Cable Bridge Lights Up Teal To Support September Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in Tri-Cities, Washington. Tri-Cities is a mid-sized metropolitan area in the southeastern Washington, and its landmark cable bridge is front-and-center for the month of September.
The cable bridge will be lit in teal for the month of September to bring awareness to ovarian cancer. The local advocacy, Ovarian Cancer Together was the brainchild behind lighting up the bridge and successfully raised money and secured clearance to start the event, which has now become a yearly event.
The group’s founder, Kay Kerbyson, understood the bridge was a local icon and to associate it with the color teal, which is the color representing ovarian cancer, would bring daily awareness to the cause. People seeing the landmark lit up in teal prompted people to ask questions and dialogue about how ovarian cancer affects women.
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest cancer associated with women’s reproductive organs and around 22,000 women are diagnosed with it yearly, and around 14,000 die from it.
If diagnosed early the five-year survival rate is high, but the cancer is often caught in its latest stages after it has spread within a woman’s abdomen, which significantly reduces the chances for survival.
This year a teal party issued in the lighting of the bridge, and the Tri-Cities Cancer Center will be hosting teal events all month. Teal ribbons have been tied around trees all over town that contain cards with information about ovarian cancer.
Tags: anti-cancer, cancer awareness
