DDR HEALTH & WELLNESS: MIND YOUR MAMMARIES

October is always a big and busy month for a lot of reasons – school’s back in session, post-season baseball, and Halloween kicking off the holiday season – and not to mention a little ol’ gathering going on in Fort Worth this weekend you might’ve heard us mention a time or two…

But October also carries a bigger meaning, particularly for us gals, but it affects a lot of guys as well, directly or tangentially. Yep, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Almost everyone has been touched by breast cancer in one way or another – several of our Wolf Pack are survivors themselves, some are bravely battling it as we speak, nearly all know someone who has faced it – and we ALL need to be on the offensive when it comes to catching it early and (if needed) kicking its butt! That’s right, gals – you GOTTA get those mammograms!

Here's our pickle this year: with Barbie being *the* movie of the summer, you can’t swing a cat without hitting someone decked out in “power pink”, so while we hope that doubles down on BC awareness this month, we can’t count on it to be the visual reminder it usually is in October. Nope, we’re going bigger and bolder this year – we’re upping the ante with a challenge and putting our fearless and formidable Wolf Pack in the driver’s seat for Breast Cancer Awareness Month – and we’re holding ourselves to it, too!

It's on you to reach out to THREE FRIENDS – call, text, email, in person – and mention mammograms. Be blunt, turn it into the topic of convo, make it a whole thing – ask when their last one was, ask if they have one coming up and if not, to put it at the top of their to-do list to schedule it, offer to schedule your next ones together-ish if y’all live close and can do that, and then treat yourself to retail therapy or lunch or happy hour afterward. There’s no real way to take the “scary” (or the sting) out of mammograms, but almost everything is more manageable as a “we”, and even if you can’t go with them, it still feels like moral support if you’re encouraging and following up with them.

So make a little list – your sister-in-law, your best friend, someone from your bible study or birthday club, your niece, your daughter, your hairdresser, any woman you care enough about and are comfortable enough with to bring up their boobies – have the conversation.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, you have to lead by example! Get scheduled and get screened yourself!

Play nice. Be free. Mind your mammaries.