Tragically, it's far too common. The often surprising stats about women's heart disease mortality are true. Heart disease this year will kill six times more women than breast cancer (more than all forms of cancer combined, in fact) yet the majority of women would guess that breast cancer is their biggest health threat, despite cure rates of 80-90%. The breast cancer folks have done a fabulous job in raising public awareness (and funds) for their cause. It's a world of PINK out there! They have successfully done this while (mistakenly) convincing us that breast cancer is our worst enemy. If we were actually wanting to combat our worst cancer enemy, we would all be raising awareness and funds for lung cancer, by far women's biggest cancer killer.

While not diminishing in any way the trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis, I am hopeful that campaigns like The Heart Truth (www.thehearttruth.ca ) or Go Red for Heart can do for heart disease awareness what the pink ribbon is doing for breast cancer.

More info on 'Myths & Facts About Heart Disease' at http://myheartsisters.org/about-women-and-heart-disease/myths-facts/