"WTF with all the Breast Cancer?!"

Okay so they didn't actually swear about it, but a friend of mine has juvenile arthritis. May is the official arthritis month. Didn't know that?
Hm.

Well I bet you knew that October is Cancer month, although it might as well be breast cancer month. Football teams wear pink on their uniforms, skyscrapers are covered by banners and projectors of the unmistakable pink ribbon, and a new breast cancer walk is announced every day in another city.

Now don't get me wrong, any type of cancer is awful and a cure is desperately needed. But this friend of mine, well he is pissed.
Sure, people know about arthritis, but not many know about juvenile arthritis, generally categorized as RJA, a painful inflammation of the joints within children under the age of 18.

Anyway, he says, "Everybody knows about breast cancer! Who can possibly look at anything pink and not think of breast cancer?"
He continues,
But who knows about RJA? Who knows that it can happen to anyone? That it is for life? That it has torn families apart and left people broken, metaphorically and literally?
NOBODY!
I don't think one problem is more important than the other, it is just that both deserve as much attention. And cancer can go into remission. With arthritis, typically after the arthritis becomes dormant, if the doctors can manage it, then usually the child and family have to deal with the side effects of the disease and treatment? Side effects include liver failure, eroded bones and cartilage, kidney failure, stomach ulcers, and/or other diseases such as crohn's to name a few.

Who? WHO? Nobody knows.
Nobody knows-The football players can't even get freaking breast cancer!
WE need the spotlight now and nobody cares to share it. People make bank on breast cancer too! Tee shirts, wrist bands, paper pads, ribbons, cups, hats, jewelry, pens, stocking stuffers, candy, shoe laces, shorts, scarves, beanie babies, and a few more...


I am sure I missed a few other things he said.

But it put me in a pickle. Neither (breast cancer or RJA) deserves more or less attention, each is just as important...but is it bad to want to compete with breast cancer? It seems more like a franchise now, and the treatment is...well better. Not to mention they have an endless supply of research funding. I heard the Arthritis Foundation is actually down on donations this year.

Again, not picking one over the other or anything, just fruit for thought.