October is the national awareness month for breast cancer awareness and support. The annual campaign strives to increase awareness of the early signs and stages of the disease, as well as raise funds to research a cure. We’ve put together a list of 3D prints for breast cancer support to give to those battling as a symbol of strength, or as a reminder to get checked annually by your doctor and do a self exam once a month at home. For more information on early diagnosis head over to National Breast Cancer Foundation.

3D Prints for Breast Cancer Support and Awareness

I searched around my usual design file sites to find 3D prints for breast cancer support and awareness, and while there are a considerable amount of files to download, many appear to have never been printed and are just that – files. It’s been mentioned before on the WTFFF?! podcast that if you are going to take the time to design a 3D print item, you have to take the time to actually 3D print it. So not only were there not many actual prints to pick from, the 3D prints for breast cancer support or awareness weren’t all that great. If you’re going to design it, print it so we can feature you! Those that that made the list are actually fantastic, and I can see them being used, worn, or given out at fundraisers for the cure, etc.

Shapeways really caught my eye this time around due many of the 3D prints for breast cancer being done in higher end materials like their metals. I have no doubt that the designers originally tested out their 3D print files in PLA or ABS plastic on their at home machines or at a makerspace and then sent them off once the file was just right to be done in steel or platinum.

The “__ Survived the Big C” collection by Solid Tales Designs can be customized to say my dad, my brother, or I survived and can be worn as a pin or used as a key fob. This design as well as the ribbon pin will have a certain percentage of the cost go to the American Cancer Society or to Pink Ribbon Society. I love the option of rose gold as a 3D print material, especially for 3D prints for breast cancer awareness or support since pink is the ribbon color for breast cancer and I think it shows up really well done in the ribbon pendant and ribbon brooch below.

Classic Awareness Ribbon by Layers by Design on Shapeways

My Dad Survived the Big C by Solid Tales Designs on Shapeways

Ribbon Pin Fundraiser by Debbie Claxton on Shapeways

Steel Renee Slide for Fitbit by Byteen on Shapeways

There are so many walks like the Susan G. Komen and races for the cure that I think the Fitbit slide above is a great way to accessorize a boring black band into a piece of fitness “jewelry” of something you support. Byteen’s shop on Shapways has a bunch of other designs that I can see being 3D printed for any fitness event or team logo, or just something to make a boring black Fitbit look a little nicer for a higher end event. At any of the fundraising walks or events, these next four 3D prints for breast cancer support would be great 3D print giveaways for participants.

Often times at a local community fair event you’ll find the smaller hospitals or doctors clinics with a booth and I think it would be a good way to get more passerby to come up to their booth if they had some low sugar sugar cookies in the ribbon design cookie cutter so they could share life saving information about how the early signs of cancer and how to be on the look out for it. They can be baked up and iced in any color for the type of cancer they are providing information on (orange for leukemia, purple for pancreatic, etc). Our friend Vicky Somma created these lovely stand up ribbons with a sweet little phrase on them that can be customized if you want some other phrase that’s a max of 40 characters. That’s what we love about 3D printing – you can make exactly what you want and customize it to say exactly what you need it to say.

Cancer Ribbon Encouragement by Karen5R on Thingiverse

Breast Cancer Ribbon by Megahertz77 on Thingiverse

Ribbon Cookie Cutter by Bakerlogy on Etsy

Standing Cancer Ribbon by TGAW on Shapeways

Awareness Ribbon by AwesomeA on Thingiverse

NOTE FROM TRACY HAZZARD:

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is important to me personally. On 9/11 I was not only anxiously watching the news like everyone else, but anxiously sitting next to the phone waiting for a call from my mom. She was all alone in an upstate NY medical office getting a life altering diagnosis of breast cancer after a routine mammogram at the age of 53. After chemo and radiation therapy, she has been cancer-free for 15 years. I am forever grateful to the push that comes every October to remind us that these routine exams save lives. Whether you get mammograms, ultrasounds, thermograms, or just remember to self-check, this global push saves lives through early detection. Right now, it is reminding me to call and make my appointment for me, for Tom, for my mom and for my daughters – they all need me to be healthy. Please make sure the women you love get checked as well.

Be sure and tag @3DStartPoint with your 3D Prints for breast cancer (or any cancer) support and awareness designs and models anywhere on social media.

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