Awareness? I'll Take Advocacy and Action.
Today I am grateful for the people I work with, both adults and young people. I am also grateful for what others have taught me about advocacy when it comes to breast cancer and taking actions to help end it.
Besides Lisa Bonchek Adams and Dr. Gayle Sulik, bloggers like Nancy Stordahl at "Nancy's Point" and AnneMarie Ciccarella at "Chemobrain . . . In the Fog" have taught me a lot about the right kinds of awareness, what true advocacy in the breast cancer arena means, and they do it with humor and grace. I also highly respect the work done by the organization Breast Cancer Action http://www.bcaction.org/
We have been lulled into some false sense of progress regarding breast cancer. Certainly, there have been advances in treatment. But when it comes to the ultimate goals of curing the cancer people already have and preventing others from getting it, we have been seriously sidetracked by pink stuff to buy, misleading pictures of triumphant warriors in pink, and efforts to save body parts with catchy names.
I am grateful to better understand how we are hurting our own cause, and what I can do to try to help. I am only one person, but I can do my part. It is all any of us can do. I am also grateful for the writing I have done that has helped me affirm where I stand. It has been both validating and healing for me. Here is a link to a guest blog post I did for "Nancy's Point" a couple years ago. It is titled "The Sum of All My Parts."
Here is a link to a post I wrote last October, which includes a post from two years ago. In it, I appeal to others to take action, the kind of action that is already making a difference by helping pick up the pace of research into what causes cancer and what can cure it. More helpful than the latest pink item anyone of us could buy but often doesn't truly help the right efforts.
The Health of Women Study and the Army of Women are both efforts of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. HOW now has over 50, 500 women signed up. I have completed a few online questionnaires for this and it has been easy. The effort is gathering data from both women who have had breast cancer and those who have not in hopes of figuring out causes and prevention. Check it out at healthofwomenstudy.org
The AOW is now almost 377,000 strong. This requires a brief sign-up process and then you are notified when new studies are looking for research subjects and you can join the study if you fit the criteria. It is also for both women who have had BC and those who have not. Check it out at armyofwomen.org
Both of these efforts are totally voluntary and you choose what you wish to participate in. It is energizing to me to take actions like joining these two. I feel like I am trying to be part of the solution, to help move things beyond the stalemate we seem to be in.
Please consider joining one or both if you haven't already. You do make a difference.
Besides Lisa Bonchek Adams and Dr. Gayle Sulik, bloggers like Nancy Stordahl at "Nancy's Point" and AnneMarie Ciccarella at "Chemobrain . . . In the Fog" have taught me a lot about the right kinds of awareness, what true advocacy in the breast cancer arena means, and they do it with humor and grace. I also highly respect the work done by the organization Breast Cancer Action http://www.bcaction.org/
We have been lulled into some false sense of progress regarding breast cancer. Certainly, there have been advances in treatment. But when it comes to the ultimate goals of curing the cancer people already have and preventing others from getting it, we have been seriously sidetracked by pink stuff to buy, misleading pictures of triumphant warriors in pink, and efforts to save body parts with catchy names.
I am grateful to better understand how we are hurting our own cause, and what I can do to try to help. I am only one person, but I can do my part. It is all any of us can do. I am also grateful for the writing I have done that has helped me affirm where I stand. It has been both validating and healing for me. Here is a link to a guest blog post I did for "Nancy's Point" a couple years ago. It is titled "The Sum of All My Parts."
Here is a link to a post I wrote last October, which includes a post from two years ago. In it, I appeal to others to take action, the kind of action that is already making a difference by helping pick up the pace of research into what causes cancer and what can cure it. More helpful than the latest pink item anyone of us could buy but often doesn't truly help the right efforts.
The Health of Women Study and the Army of Women are both efforts of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. HOW now has over 50, 500 women signed up. I have completed a few online questionnaires for this and it has been easy. The effort is gathering data from both women who have had breast cancer and those who have not in hopes of figuring out causes and prevention. Check it out at healthofwomenstudy.org
The AOW is now almost 377,000 strong. This requires a brief sign-up process and then you are notified when new studies are looking for research subjects and you can join the study if you fit the criteria. It is also for both women who have had BC and those who have not. Check it out at armyofwomen.org
Both of these efforts are totally voluntary and you choose what you wish to participate in. It is energizing to me to take actions like joining these two. I feel like I am trying to be part of the solution, to help move things beyond the stalemate we seem to be in.
Please consider joining one or both if you haven't already. You do make a difference.
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