They’re in the pink.
Breast-cancer charities were swamped with phone calls, tweets and Facebook comments yesterday after actress Angelina Jolie went public about her secret double mastectomy. They also hope to see a windfall in donations.
“We woke up with our phones buzzing, e-mails streaming starting at 5 a.m.,” said Carli Feinstein of Chicago’s Bright Pink, which focuses on early detection and prevention.
Many women said “how proud they were that someone of such national, even global, caliber used her platform,” Feinstein said.
Liona Chan of the Prevent Cancer Foundation said it saw a 140 percent hike in Facebook comments and double the number of tweets.
“Our average tweet receives one to two re-tweets and reaches an audience of about 5,000. The Angelina Jolie tweet received four re-tweets,” she said.
Erica Tullis, at Breast Cancer Charities of America, said reactions included criticism of the high cost of genetic testing like Jolie’s.