Awareness

Most of us should be pretty happy it’s Friday - even if it means the end of Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week.

(Tourette Syndrome is never, ever funny. Not even in this clip.)

If you didn’t know, it’s actually an inherited disorder involving “tics” but for most sufferers it doesn’t involve involuntarily saying four letter words that begin with “s”, “f” and occasionally “c”. Nor is it probably how namesake George Gilles de la Tourette probably expected to be remembered in history.

But what purpose does Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week actually serve? More to the point what do Awareness Days, Weeks and Years provide, period?

Continue reading "It’s Friday. Are you even aware of what else today is?" »

People are dying because breast cancer awareness has eclipsed the dangers of bowel cancer, and other ‘less sexy’ cancers.

If that sounds melodramatic, consider this: A national Cancer Council study released today confirms most people think that breast cancer is Australia’s biggest killer. It also found the awareness of breast cancer screening is double that for bowel cancer, although both yield similarly life-saving results.

They have highlighted bowel cancer’s ‘tragic anonymity’ despite it being more common and more deadly than breast cancer. Compare this then, to the ‘hyper awareness’ around breast cancer.

Continue reading "Breast is beating bowel in the battle of the cancers" »