The Global Health department of the American Cancer Society and Antonio Puig, SA (the parent company of the Carolina Herrera brand) have collaborated since 2008 to provide breast cancer support activities in various countries in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua). These funds have been used to support broad capacity building activities of civil society cancer organizations as well as to provide small grants to organizations to implement programs focused on patient navigation, breast cancer education, and breast cancer screening promotion. In addition, Mrs. Herrera was honored by the American Cancer Society as their 2006 Mother of the Year for her continued efforts and commitment to the fight against cancer.
In 2014, the Society and the Carolina Herrera brand together made a commitment to expand their patient support endeavors in the coming years across Latin America by developing and promoting programs that will provide emotional support, promote positivity, involve the family, and increase humanity around the breast cancer experience. And ideally their work will eventually touch other countries worldwide.
“Though the cultural and environmental context in which women across Latin America are facing breast cancer may be different from women in the US, the need for targeted emotional support is not,” said Kristie McComb, Global Capacity Development Director for ACS. “Sadly, women across Latin America face ever greater barriers to care and well-being due to societal stigma around cancer. Cancer is often perceived as a death sentence and as such, a culture of silence prevents patients from receiving the support they need.”
The Society, which has more than 45 years of experience providing emotional support for women facing breast cancer, is able to provide supervision and expertise to organizations helping women throughout Latin America.
This year, under the slogan “Support with a Smile”, the Carolina Herrera brand has created the Pink Smile icon, a symbol of emotional support for women with breast cancer. CHPink is Carolina Herrera’s official campaign to fight against breast cancer. Carolina Herrera de Baez, the Creative Director of Fragrances and the driving force behind this project, has been giving emotional support to breast cancer patients with the Support with a Smile campaign and fundraising activities for more than 5 years.
The aim of the 2014 campaign is to highlight the importance of a smile, an alternative way of facing the disease, to offer the strength and emotional support that patients and their families really need. By downloading the CHPink Smile app free of charge, people will be able to share their Pink Smile with all their circles of contacts on social networks, getting the message to as many people as possible. Once they have downloaded the app, users can take a selfie, either on their own or in company, add a Pink Smile and share their photo on social networks with the hashtag #chpinksmile. Moreover, they can also use the app to make a donation to help associations working with the American Cancer Society to support women fighting breast cancer in Latin America. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and is the main tool to be used in raising funds for the cause. The idea is to share this collective smile via as many downloads as possible, in order to show breast cancer patients that there are a great many people worldwide that support them and stand with them in their fight.
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