Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and so spreading awareness about it in Breast Cancer Awareness Month of October is of great importance.

Every year this month witnesses not only a series of awareness drives but also donations of billions of dollars towards increasing the awareness and research for breast cancer. Also, it is the time intended to honor survivors and remember those who lost the battle.

Tuesday evening an event at the YWCA's 'Light Up Riehle Plaza' honored the survivors and their stories were shared.

One such case was of a cancer survivor by the name of Pearson. She underwent a mammogram for the first time in 1992 but that time the doctors did not confirm about the cancer but, when she went for a checkup a year later the doctors found three cancers, two on one side and one on the other.

She immediately started with chemotherapy. When her doctors asked her how she would want him to treat her, she replied that just like he would treat his wife or mother i.e. with full aggressiveness.

In all these years after being successful in defeating cancer, Pearson is a regular at the YWCA's Light Up Riehle Plaza event. This event has been not only helped raise breast cancer awareness but also played a very important role in the reorganization of those who have been impacted by breast cancer.

Heidi Kauffman, Director of the YWCA's Women's Cancer Program, stated that it is very important for women to be educated on what to look for and when to get checked.

She said, "There are still women who think that family history is the most important factor and actually - it's being a woman. Ninety percent of the women diagnosed every year don't have any family history of breast cancer".