Holiday Calendar

​Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Next celebratedThursday, October 1, 2026

A month-long observance held each October to raise awareness of breast cancer and to encourage early detection through screening.

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Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of October
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYAwareness
SUBCATEGORYCancer
ORIGIN

Institutional Campaign

FOUNDING ENTITY
American Cancer Society
FIRST OBSERVED
1985
“It started in 1985 as a single week, built around one message: find it early.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A week-long screening push that grew into a global month.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month began in 1985 as a week-long campaign co-led by the American Cancer Society, in partnership with the pharmaceutical company ICI Pharmaceuticals (later part of AstraZeneca), to educate women about early detection and routine mammography. It later grew into the month-long October observance.

Read the ACS historyvia American Cancer Society
INTRO

The ribbon was peach before it was pink

Before the ribbon was pink, it was peach. In the early 1990s, a California woman named Charlotte Haley sat at her dining-room table cutting salmon-colored ribbons by hand. To each one she clipped a card pointing out that only a small share of the National Cancer Institute's budget went toward prevention, and she asked people to wear the ribbon to wake up lawmakers. She was not selling anything.

When a magazine and a cosmetics company asked to use her ribbon for a national campaign, Haley refused to let it go commercial. On legal advice, they chose a different color instead. That is how the symbol now seen on storefronts, jerseys, and skyscrapers every October turned pink.

The month behind that ribbon has its own, separate story, and a steadier purpose. Each October, the American Cancer Society and a coalition of breast-cancer organizations observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month to keep one message in front of the public: found early, breast cancer is highly survivable.

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ORIGINS

​Breast Cancer Awareness Month history

CHAPTER 01

One disease, two beginnings

The observance and its famous symbol did not start together, and keeping them apart is the key to the story. The month came first, from a hospital-and-industry effort focused on screening. The pink ribbon arrived years later, from a grassroots protest that was never meant to be commercial.

Both threads trace back to the same hard fact the medical world had begun to act on in the 1980s: a breast cancer caught early is a very different disease from one caught late.

CHAPTER 02

A week built around mammograms

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month began in 1985 as a week-long campaign co-led by the American Cancer Society, working with the pharmaceutical company ICI Pharmaceuticals, the division later folded into AstraZeneca.

Its goal was narrow and practical: get more women screened. Mammography could find tumors before they could be felt, and the campaign's whole purpose was to make that screening feel normal and expected. Over the years, a single week grew into the full month now marked every October.

CHAPTER 03

From a dining room to a cosmetics counter

The ribbon's path ran outside the medical campaign entirely. Charlotte Haley's peach ribbons, made one by one in her home, were a quiet act of protest about how little money went to prevention.

In 1992, Self magazine's editor Alexandra Penney and the Estée Lauder executive Evelyn Lauder wanted a ribbon for a breast cancer awareness campaign. Haley turned them down rather than make hers commercial, so, advised to pick another color, they settled on pink. That fall, Estée Lauder counters handed out about 1.5 million pink ribbons.

CHAPTER 04

The woman the cause was named for

Running alongside both stories is a third. In 1980, a Texas woman named Susan Goodman Komen died of breast cancer at 36. Two years later, her sister Nancy Brinker founded the organization that still carries Susan's name.

At its 1991 race in New York City, the Komen organization gave a pink ribbon to every runner, part of the same early-1990s moment that made pink the color of the cause. The month, the ribbon, and the foundation came from different places, but they converged on one shared aim: that fewer women face this disease alone, or too late.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A sister dies at 36

Susan Goodman Komen dies of breast cancer, the loss that would give the cause one of its most recognizable names.

An organization is founded

Nancy Brinker founds the Susan G. Komen organization in memory of her sister.

The first awareness week

The American Cancer Society co-leads the first National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a week-long push to promote early detection and mammography.

Pink ribbons at the race

The Komen organization hands a pink ribbon to every participant at its New York City race.

The ribbon turns pink

Self magazine and Estée Lauder launch the pink ribbon, after Charlotte Haley's peach one, and Estée Lauder counters give out about 1.5 million that fall.

Pink goes global

Estée Lauder's Global Landmark Illuminations Initiative lights landmarks pink across 22 countries, helping make Pink October an international symbol.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Breast Cancer Awareness Month Matters

Survival

Found early, the five-year survival rate is over 99%.

The case for awareness rests on one number. When breast cancer is found at a localized stage, before it has spread, the five-year relative survival rate is over 99%, according to the American Cancer Society. The whole month exists to move more diagnoses into that early window.

Progress

The death rate has fallen for decades

Awareness is not just hope. The US breast cancer death rate has dropped about 44% since 1989, which the American Cancer Society credits to earlier detection and better treatment. Today more than four million breast cancer survivors are living in the United States.

Scale

It reaches almost every family

Breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, with about 2.3 million women diagnosed in 2022, the World Health Organization reports. The American Cancer Society estimates roughly one in eight US women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, which is why the reminders feel personal.

BY THE NUMBERS

Breast Cancer Awareness Month by the Numbers

>99%
5-year survival, localized breast cancer
~44%
US death rate decline since 1989
4M+
US breast cancer survivors today
<1%
Breast cancers that occur in men

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Learn your own history

Take time this month to understand your family history and personal risk factors. Bring what you learn to a conversation with a clinician, who can advise on what screening makes sense for you.

POINT

Point someone to a trusted source

Share verified information from an authoritative body rather than a viral post. The CDC's breast cancer pages and the American Cancer Society both keep plain-language guidance current.

SUPPORT

Support people in treatment

Offer specific, practical help to someone facing breast cancer, such as a ride to an appointment or a cooked meal. Awareness lands hardest when it shows up as support for a real person.

GIVE

Give to a named organization

If you donate, choose an established nonprofit and look at how it uses the money. Groups like Susan G. Komen and the National Breast Cancer Foundation publish where funds go.

HONOR

Honor those who were lost

Mark the month by remembering people the disease has taken and recognizing the survivors who carry it forward. A moment of remembrance is its own form of awareness.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know ​Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

1 / 8

What color was the very first breast cancer awareness ribbon?

GET INVOLVED

Resources and Support

SUSAN

Susan G. Komen

Susan G. Komen. Breast cancer information, support, and research funding

BREASTCANCER.ORG

BreastCancer.org

BreastCancer.org. Plain-language medical information and community support

CDC:

CDC: Breast Cancer

CDC: Breast Cancer. Federal public-health guidance on screening and risk
Answer

No. It is an awareness observance, not an official public holiday, so it does not close offices, schools, or government services.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources
7primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
American Cancer Society2025
Turning Awareness Into Action: 40 Years of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
ACS account of the 1985 origin of the observance as a week-long screening campaign
View source
American Cancer Society2015-2021 cases
Breast Cancer Survival Rates
Five-year relative survival by stage, including over 99% for localized disease
View source
American Cancer Society2026
How Common Is Breast Cancer?
US incidence, the death-rate decline since 1989, lifetime risk, and survivor count
View source
American Cancer Society2026
Key Statistics for Breast Cancer in Men
Confirms fewer than 1% of breast cancers occur in men
View source
World Health Organization2026
Breast cancer fact sheet
Global scale: 2.3 million women diagnosed in 2022, most common cancer in women in most countries
View source
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Breast Cancer
The CDC's current breast cancer information hub for the public
View source
Estée Lauder Companies
The Breast Cancer Campaign
Documents the 1992 pink ribbon launch and the 2000 global landmark illuminations
View source
Additional coverage
National Women's History Museum
Susan G. Komen
Susan G. Komen died in 1980 at age 36 and Nancy Brinker founded the organization in 1982
View source
Breast Cancer Action
History of the Pink Ribbon
Traces the peach-to-pink ribbon transition and the 1992 color choice
View source
Breast Cancer Action
In Memoriam: Charlotte Haley, Creator of the First Peach Breast Cancer Ribbon
Charlotte Haley's hand-made peach ribbons and the cancer-prevention-funding card
View source
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