Male breast cancer support and awareness raised through manicures

Local hair and nail salons have been hosting male breast cancer awareness events during the month of October.

Throughout the month, various salons across Ontario participated in an event known as ManiCURES where participants, male or female, would get manicures and have their fingernails painted pink with the breast cancer ribbon on top.

“Anytime someone did either a basic manicure or shellac manicure using pink nail lacquer, we donated $2.50 per manicure to the Canadian Cancer Society,” said Courtney Rivait, assistant manager of Harmony Day Spa. “Quite a few people were eager to participate.”

According to Rivait, one man came in and donated $100 towards the event. He made the donation because his daughter-in-law is a cancer survivor. The spa will forward all proceeds to the Cancer Society from the event at the end of October.

Breast cancer is well known among people as being a disease in women. Men account for five per cent of all breast cancer cases and most people are unaware they can also develop the disease, according to Cathy Mombourquette, communications coordinator at Windsor Regional Hospital.

“The BRCA gene can predispose men to getting breast cancer,” said Mombourquette. “This is a gene a man would inherit from his parents.”

According to Mombourquette, the treatment and outcomes for men with breast cancer are the same as women with breast cancer. Increased awareness and decreasing the social stigma for men with breast cancer would help men who suffer from the disease.

Male breast cancer survivor John Toth credits his dogs in helping detect his breast cancer after noticing pain when they pounced on him.

“They did a biopsy and my only option was removal of the lumps,” Toth said. “It was behind the nipple on my right side.”

According to Toth, his treatment was a hormone blocker that blocks female hormones that trigger the receptors in the cell. He said his family history had something to do with the development of his cancer. Since his mother had a history of breast cancer and died from it at 65, Toth was 56 and thought it would be in his best interest to go and get it checked out.

“My advice to men: don’t be afraid of a doctor. If you want to live a long life you better go do it,” said Toth. “If you see something unusual about your body, you better get in there because we don’t do it enough. Women are notorious for doing it, we’re not. We’re abstainers.”