<p>Breast cancer affects 90,000 women every year across Pakistan. 40,000 or 44% of these women die. The reason? They start getting treated for breast cancer too late.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Breast cancer treatment is considered to be most effective if started early; research puts the <g class="gr_ gr_75 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" id="75" data-gr-id="75">5 year</g> survival rate of breast cancer treated at stage 1, at nearly 100%. This number goes down to about 20%, for stage 4 cancer. What this means is that if each case of breast cancer is caught early, almost all patients with breast cancer can be treated successfully.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The question that arises then is, why aren&#39;t Pakistani women getting treated early? Why is it that instead of close to 0% deaths, we have 44% deaths? The reason can boil down to a few key points: lack of awareness, fear of being diagnosed and ostracised by husbands and relatives, and women pushing their own health on the backburner, behind their children and families.</p><p>Keeping all these aspects in consideration, this y​ear the Aga Khan University Hospital&#39;s &quot;Let&#39;s Defeat Breast Cancer Together&quot; campaign not only focused on women but also engaged men to increase their awareness about the disease, highlighting the important role they play in society. The aim was to motivate men to encourage their wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters to get screened regularly for breast cancer.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Following a full month of activities, including discounted screening mammograms, awareness talks in Karachi and Hyderabad, a Facebook Live Session, Pink Fridays, videos, quiz competitions, and other programmes. The Pink Walk held at The Aga Khan University Sports and Rehabilitation Centre brought people together on Friday, 26 October 2017. The &#39;Pink Walk&#39; this year attracted over 400 men, women and children from different backgrounds to come together to support this important cause.</p><p>A <g class="gr_ gr_70 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" id="70" data-gr-id="70">17 year</g> Breast Cancer survivor commented &quot;my cancer was diagnosed through a breast mammogram. I was so surprised because I was not sick, I was always healthy. Because it was diagnosed early, my life was saved, and that was 17 years ago&quot;.</p><p> </p>