Chances are everyone who is reading this editorial today knows someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

In the United States 12.4% of women will develop breast cancer over the course of her lifetime, making breast cancer the most common cancer among women, besides skin cancer, according to overcomersbreastcancer.com.

In 2018, an estimated 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 63,960 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer, according to breastcancer.org, and there were about 2,550 new cases of breast cancer in men in 2018.

Here are some more facts from overcomersbreastcancer.com

“For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer

“Most women (about eight out of 10) who get breast cancer do not have a family history of the disease.”

All of those statistics are alarming and somewhat frightening.

The good news, however, is, according to overcomersbreastcancer.com: “Over 3.3 million breast cancer survivors are alive in the United States today.”

Survival rates are good and improving and that is due to the efforts of volunteers and survivors who donate and contribute to help fight the disease by raising money and awareness.

Testing and early diagnoses are key to improving survival rates, the experts tell us.

The efforts of volunteers and professions have been on display in and around Natchez the past few days with the annual Paint Natchez Pink campaign spearheaded by Merit Health Natchez.

Thanks to Merit Health and all who contributed.