If wishes came true, cancer would have been defeated decades ago.

But it takes more than wishes. Hard work, fueled by copious donations, is chipping away at the edges of the beast. Breast cancer, the most common of all cancers among women, is among the targets for which a cure is so urgently sought.

This week, part of the Gazette-Journal turns pink in a special section dedicated to breast cancer research, stories, information and hope. We have been nobly supported in this venture by a regiment of advertisers, and are donating a portion of the proceeds from their messages to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

This special section got its genesis in the spring with a notice from Abitibi-Bowater, the company which makes the newsprint upon which these words are printed, that it was planning a special run of pink newsprint. It wondered if we were interested in using it to promote the universal breast cancer message.

We talked about it and decided it was worth a try.

That attempt met a warm response in the community. When you read Section C this week, you hold in your hands a report on the hopes and hard work of many of our fellow citizens. All have labored, together, to consign breast cancer to the dust heap of medical history. It would be a wonderful thing to have a part in making the wish, that breast cancer can become just a bad memory, come true.