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Introduction
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an international health campaign that held every year in the month of October. The aim of the activities conducted in the month, are intended to promote screening for breast cancer thereby reducing the risk of the disease, which affects 2.3 million women worldwide.
The global challenge
Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women worldwide. In 2022, approximately 2.3 million women were diagnosed and another 670,000 died from the disease. These women are not just statistics or numbers but mothers, sisters, daughters and friends that deserve hope and dignity. While the 5-year survival rates in high-income countries exceeds 90%, the same can not be said for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Available WHO data shows that the 5-year survival rates dropped to 66% in India and 40% in South Africa. These disparities that are typical for LMICs are driven by unequal access to early detection, timely diagnosis and effective treatment. If the current trend continues, it is projected that the incidence and mortality for beast cancer would rise by 40% by 2050; hence the need for urgent and coordinated action. Global health equity demands that the geographic location of a woman should not determine whether she survives. This underscores the establishment in 2021 of the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI) together with partners and working with countries to reduce breast cancer mortality through the strengthening of national health systems
The 2025 theme for the Beast Cancer Awareness Month.
The theme to commemorate the 2025 Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is “Every Story is Unique, Every Journey Matters”. The theme was chosen not only to create awareness, but to honour the millions of lives affected by breast cancer and reaffirm the global commitment to equitable access to care and improved survival for all. The uniqueness of every story of beast cancer is predicated on the fact that every breast cancer diagnosis is personal; and behind every diagnosis is a story of courage, resilience, and hope. The 2026 theme reminds us that breast cancer touches the lives of women and their families around the world differently, and that every journey in the fight against this disease deserves compassion, dignity, and support. There is need therefore to recognize the diversity of experiences and reinforces the need for compassionate, timely and quality care for all regardless of geography, income or background.
The goal of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2025
The overarching goals are to increase awareness and promote behaviour change for early detection of breast cancer, advocate for improved access to care and honour persons with lived experience.
Objectives
The GBCI’s strategic approach: The 60–60–80 targets
Currently there are tools to prevent, diagnose and treat breast cancer. The GBCI has therefore advised countries to implement evidence-based strategies across three pillars:
The role of global partnerships and community involvement October 2025 highlights
Although the disease affects an individual , its ramification extends beyond the individual to the family , community and society at large. That is why the fight against cancer involves patients, survivors, policymakers, health workers, community-based organizations and international partners meeting to deliberate on key priority areas such as building foundational knowledge, skills and capacity for GBCI implementation. Intervention strategies include health education, faculty-based screening, outreaches, policy advocacies and community dialogues involving survivors, , local and International NGOs. support groups and advocates for equitable treatment and care. as well as breast cancer research
The Nigerian Initiative
The Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria (BRECAN) is actively involved in creating awareness about cancer through virtual events that leverages the experience of patients, survivors, care givers and patients advocates in sharing their unique stories in the fight against cancer, with the hope that the sharing of experiences by survivors can help in the proffering of solutions to the plethora of problems facing cancer awareness and management in Nigeria.
We at Medela-Nigeria have developed an online platform to provide information and health education about cancer, its risk factors and how to prevent the disease. For this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign and initiatives, we encourage the practice for breast self examination for the early detection of breast cancer as primary preventive measure.
We also advocate for the training of community health care providers in carrying out grassroots advocacy at the community level geared at creating awareness and stimulating action towards the primary prevention of breast cancer. We encourage breast cancer patients to keep hope alive as research efforts in cancer diagnosis and management come up with novel discoveries and interventions to improve care and increase the survival rates of breast cancer patients.
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