How To Make A Beaded Cancer Awareness Bracelet

Making a beaded cancer awareness bracelet for yourself, your loved ones, and friends is not just a easy way to honor those afflicted with cancer, but to show your support for bring more knowledge to how deeply and directly cancer affects so many.

When you wear a beaded cancer awareness bracelet people will take notice of it. They will ask questions and when you share your reasons for wearing it, the bracelet puts a face to the life threatening disease.

When my mother was diagnosed with Appendix cancer, I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do to help her and show my support except cook dinners during her surgery recoveries and chemo sessions and bring her Ensure drinks even when she didn't want to drink them. Her cancer, is a very rare one that very little people know about. Under 1000 people a year are diagnosed with appendix cancer each year and the outlook in the beginning was not good. My mother, being the super women that she is, fought through it, after 2 major surgeries and 6 months of chemo there is no trace of cancer let on the CT scans she has done regularly.

One of the things I was able to do was to make beaded cancer awareness bracelets for her, myself, my sister, and all the women in our family. Once I found the color that relate to her cancer I went in search for beads that complimented each other as well as the sterling silver awareness charms. The bracelets turned out fantastic and you can make them too.

• Silver awareness ribbon charms
• At Least 3 different complimentry beads. At least one that matches the color associated with the cancer you are making them for. I buy my beads at Shipwreckbeads.com
  
• Durable stretch elastic beading cord
• Clasps or Clear Nail Polish
  

Once you have all your supplies lay them out. Using you elastic beading cord attach part of the clasp and pull the knotted beading cord tight. Using clear nail polish and leaving it to dry can help seal the knot.

You don't have to use a clasp with elastic beading cord if your bracelet is stretch and wide enough to just slip on the wrist. In this case, tie a knot in one end so that the beads do not come off, leaving enough room to be able to tie it to the other end after you have put on your beads.

Begin stringing the beads. With the first bracelet, work out different patterns until you find the one you like. Depending on the size of your beads you will want 20 to 30 per adult bracelet. When you have found the perfect pattern use this as a guide to make as many as you plan to give out. When your down. Tie them up or add the other part of the clasp and add some clear nail polish to seal the knots.

• Pink - Breast
• Purple - Pancreas
• Lavender - Unspecified Cancer
• Blue - Colon, Colorectal(also brown), Esophageal
• White - Bone
• Grey - Brain
• Amber - Appendix, Childhood Cancers
• Orange - Leukemia (also green)
• Teal - Ovarian, Uterine, Cervical
• Green - Leukemia (also orange), Kidney
  
• Violet - Testicular
• Yellow - Bladder, Liver
• Pearl - Lung
• Gold - Duodenal
• Pink and Blue - Male Breast Cancer
• Red and White - Oral, Neck, Head
  

My mother was lucky. 500k medical bills later and thanks to her health insurance my parents out of pocket costs were under $2,500, this includes hotel, gas, and food for a surgery we had to travel for. Not all families are so lucky. As the family member or friend of a cancer survivor, you can sell the bracelets and pass on the money to help with the medical costs.

For under $30 I was able to make 20 awareness bracelets. These could have easily been sold for $10-$15 each. Because my out of pocket was so low and my parents didn't NEED the money I felt better just giving them out to family and friends.

If your intentions in selling the bracelets are to provide extra money for medical expenses, people who know the cancer survivior will not find this tacky. They will want to help.