French breast cancer patients challenge the Pink October 'party'

Every October, pink ribbons return to lapels and shops and monuments are decked out in the colour, as Octobre Rose encourages screening for breast cancer and raises money for research.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in France, according to figures from Santé Publique France, the country's public health body. 

The French National Cancer Institute recorded 12,765 breast cancer deaths and 61,214 new cases in 2023. 

“For me, as for many patients, [October] is actually quite a hard month to get through,” Lénaïg, 38, told RFI.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, a few months after her mother died of the disease. She is currently in treatment again, after her cancer came back last year. 

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The reality behind the ribbon

Lénaïg said what bothers her most about Pink October is the gap between the campaign and the reality of being a patient. The opening “big musical show” beneath the Eiffel Tower, the illuminations and the glitter, can feel like “a party”, she explained.

When her disease returned in November 2025, Lénaïg sought psychological support. “The first appointment they were able to offer me was at the end of January,” she said.

That wait, in her view, contrasts starkly with the availability of skincare and make-up workshops offered in October. A mismatch exists between what she calls “this showcase month” and the care she is receiving at a highly regarded medical centre where, she says, staff and resources are lacking.

Lénaïg is a member of the Cancer Colère ("Cancer Anger") collective which – to draw attention to the gap between pink ribbon and reality – has renamed the event Octobre Colère.

Its aim is not to criticise people who find “comfort” in Pink October, Lénaïg said, but to demand more from it.

That anger found a political echo when Mathilde Panot, who leads MPs from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, announced she would not wear the pink ribbon – condemning the “absolute cynicism” of the campaign.

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Pollution and prevention

The Cancer Colère collective was created in 2025 amid opposition to France's Duplomb law, which aimed to ease constraints on the farming industry – including by allowing the use of two insecticides that had previously been banned.

Research is limited, but studies have found a link between some pesticides and a higher risk of breast cancer, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research found.

The collective brings together patients, farmers and doctors. It argues that Pink October focuses too heavily on screening and individual behaviour while paying too little attention to environmental and workplace exposure. 

During treatment, doctors asked Lénaïg about whether she used alcohol and tobacco. “But nobody ever asked me where I had worked and whether I had been in contact with pollutants,” she said.

Seeing politicians wear the pink ribbon when some backed the farming law is “pretty shocking”, Lénaïg said. “We'd like this problem to be tackled, rather than just having people join in this campaign on a kind of autopilot, without questioning how they voted.”

“I find we're still stuck at the individual level, and we're not helping people think about the system as a whole,” anthropologist Mounia El Kotni, a specialist in gender and health, told RFI. 

In the collective's campaign, she sees a way to link disease with living conditions and environmental exposure, calling this "a really important step".

Contacted by RFI, Ruban Rose ("Pink Ribbon"), the organisation behind the Eiffel Tower event, sought to distinguish its work from the wider campaign.

“Better understanding the causes, advancing treatment, improving quality of life and encouraging screening are complementary and inseparable,” it said in a written response. It also said it had launched a study into risk factors and barriers to screening.

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Screening gaps and 'pinkwashing'

In 2024, just 44 percent of eligible women took part in France's breast cancer screening programme, which offers a mammogram every two years to women aged 50-74.

That was down from 52.3 percent in 2011, figures from Santé Publique France show. Screening outside the programme is not included, but participation remains well below the European average.

The burden of increasing participation cannot rest on individual women, says French charity the League Against Cancer. It campaigns to bridge healthcare gaps and reach women who are isolated from the medical system, and for year-round engagement and education – outside of campaign months. 

Still, the Pink October campaign does raise money, it says. The month of October accounts for around 12-15 percent of the League's annual donations, Bilel Ben Hassine, its marketing director in charge of fundraising, told RFI.

Those funds are “substantial”, paying for research, prevention, advocacy and support for patients and their families.

But, he added, the campaign also attracts businesses looking to polish their image. “You can tell that for a lot of companies, it's a marketing event."

Lénaïg and other members of the Cancer Colère collective have begun cataloguing adverts for pink products, including sponges and hairbrushes, and questioning how much of the price of the product is actually donated and to whom.

She urges people to donate directly to treatment centres or patient organisations, rather than buying such products.

To avoid so-called "pinkwashing" – whereby companies use "cause marketing" to boost profits and their image, without making a meaningful contribution to that cause – the League Against Cancer accepts just 4 percent of the approaches from companies it receives. These are vetted for sincerity, and partners they work with must pass on prevention messages.

For promotions where money is donated for every product bought, the League checks that prices have not been raised beforehand. 

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An imperfect platform

Mistrust of Pink October is also linked to its origins. The first breast cancer awareness week took place in 1985 in the United States – backed by Imperial Chemical Industries, a British group that manufactured pesticides as well as tamoxifen, a breast cancer treatment.

A 1993 investigation by US newspaper Metro Times, later reported on by French daily Le Monde, found that the company's funding gave it power of veto over campaign messages. The group's medicines and farm chemicals businesses have since been separated.

Pink October and its famous ribbon arrived in France in 1994, launched by cosmetics group Estée Lauder and Marie Claire magazine.

Mélanie Courtier, director of the organisation Jeune & Rose ("Young and Pink"), which supports young women affected by breast cancer, is critical of the nature of Pink October, saying its constant use of pink can give a simplistic picture of the disease.

However, what worries her more is that an imperfect but vital campaign could be discredited.

“[Pink October] is also what allows us to work the other 11 months of the year and to fund the free services offered to patients,” she told RFI. “These fights aren't at odds with each other.”

The organisation works with secondary school students, and when town councils approach it to participate, it asks for prevention workshops and talks to be held locally – rather than just the lighting up of local landmarks. 

“If [things are] just coloured in pink, that's not enough," she says. 

October gives the organisation a “window” in which younger patients' voices can be heard, she added, since they remain a “blind spot” in prevention policies.

The aim is to use the attention the October campaign draws – through whatever means – to get their concerns across.

“If it weren't for Pink October, these town councils, these schools, these organisations wouldn't even call us.”

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Aurore Lartigue.