improve the quality of life and the chance of cure for those who do develop the disease. The BCYW Foundation also bestows funding to increase awareness of breast cancer in young women and the importance of breast self-checks and thereby empowering young women with the knowledge to detect the disease at an early stage when the probability of cure is highest.
The Pink – Purple Ribbon
The pink ribbon is a recognized global symbol of breast cancer awareness and represents the lives touched by breast cancer. Younger women with breast cancer experience some additional, unique challenges because having cancer at an early age disrupts their careers and childbearing dreams. Our founder and his team introduced new colors and a symbol to completely capture the experiences of these younger women with breast cancer and their determination to beat the disease. To represent these unique challenges and their cumulative impact on an individual’s life, we adopted the Purple color. This color signifies dignity, equality, and justice and, therefore, is the most appropriate for representing the struggle of young women worldwide against a common scourge. The white waves in line with the body represent a young woman’s power, boldness, courage, and tolerance to win any battle, while the woman’s flight in the sky symbolizes her positive attitude to defeat breast cancer. The stars denote badges of hope, an enlightened path, and shining lights. Because of the unique challenges of young women with breast cancer, we encourage cancer communities in the United States and worldwide to promote the use of the BCYW “pink-purple ribbon” along with the historical “pink ribbon.”
Funding
The BCYW Foundation received the startup funding support from our founder and strength from a small group of concerned professionals and breast cancer survivors. Our team raises funds from individual donors, businesses, and corporate institutions to continue the movement to support our mission to save the lives of young women with breast cancer.
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