Cancer: The word strikes fear in our hearts and minds because of the disease’s sometimes-deadly consequences.

Cancer is also the great equalizer of the world’s deadly diseases too. Cancer doesn’t discriminate. It takes on young and old, rich and poor. The lives it claims are black, white and every shade in between.

Some cancers flare up without giving much notice, hidden for years and escaping detection as the cells grow insidiously.

Other forms of cancers can be more preventable through lifestyle changes — not smoking cigarettes, for example.

Still other forms of cancer can be found early, with some luck and routine screenings.

But most people don’t like medical tests, even ones that don’t require needles or other acute pain. It’s just human nature, we suspect, to simply want to avoid those tests.

That’s particularly the case with the poor among us or the under educated.

Such a problem can be helped, we hope, through some form of heightened awareness. That’s what leads many organizations to make the month of October “pink.” It started several decades ago to encourage awareness of breast cancer among women. What started as small pink ribbons worn to draw subtle attention has now made our country pink crazy.

Cups, T-shirts, football jerseys, armbands and the like are all fair game for the pink crowd. Today, we have even wrapped our newspaper in a special pink wrapper in hopes of simply attracting some attention and maybe, just maybe, encouraging someone to get tested when they otherwise would not.

In addition, we’ll make a donation to the Miss-Lou Relay for Life event, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, in honor of all of the men, women and children who have been affected by cancer.

Think pink today and every day, and be sure you and your loved ones are properly tested.