Ahead of October, the breast cancer awareness month, Tennis star Serena Williams took to Instagram to do her bit for the cause. The athlete shared a video in which she is singing the hit song ‘I Touch Myself’ by The Divinyls, to draw attention to why it’s important to pay close attention to your body.
In the caption for the video, Williams insisted, “Early detection is key - it saves so many lives.”
In India, for every two women diagnosed with breast cancer, one loses her life.
Nearly a lakh women die of breast cancer every year in India, that’s the highest in any Asian country, twice as much as United States of America, which has an incredibly high incidence of breast cancer.
Statistically, it is rare for a woman in her early twenties to develop breast cancer, but five women in around a lakh get it in the age group of 19 to 25.
Additionally, it’s a myth that breast cancer is mostly genetic. More than 75 to 85 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors or genetic history. Also, men are no exception to this form of cancer. 1 in 8 women in urban cities get breast cancer and roughly 1 in 1000 men are at a risk for it. (Source: Tata Memorial Foundation)
The older you get, the more your chances of getting breast cancer. Around 2/3rds of people with the disease are above the age of 45 and the majority of the remaining third are under the age of 35.
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