Just in time for the holidays, the Canadian Cancer Society is asking people to buy their loved ones a special gift.
The Thingamaboob: a keychain with a powerful message.
“The Thingamaboob is a tool that the Canadian Cancer Society has been using for the last eight years to remind women to go pass a mammogram every two years and to register to the breast cancer screening program that is free and given by the Quebec government,” said André Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society.
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The keychain is equipped with two pink beads.
The bigger one represents the size of a lump that can generally be found by a woman herself and the smaller bead can be detected through a regular mammogram.
Dr. Christiane Laberge insists that it is imperative that women between the ages of 50 and 69 get a mammogram every two years.
“It’s minimizing all the treatment you will have and it’s minimizing all the consequences you would have,” she said.
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According to the Canadian Cancer Society, one in nine women is at risk of getting breast cancer during her lifetime.
Among women, it is the most common type of cancer, and the second deadliest, after lung cancer.
“If a woman has breast cancer, we want to make sure it’s diagnosed at an early stage because if it is diagnosed at an early stage, the survival rate is almost 100 per cent,” said Beaulieu.
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The Thingamaboob keychains are now available at Jean Coutu pharmacies across the province, until the new year.
All proceeds will go to the Canadian Cancer Society.
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