14,000 people wearing pink ponchos stood on the Melbourne Cricket Ground last Friday night prior to the football match between Footscray and Melbourne.

Organisers said the number 14,000 was significant — being the number of new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in Australia each year.

Among the participants were Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon and ex-athlete, Raelene Boyle.

The event is said to have raised $700,000, to go towards “raising awareness and helping people fight breast cancer”.

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What kind of “awareness” will it go towards raising?

Early detection by means of mammograms etc. is a good thing to promote.

But what about prevention?

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The World Health Organisation says that women drinking two or more standard drinks of ALCOHOL per day significantly increase their breast cancer risk.

Those drinking 5 standard drinks increase their chance of breast cancer by 50 per cent.

That’s a serious risk.

Do Australian girls and women know these things?

Are we going to tell them?

Dr Peter Boyle, director of WHO’s International Agency for Cancer Research, wants better public-health policies to combat excessive drinking:

“The clear link between breast cancer and even modest levels of alcohol drinking is a major concern, particularly in view of the changing drinking patterns of women in many countries.”

But statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggest that Australia’s alcohol drinking rates are not falling.

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To seriously reduce breast cancer rates in younger women we must also stop suppressing the fact that breast cancer and ABORTION are linked.

We’ve known for years that women who have had induced abortions have a 50 percent higher breast cancer rate than other women.

Those aged under 18 at the time of their first abortion have a 150 percent increased risk.