Gossip has noble roots. It was once a form of protecting the community. Today, it is associated only with denigrating others. What is more, supposedly only women gossip, while men do not, because they exchange information. Women are criticized for gossiping, even by other women. Yet everyone forgets that, thanks to gossip, women primarily eliminate dangers threatening their homes, families, children and loved ones.
Now women face another great challenge. We must deal with one of our greatest enemies ourselves. According to forecasts by doctors and health organizations, cancer will be the main killer of women in the 21st century.
In 2008, more than 12.5 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million deaths from cancer were recorded worldwide. Forecasts for the next 10–15 years predict these figures will double. In Poland, 140,000 people developed cancer last year, and 90,000 died. Forecasts for our country are consistent with global trends.
What does this mean for us? If you and your friend develop breast or cervical cancer, one of you will die.
Information about the government program is lost among hundreds of incomprehensible leaflets, pink posters and news items that, in reality, do not concern us at all. Others lecture us, issue orders and try their hardest, but the results are meager. Very few women take advantage of the tests funded each year by Gmina Wiejska Bolesławiec. It is hardest to persuade women from rural areas to go for, for example, a mammogram.
We women are masters at finding excuses not to go for a check-up with a gynecologist. We have the house, children, husbands, studies and jobs to deal with. We do not have enough time to look after our health. And our mothers threw mammography invitations in the trash because, after all, there are more important things. More important than life? We who give life—I am sure we have the strength to protect it.
It is time to use the old, good method that nobody respects but that has great power and can serve good causes. Let us start gossiping about this threat—let us warn our sisters, daughters, mothers and friends.
Gossip has power. Let us use the weapon with which we have always been taunted. Let us talk about acquaintances who undergo cervical screening and why this examination is so important; let us pass on the news of who has already benefited from a free mammogram. Where to get one and that the examination is very simple. Let us not be embarrassed to tell neighbors and unfamiliar women at which centers they can get tested free of charge. Let us not be afraid to ask whether they have done it yet. Let us take care of one another. Let us send gossipy text messages: “Have a cervical screening test, examine your breasts, go for a mammogram. I know where the tests can be done.” I believe that nothing can defeat gossip—not even cancer!
Grażyna Hanaf
See also
You will find important information about cervical screening and mammography in the material Patient’s Guide: Mammography and Cervical Screening