BC Advocacy: What Lit My Fire
Today I am grateful for the beautiful reds, oranges and yellows of the fall colors surrounding us. I am also grateful to be a morning person.
Yesterday I mentioned that I haven't been as fired up lately to write about aspects of the breast cancer debate. And it is a debate on many fronts. But what initially got me fired up?
*The diagnoses of my sister Zita in 2004 and my sister Mary Jo in 2006 certainly raised my concern and got me reading more and paying more attention.
*That ramped up with my own diagnosis in 2008. You can be only so aware and so concerned when it isn't you. It becomes a whole different ballgame when it is YOU.
*The many conversations I had with my friend Jenny, diagnosed less than a month after I was. Those conversations, our similarities and differences in approach, and the book we wrote together about our experiences really helped me find my voice as an advocate for myself and others.
*Reading Audre Lorde's book The Cancer Journals and her thoughts on mastectomy just a few short months after my own mastectomies.
*Taking part in the first "Voices of Hope" DVD project. Being in this video and sharing my scars in such a way solidified my acceptance and my confidence in my own story and voice.
*Discovering and reading Gayle Sulik's book Pink Ribbon Blues and following her blog of the same name.
I have had the privilege of having three guest posts on Pink Ribbon Blues. The first one was titled "What Lies Beneath." You can read it here. I think it captures some of the fire. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on what is both deeply personal and, in my opinion, the right kind of awareness.
I am grateful for the life experiences that together have made me an advocate-writer for genuine information and a supporter of real action for the cause of ending BC.
Yesterday I mentioned that I haven't been as fired up lately to write about aspects of the breast cancer debate. And it is a debate on many fronts. But what initially got me fired up?
*The diagnoses of my sister Zita in 2004 and my sister Mary Jo in 2006 certainly raised my concern and got me reading more and paying more attention.
*That ramped up with my own diagnosis in 2008. You can be only so aware and so concerned when it isn't you. It becomes a whole different ballgame when it is YOU.
*The many conversations I had with my friend Jenny, diagnosed less than a month after I was. Those conversations, our similarities and differences in approach, and the book we wrote together about our experiences really helped me find my voice as an advocate for myself and others.
*Reading Audre Lorde's book The Cancer Journals and her thoughts on mastectomy just a few short months after my own mastectomies.
*Taking part in the first "Voices of Hope" DVD project. Being in this video and sharing my scars in such a way solidified my acceptance and my confidence in my own story and voice.
*Discovering and reading Gayle Sulik's book Pink Ribbon Blues and following her blog of the same name.
I have had the privilege of having three guest posts on Pink Ribbon Blues. The first one was titled "What Lies Beneath." You can read it here. I think it captures some of the fire. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on what is both deeply personal and, in my opinion, the right kind of awareness.
I am grateful for the life experiences that together have made me an advocate-writer for genuine information and a supporter of real action for the cause of ending BC.
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