I KNOW

So so far this month is- anti-bullying awareness month, breast cancer awareness month, black history month, mental health month... it's probably also "small dogs with diabetes month" and "people who constantly misplace teaspoons week" for all I bloody know.

I'M AWARE

I'M AWARE THAT ALL THESE THINGS EXIST. (Well except the people misplacing teaspoons stuff hasn't actually made its way to me yet, if I'm going to be totally honest.)

But I'm sorry, I don't see the point of it being a something "week" or "month" if you're not going to do something with it. Hold a fundraiser, have an event, put out some educational material, great, but don't just name a month after something. What is that supposed to achieve? And who vets this anyway? There's only 12 months in a year, and a hell of a lot of good causes. How many things can one month be before it stops counting any more? How many diseases and injured animals do I need to think about (and who does that help anyway)?

Some causes people don't even know about. Fine. Certain civil rights problems, issues in far-away places that people don't know about. Rare conditions, perhaps, that people should look for a warning sign of. Support groups for people that will benefit from one, great. These things, okay, they probably do just need to start by raising awareness of the issue.

But for everything else, can we please *DO* something with meaningless publicity. I don't need my diary to say it's the day of a disease or people to post their facebook status saying that they've heard of someone who was once injured, because that's just reminding me of things that I know exist. Or profile pictures of cartoons that are supposed to magically stop child abuse through the power of line drawings. Or "secret" statuses about the colour of our bras that somehow makes breast cancer stop happening.

And PLEASE stop with the adverts on TV that just make you cry. I can't help you while I'm in tears. And making me feel that bad about something doesn't make me reach for my chequebook, either.

How about "everyone give a sandwich to a homeless person day"? Or "remind a guy to check himself for testicular lumps day"? Or "everyone who can manage it go for a 20-minute jog week"? At least they'd achieve something, however small.