The first week of October, Madison College students and staff were heavily sprinkled with tie-dye T-shirts in honor of Denim Days, a fundraiser for breast cancer treatment.

Booths were set up on Truax campus selling shirts, pink scarfs and key chains. However, the project has been going on nationwide since 1996, and since that time has raised over $89 million.

The proceeds go to The American Cancer Society to help locals suffering from breast cancer.  The money will go to such things as mammograms, reconstruction, chemotherapy, and even travel expenses to receive treatment.  Part of the donations will also go to investments for cancer research.  Grants this year will be given to medical research institutions such as the Medical University of South Carolina, Southwestern Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic.

Volunteers Rhoda McKinney and Donna Swadley share their motivations for helping with the fundraiser.  They have both been working on the project every year for the last five years.  Swadley has had both grandmothers pass away from the disease, as well as her mother having had it.  She is glad to help raise money for treatment and prevention.

McKinney says that she fortunately has had no personal friends or family with breast cancer, but still empathizes for those suffering.  She says that they often have people come up to the booth and share their personal stories with the disease.

She says the saddest story she heard this year was told by an instructor, who was buying a shirt for her student aide who had just lost his mother to breast cancer.

McKinney expresses her, and most everyone’s, attitude that “Cancer is just one of those things that you wish would just … go away.”

McKinney and Swadley both hope to raise more money this year than last year, which has been the pattern almost every year.  Last year, an impressive $3300 was raised, which was about $400 more than the year before that.  Donations this large will be helpful in funding research for the American Cancer Society, as well as treatment for those already suffering from breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Facts

• One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women.
• Each year it is estimated that over 220,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die.
• Although breast cancer in men is rare, an estimated 2,150 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 410 will die each year.