Oct 1, 2002/FW/ --- ctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. However, thousands of women, their families and friends who live with breast cancer daily are already aware of this terrible disease.

It is estimated that 203,500 new cases of breast cancer in women will occur in the U.S. in 2002, and that one in nine women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

To help fight the disease, a dream team of fashion designers, including Emme, Shoshanna Lonstein, Betsey Johnson, Liz Lange and Joseph Abboud among others, have joined forces to create one-of-a-kind "lids" (hats) that will be auctioned off on the Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives online auction from September 27 through October 7 to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Each hat up for auction tells an individual story, symbolizing the designer's personal experience with breast cancer and reflecting the relationships with those relatives and friends who have battled the disease. Hats vary from elegant to sporty to casual, suiting just about any fashion preference.

The Save Lids to Save Lives online auction is an extension of Yoplait's signature Save Lids to Save Lives® program, which this year for the fifth time, encourages yogurt-lovers to send in the special pink lids on yogurt containers to help fight breast cancer.

With the attainment of this year's goals of 7.5 million lids and the fulfillment of this year's commitment of another $750,000, Yoplait, its parent company General Mills and its Foundation will have donated over $10 million to the breast cancer cause over the past five years.