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Gray police officers wear pink badges for breast cancer

The agency started wearing the badges last year after an officer lost a loved one to the disease.

GRAY, Ga. — According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women in the United States, and is the second leading cause of death. 

To honor those with the diagnosis, the Gray Police Department wanted to show them.

"We had one of our officers come to us. He had lost his mom to breast cancer. He brought us the idea that he had seen where law enforcement were wearing pink badges," said Police Chief Adam Lowe.

Currently, there are over 290,000 new cases of breast cancer this year. 

In Georgia, there are over 9,000 cases. Doctors recommend looking into get a breast exam or a mammogram every two years after the age of 40. 

Lieutenant Thaxton Pennamon wears the badge to show his support of those who have breast cancer, especially since his sister has breast cancer.

"She been going through it now for about two years now so it means a lot to me," Lt. Pennamon said.  

Pennamon lost his mom to leukemia, and he is very close with his sister. He says his family is close knit.

"My sister, she's like my mother now," he said.

Since wearing the pink badges last year, Captain Eric Maynard says the community of Gray has been receptive to them.

"As we're out in the community, we actually had people come up to us and say 'hey why are you wearing a pink badge' and we tell them to bring awareness to breast cancer and to help them realize it's important to self exam and get checked out," Maynard says.

Breast cancer is a disease where the cells in the breast tissue change and cause a lump or mass. When the tumor in the breast is small, there are usually no symptoms. 

Doctors encourage bi-yearly mammograms for early detection. It is easily treatable when detected early. 

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