The World GO Day Story

Ovarian, uterine, cervical, and other gynecological cancers are among the most common cancers affecting women. However, they are not very well known by the general public nor by policy-makers and other stakeholders. Women themselves may be unaware of the (sometimes vague) symptoms or may be too embarrassed to consult a doctor, and a stigma associated with these diagnoses lingers.

ENGAGe (the European Network of Gynaecological Cancer Advocacy Groups), part of ESGO (European Society of Gynaecological Oncology), was well aware of the need to improve awareness on gynecological cancers and decided to establish a special day for this, involving women, caregivers, doctors, policy-makers and pharmaceutical companies.

Thus, World Gynecologic Oncology Day (World GO Day) was born.

World GO Day: five cancers, one logo, and one color

The first step was to design a logo that could symbolize the five gynae cancers. This was soon done by merging a sketch of the female reproductive organs and the cancer ribbon and coloring it with five hues: teal for ovarian, pale pink for uterine, fuchsia for cervix, light purple for vulvar, and French blue for vaginal.

Dark purple was selected as one color to represent all of others. It now appears on t-shirts, balloons, pins, social media posts, and other materials produced for World GO Day year after year.