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Breast Cancer Survivors, Supporters Turn Pink For Awareness

MIAMI (CBS4)- For the month of October it seems everything is turning pink to raise awareness for breast cancer, from the White House to Miami's Freedom Tower to food and hair accessories.

Even Rik Rak Hair Salon is donning the pink as they do makeovers for breast cancer survivors, including Arlene Mion and Amie Brown.

CBS4's Cynthia Demos met up with both breast cancer survivors in the middle of a make over and they discussed why the Turning Pink campaign is so successful.

Brown said the purpose is to bring awareness, adding, "Any thing you can do to make someone say, "I should get a mammogram.'"

Mion said even football games on Sunday are going pink, and the Miami Dolphins were no exception.

The survivors tell Demos they think the widespread participation is due in part to people realizing that many people are affected by the disease.

"Everybody has a mother, a sister, a grandma," Brown said. "This is going to affect everyone."

When Miami's Race for the Cure started 16 years ago there were about 1,000 participants, but now there are about 20,000.

The first race raised about $2,500. That number has since increased at 80 times higher and raising about $2 million.

The Turning Pink campaign is so successful that when things aren't pink anymore, the awareness lives on and so do the images.

"There is someone out there who's going to take a hint from all the pink," Brown said.

Paint the Town Pink, also featured in Cynthia Demos' report, is a community wide effort to raise awareness of the importance of breast cancer prevention, detection and treatment. Funds are also for women with breast cancer who plan to undergo breast reconstruction surgery.

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