We at the Noreen Fraser Foundation are honored to be partnering with LIFETIME as a member of the FIVE Coalition as the network enters its 17th year of supporting National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. The FIVE Coalition is presented in conjunction with FIVE, a star-studded Original Movie directed by Jennifer Aniston, Patty Jenkins, Alicia Keys, Demi Moore and Penelope Spheeris. FIVE takes a bold, honest and irreverent look at breast cancer told through the personal stories of five women.

The FIVE Coalition is a network of organizations providing ways for all to take action in the fight against breast cancer, and the Noreen Fraser Foundation is pleased to stand with six other top nonprofits to create an unparalleled system of support and resources for breast cancer survivors, patients, advocates and their friends and families.

Read Noreen’s Fox News Blog Post about FIVE HERE.

Learn more about FIVE HERE.

Download the FIVE Discussion Guide HERE.

Noreen Fraser Penelope Spheeris at FIVE Premiere

Michelle McBride and Noreen Fraser at FIVE Premiere

ABOUT LIFETIME’S BREAST CANCER ADVOCACY EFFORTS

To empower the Lifetime audience with support, resources and ways to take action in the fight against breast cancer, Lifetime created the FIVE Coalition with today’s leading national organizations including the Dr. Susan Love ResearchFoundation, LIVESTRONG, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, the Noreen Fraser Foundation, the Prevent CancerFoundation, Stand Up to Cancer and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

An exclusive public service announcement by Demi Moore will urge all to join in the fight to stop breast cancer and will premiere on October 10th during the airing of FIVE.

Long at the forefront in the ongoing battle to fight breast cancer, for more than 17 years Lifetime’s Stop Breast Cancer for Life initiative has been dedicated to offering women the most up-to-date, comprehensive information about the disease. Reaching women and families across the country in partnership with its cable affiliates, advertising sponsors and leading non-profit organizations, Lifetime has collected more than 26 million petition signatures to urge Congress to pass the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which would end “drive-through mastectomies,” the practice where women are sometimes forced to leave the hospital just hours after invasive breast surgery. Lifetime and its audience are now urging the health insurance industry to allow women to stay in the hospital up to 48 hours after a mastectomy as a standard of care.

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths among women, affecting one in every eight females, with one in 35 of those women often dying from the disease. It is estimated that nearly 200,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, with 40,000 deaths attributed to the disease each year. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among African American women, who are more likely to die from the disease than other ethnicities due to later detection and delayed treatment. Among Hispanic women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. There are currently 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

Past Lifetime Original Movies addressing breast cancer include Living Proof, produced by Renée Zellweger and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Drop Dead Diva), and starring Harry Connick Jr., Amanda Bynes, Angie Harmon, Amy Madigan and others; the Emmy® Award nominated Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, with Sarah Chalke; and Matters of Life & Dating, starring Ricki Lake.

Lifetime’s Five shares the vision of Walgreens Way to Well Commitment, an initiative aimed at disease prevention and improving everyday health through education and early detection of today’s leading diseases – cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Working with the nation’s leading health organizations, Walgreens is bringing $100 million in health testing services, preventive health care resources and charitable programs to its stores nationwide over the next four years.

As part of the Way to Well Commitment, Walgreens wants to bring to the forefront the importance of prevention and early detection, which is why in October, Walgreens prescription bottles will have pink caps with the image of a pink ribbon and the message “Get screened for early detection.”

As part of its partnership with Five, Walgreens pink prescription caps will be featured in Mia and Pearl, and will play an important role in the first scene of Pearl as a reminder a woman needed to get a mammogram – which will ultimately save her life.

In addition to the pink caps, Walgreens and its customers, through in-store donation programs in October of 2011 and October of 2012, will donate a minimum of $1 Million to Susan G. Komen for the Cure to support Breast Self Awareness programs, including mammograms, in support of the fight against breast cancer.