Why I’ll wear black, not pink, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In an opinion piece for Daily Maverick, Dr Liana Roodt, a breast and endocrine surgeon and founder of Project Flamingo, argues against the traditional practice of wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Instead, she chooses to wear black, symbolizing reflection and grief over the preventable suffering that has become normalized in the healthcare system.

Roodt highlights the numerous systemic failures she has witnessed in her work, including patients waiting months for biopsies, hospitals operating without essential equipment, and women with curable cancer becoming palliative due to a lack of timely treatment. She emphasizes that while progress has been made, there is still a significant issue of tolerance for the system's failures, which should be a matter of national concern.

Roodt urges South Africans to question why they allow these problems to persist and to demand accountability from those responsible for the healthcare system's performance.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.