DEAR THYROID^TM

September is thyroid cancer awareness month. This really is not new information for this community because we live and breathe “thyroid.” But did you know that it’s also prostate cancer awareness month and ovarian cancer awareness month and childhood cancer awareness month and gynecological cancer awareness month and blood cancer awareness month? That’s a lot of different colored awareness ribbons all for the month of September. And that also means there are a lot of different organizations vying for attention during this month and shouting, “This cancer is important! Pay attention to us!”

Please don’t misunderstand me as I’m not even slightly suggesting that we should ignore other cancers. I don’t think thyroid cancer deserves more awareness than other cancers during the month of September. The reason that I’m drawing attention to other the cancers we share this month with is to try to help us all understand that we cannot box awareness into one month and think that we are going to bring about change. It’s just not going to happen. We cannot garner the attention we need in just one month. In order for us to be effective in changing the face of thyroid cancer, we have to raise awareness all year long. It cannot be confined to one month. To really see change, we have to be consistent and raise awareness day in and day out. We have to make ourselves heard.

I mentioned in an earlier post that my preferred method of raising awareness is simply to tell my story. I think our stories are all so unique and important and have the potential to really bring change. But to make a difference, we have to keep sharing. So I’m asking you to step up in a big way. If you are a young adult (under 40) thyroid cancer survivor or were a young adult at the time of your thyroid cancer diagnosis, I’m asking you to share your story in our Young Adults Speak Out series. (Please note that you don’t have to be cancer-free to be considered a survivor in my book.) You may have noticed a few young adult stories on Dear Thyroid this month already. Ruthie, Erin, and myself all spoke out about why thyroid cancer awareness is important to us. But we’re not stopping there. We can’t stop there.

Young adults, we want more from you. Please hear me: your story is important. It is valuable and worthy of being shared. You CAN make a difference. EVERY voice is needed. If you’re interested in speaking out with us, we would love to share your story on Dear Thyroid. For more information or to submit your story, please email me at joanna@dearthyroid.org.

Thank you for being such an awesome community.

xo,
Joanna