All proceeds will go to the Canadian Cancer Society
Browsing Ag Growth International’s (AGI) website shows farm equipment in different colours.
But for October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the organization is going pink with a piece of machinery.
Until the end of the month, the company’s manufacturing team in Swift Current, Sask., is auctioning off a pink UCX³ U-trough belt conveyor with all proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society.
This unit is normally black and orange.
The initiative is part of AGI’s Conveyor for a Cause campaign, said Tom Firth, general manager of AGI’s Swift Current facility.
“I pitched the idea several years ago actually and we just never got around to doing it,” he told Farms.com. “You know, nobody’s ever done this before, so we just turned a lighthearted discussion over lunch one day into a reality several years later.”
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in Canada, and approximately one in eight Canadian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Speaking with customers and others in AGI’s network shows that cancer doesn’t only affect the person who is ill.
“We’ve had members of our staff that have gone through cancer treatments or have had family members that have gone through it even as recently as in the last six months,” Firth said, adding that manufacturing staff took extra care when producing the pink conveyor.
The auction runs until Oct. 31 and is open to Canadian residents.
As of Oct. 18, the highest bid is $50,000.
Bids must be at least $500 more than the highest bid to be considered.
The farm family who receives the conveyor needs recognition too, Firth says.
“Whoever purchases this is going to have a vested interest in supporting the Canadian Cancer Society,” he said. “So, I think it’s also important that we acknowledge the person that’s buying this. The farmers in Wester Canada are an awesome group. We know that.”
People can also choose to donate to the Conveyor for a Cause campaign.
This campaign is open until November 30, 2024, and has a goal of raising $10,000.
As of Oct. 18, Canadians have donated $1,175.
AGI’s pink conveyor isn’t the only way the ag community has supported breast cancer awareness in the past.
Check out this list of 10 times ag went pink to raise awareness about breast cancer.
Farms.com has also spoken with multiple breast cancer survivors.
In 2023, for example, Jaclinn McNiven, a grain farmer from Chinook, Alta., told Farms.com about her experience after receiving her diagnosis of triple-negative breast cancer in Stage 2 in July 2022.
McNiven’s family has a history of breast cancer as her mom had it too.
Knowing she was at higher risk, McNiven made regular breast cancer screenings part of her health plan at age 38. That’s two years before the Canadian Cancer Society’s recommendations for beginning to have breast cancer discussions with a doctor.
“I kept having to go every six months for mammograms and ultrasounds because the doctors kept seeing a shadow,” she told Farms.com. “It got missed and the tumor was about an inch big. It was really disappointing because I tried to be so diligent.”
A food scientist and researcher with the Global Food Institute for Food Security in Saskatoon, Sask., had difficulties accepting her diagnosis.
“I was in denial. I couldn’t believe it,” Rana Mustafa told Farms.com about her March 2022 diagnosis. “I ate well and exercised; I had no reason to think this disease would come for me. I just started a new job and I thought I’d lose that job. I was scared.”
But for Mustafa, the hair loss associated with chemotherapy proved to be the hardest part of her journey.
She loved her long hair and what it represented.
“My hair falling out was the most traumatic experience,” she said. “I’ve always had long hair and my hair was part of my identity. My partner loved my hair and people complimented me on my long hair. I was very attached to it. I looked into cold capping and anything I could to try to save my hair.”