First, it was Galata Tower, one of the oldest towers in the world. Then, the historic Çırağan Palace, located on the Bosporus. This year, it is the Atatürk Cultural Center on the central Taksim Square that is illuminated in a pink light for three nights.

The goal: to raise awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month of the importance of diagnosing breast cancer early.

GE Healthcare Turkey leads this lighting campaign as part of its “It All Starts with Enlightenment” program that also includes a collaboration with the Istanbul Gönüllüleri Group (Istanbul Volunteers) and Associate Professor Dr. Filiz Çelebi, a faculty member in the Department of Radiology at Yeditepe University’s Faculty of Medicine, to conduct seminars for women on breast cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Although breast cancer is the most common cancer globally and causes the largest number of cancer deaths in women, it is preventable and treatable if diagnosed in the early stages.

Through its Global Breast Cancer Initiative, the World Health Organization seeks to reduce global breast cancer mortality by 2.5% per year between 2020 and 2040 based on three pillars: health promotion for early detection, timely diagnosis, and comprehensive breast cancer management.

“As GE Healthcare Turkey, we have been implementing projects to draw attention to breast cancer since 2012,” said Mustafa Yıldırım, Managing Director of GE Healthcare Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia. “Again, this year, we call attention to the fact that early diagnosis saves lives. And we are illuminating the Atatürk Cultural Center, one of the most popular buildings of Istanbul, in pink.”

Supporting Turkey’s healthcare sector for more than 30 years, GE Healthcare is currently the manufacturer of more than 60,000 systems and technologies used in more than 3,000 healthcare organizations across the country.

Read more here about GE Healthcare in Turkey and across the Middle East and North Africa.