The importance of raising awareness.

Those of you who are friends of mine on facebook will know, this month is Brain Tumour Awareness month. You will know this due to my snazzy profile picture, and my habit of constantly sharing facts posted by the BT buddies FB page, and my reference to all things brain tumoury!

It is not my intention to ram my illness down people's throats. In fact this is the LAST thing I want to do. One of the (very) few good things about having a brain tumour is that it's relatively unnoticeable to strangers. Especially this time with no surgery scars, or hairloss, I can walk around and look perfectly normal(ish!) to most people I meet. When I post information it's not to make others feel bad or sorry for me- I've never actually been much of a pity fan; I just feel that it's important to raise awareness so that the work of existing brain tumour charities are supported, and so that people understand more about a condition that is not as rare as they'd like to think.

Primary brain tumours (like mine; cancers that start in the brain) are only about 2-3% of all cancers, however overall brain tumours (including secondary tumours that have spread from elsewhere) make up 25% of all cancers diagnosed and treated. Given that one in four people gets some form of cancer in their lifetime, it doesn't take long before the chance of getting a brain tumour becomes a very real prospect.

Unfortunately, dispite this, brain tumours are continuously over shadowed in the media by other types of cancer. I am not suggesting that any one cancer is worse to deal with psychologically than another, but due to awareness campaigns, common cancers such as breast and prostate cancer are now generally treatableif caught early enough- which many are due to the now widely available information in the media telling people how to spot the signs. Other cancers such as cervical have also been publicised, with more woman going for regular screening than ever before.. Plus thanks to research that lead to the development of the HPV vaccine, one day it may be a cancer that nobody has to live with.

All these advancements are wonderful (obviously) and in large part have come to be from relentless awareness campaigns stressing the importance of adequate research and funding. By comparison, unfortunately, brain tumour research lags behind.

For the statistic lovers; here are some shocking ones:
1) Brain tumour research receives only 0.7% 0f cancer research spending in the UK.
2)65% more women die from a brain tumour than from cervical cancer.
and 3) More people under 40 die from a brain tumour, than from any other cancer.

These are three very good reasons why awareness is so important. I have a dream that one day ( although probably not in my life time), brain tumours will no longer be the scary unknown cancer, and will be more easily treated, if not completely curable and preventable. This is not a freak illness, it can happen to just about anyone. It can happen to friends, family, children... until more funding is given over to brain tumour research, sadly the numbers of sufferers will keep rising.

If you do nothing else during this awareness month, take some time to read the facts I have posted on facebook, maybe even take a look at the btbuddies website: btbuddies.org.uk and try to donate some money either to BT Buddies via my just giving page, or to Brain tumour UK, trust me- every bit of help is invaluable.