The pink ribbon
A ribbon that started peach, in one woman's dining room, with a message about prevention funding. Here is where it came from — and where giving actually lands.
It was peach first
In 1991 a woman in Simi Valley, California called Charlotte Haley started making ribbons at her dining table. Her sister, her daughter and her granddaughter had all had breast cancer. She cut peach ribbon, folded it, and stapled each one to a card.
The card was not a thank-you. It read: “The National Cancer Institute’s annual budget is 1.8 billion US dollars, and only 5 percent goes to cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.” She handed them out at supermarkets and wrote to anyone she could think of. It was a demand, not a decoration.
In 1992 Self magazine and Estée Lauder asked to use her ribbon for a national awareness campaign. She said no — she did not want it attached to a commercial effort. Their lawyers pointed out that a different color needed nobody’s permission. They chose pink.
That October, Self ran its Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue with editor Alexandra Penney, and Estée Lauder — where Evelyn Lauder drove the campaign — handed pink ribbons across its cosmetics counters. The pink ribbon was everywhere within a year. Charlotte Haley’s peach one, and the sentence about prevention funding that came with it, were not.
We think that is worth saying out loud on a page like this. The symbol works. It is also worth remembering what the first version of it was asking for.
The numbers
What breast cancer looks like this year
American Cancer Society estimates for 2026. These are their figures, not ours, and they are linked below.
321,910
new invasive breast cancers expected in US women this year
60,730
new cases of DCIS, the non-invasive kind
42,140
women expected to die of it this year
1 in 8
US women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime
Found early, it is a very different disease
When breast cancer is found while it is still localized, the five-year relative survival rate is over 99%. Across all stages together it is 92%; once it has spread to distant parts of the body it is 32%. Those figures come from SEER data for people diagnosed between 2015 and 2021.
Death rates have fallen 44% since 1989. Screening is a large part of why.
Men get breast cancer too
The American Cancer Society expects about 2,670 men to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2026, and about 530 to die of it. A man’s lifetime risk is roughly 1 in 755. It is rarer, it is often found later because nobody is looking for it, and a lump is worth a phone call whoever you are.
Source: American Cancer Society, Key Statistics for Breast Cancer and its survival-rate and male breast cancer pages. Figures checked 1 October 2026 and are the Society’s 2026 estimates — if you are reading this later, check the source for the current year.
Where to give
If you want to do something with the month
Four national organizations, and two here in the Four Corners. Every link was opened and checked.
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Funds research grants — prevention, treatment, metastasis and survivorship.
Susan G. Komen
Research, patient navigation and a treatment assistance fund.
American Cancer Society
Research, a 24/7 helpline, free lodging and rides to treatment.
National Breast Cancer Foundation
Free mammograms and patient navigation for women without coverage.
Closer to home
If you would rather the money stayed in the Four Corners, both of these fund care in the towns we work in.
Farmington, NM
San Juan Medical Foundation
An independent local non-profit supporting care in the Four Corners. Its Cathy Lincoln Memorial Cancer Fund helps uninsured and underinsured women in San Juan County pay for cancer diagnostics and treatment.
Durango, CO
Mercy Health Foundation
Supports Mercy Hospital in Durango, including its breast diagnostics and cancer care, and helps patients facing the cost of treatment.
M&R Service is not affiliated with any of these organizations, and we do not receive anything if you give to them. They are listed because they are doing the work, and the links go straight to them.
Wearing it in Farmington this month
Our logo is pink for October. If you are in the middle of treatment, or looking after someone who is, and something in the house has gone wrong — call us. That is the part we are actually good at.
In Durango? The same page on our Durango site →
