October is Breast Cancer Awareness month in Tonga and it started with a Pink Cycle ride in Nuku'alofa on Saturday.
The treasurer of the Breast Cancer Society she hopes the whole community can think more about the condition and take earlier steps to save women's lives.
Christine 'Utu'atu says statistics are difficult to gather when some people pass away without being diagnosed with the condition.
She says early detection is the key and she hopes families will encourage women to see their doctors for screening.
She says breast cancer is a big problem in the Kingdom.
"It's not that its more prevalent in tonga than in other places, but it's just that we have a higher death rate because of people being kind of shy about the topic and so forth. But now that our Breast Cancer Society's been around for a few years, we're finding that many more people are willing to talk about it and get involved and refer their relatives and stuff to us to help counsel them to convince them to go and get help."
