Kicking off this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Pink Ribbon Walk 2018 took place at the Singapore Sports Hub on 6 October.
It brought together a diverse cross-section of Singaporeans and Singapore residents – more than 4,000 in all according registration figures.
With Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office – and Breast Cancer Foundation Patron – Indranee Rajah in attendance (not to mention a full cast of Star Wars characters), about 1,900 people participated in a mass dance prior to the walk.
The multicultural dance, dubbed the Pink Ribbon Groove, was led by breast cancer survivors and their caregivers along with volunteers and organisers.
That number, 1,900, represents the number of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in Singapore each year. In fact, one in every 14 women here will face a battle with the disease before they turn 75.
And still, according to 2016 figures from the Health Promotion Board, less than half of women between the ages of 50 and 69 had been screened for breast cancer in the preceding two years. That’s why Breast Cancer Awareness Month is as important as ever.
The theme for this year’s Pink Ribbon Walk was “Every Woman Matters”, but on the backs of participants’ T-shirts, it was cleverly stylised as “Every (Wo)man Matters”.
Indeed, if there’s one thing you leave with after attending the walk – apart from a sense of solidarity and memories of countless smiles – it’s the knowledge that the fight against breast cancer is a fight we’re all in together.
For more information, visit the Breast Cancer Foundation website here.
Photos by: Kurt Ganapathy
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![“Growing up in Singapore, we’ve been taught from a very young age that we are a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. Yet, the portrayal of this diversity in our media wasn’t reflecting well. It often fell short, reducing minority races to mere caricatures.
Determined to change this narrative, I made it my mission as an actor to bring authentic representation to my work. And there are many ways to do that. For me, I chose to be mindful of the roles I play and portray.
I meticulously selected roles, even telling my agents to send me for castings which were not intended for my race. I strongly believe that race is a social construct that can be overridden by the actual acting work. True talent transcends racial boundaries.
My persistence paid off when my agency rolled the dice on me, submitting my name for auditions beyond traditional ethnic roles. I knew I was making strides because I was getting callbacks to the later rounds.
Soon enough, the ‘gamble’ paid off. The breakthrough came when I was called in to audition for the St Patrick's Day campaign by Guinness. I successfully booked it, and went on to be the only Indian in the regional commercial that aired across Southeast Asia.
That job gave me the confirmation that I should continue striving for equal representation. Shortly after, another opportunity came when Air New Zealand (@airnz) did a casting for a couple to star in their new commercial. It was to promote travel between Singapore and New Zealand.
Getting that job was monumental for me, because not only did we get to portray an interracial Singaporean couple, we did it for an international audience. It was the first commercial between the two countries when borders reopened post-COVID.
Bringing the same energy when I moved to New York City (NYC), I kept auditioning for roles that weren’t specifically for people of my ethnicity. However, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t auditioning for roles that were for South Asians too.
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