whether they’re pinned to someone’s chest, stuck to the back of a car window or emblazoned onto a t-shirt, cancer ribbons are a ubiquitous sign of cancer awareness.
ribbons of all colours can be seen throughout the year as people show their support for all types of the disease. some of the more common ones include pink for breast cancer awareness and orange for blood cancer, however, there are many others.
but the idea to use ribbons to raise awareness for a cause didn’t start with cancer. in fact,
the concept dates back to the middle ages, when yellow ribbons were given to knights. they were later associated with the united states army to symbolize that a loved one is serving their country. penny laingen, whose husband was a hostage in iran, was apparently the first to use the ribbon in this way, tying yellow ribbons around trees after getting the idea from the pop act dawn’s song,
tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree.
the pink ribbon made its debut in 1992, after alexandra penney, editor-in-chief of self magazine, created it to mark breast cancer awareness month, using cosmetic companies to distribute them in stores. since then, ribbons have been used to mark a variety of health issues, from alzheimer’s (purple) and aids (red) to bipolar disorder (green) and brain disorders (silver), but cancer tends to be the disease most often associated with awareness ribbons.
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