Events scheduled in Ky. for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign is having events in Kentucky this month, including Sunday, Oct. 15 at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in Lexington; Sunday, Oct. 22 at Smothers Park in Owensboro; and Saturday, Oct. 28 at Waterfront Park in Louisville

The National Breast Cancer Foundation has a website where you can get a booklet with general information about cancer and specific information about breast cancer, including how to prevent it with healthy habits, and how to detect it early to prevent its spread and increase the chances of survival. Most women survive it with early detection and treatment.

"Breast cancer is the second most common kind of cancer in women. About one in eight women born today in the United States will get breast cancer at some point," says the breast-cancer website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It suggests some steps to raise awareness of breast cancer:

• Ask doctors and nurses to speak to women about the importance of getting screened for breast cancer.
• Encourage women between 40 and 50 to talk with their doctors about when to start getting mammograms.
• Organize an event to talk with women ages 50 to 74 about getting mammograms every two years.
• Host a breast cancer walk like those in Lexington, Owensboro and Louisville.