Awareness, Advocacy, Action: Keep them all growing . . .
Today I am grateful for exercise and endorphins, bananas and oatmeal.
My thoughts and prayers go out to my Uncle Nilus and his six children and their families. Aunt Jenny, my dad's sister, passed away Sunday evening at age 87. Rest in peace Aunt Jenny.
Happy birthday to my sister Danita today and Happy Halloween to all.
It is the last day of October and I haven't written a word on this blog this month about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Part of that had to do with it being a busy month in many other ways. Part of it had to do with feeling like taking a break from all the discussion and hype surrounding Pinktober.
If any day in this month of awareness needed to be hyped more, it is October 13. This is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. The 40,000 breast cancer deaths a year, pretty much unchanged over the last 2 decades, are deaths from metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Cancer within the breast is not fatal, except maybe to the breast it is in. MBC is cancer that spreads from the breast to places like the lungs, liver, bones, and brain.
MBC is deadly and there is no cure. Be aware of that and if a donation or purchase is made, consider if it will help move forward research that will find more treatment and a cure. Understand what metastatic breast cancer is, and that it can happen to anyone. It can be the original diagnosis, or it can start as early stage BC and sooner or later become metastatic.
One of the scariest statistics to me on this scary Halloween is that 30% of early stage breast cancer diagnoses will one day metastasize. Diagnoses like mine. That is a 30% I hope the other BC patients I care about and myself are never, ever part of.
Whether or not you have had breast cancer yourself, you know someone who has. Another way to help is to become part of the Army of Women and also the Health of Women Study. Both of these help move research forward faster, and they are in need of all women, regardless of whether or not you have had cancer. They are sponsored by the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. You can't get much more reputable than Dr. Susan Love and her work.
This post includes some of my other writing on this topic, as well as some of the writers I have appreciated reading.
Awareness, advocacy, and action all start with telling our own truths, our own BC stories. Mine starts with living gratefully each day, because each day is a gift. Truths like research is what will lead to a cure, so research should get the most funding. Truths like each woman and man with breast cancer is a unique individual worthy of making the decisions that make sense to them. That may or may not involve anything pink.
My thoughts and prayers go out to my Uncle Nilus and his six children and their families. Aunt Jenny, my dad's sister, passed away Sunday evening at age 87. Rest in peace Aunt Jenny.
Happy birthday to my sister Danita today and Happy Halloween to all.
It is the last day of October and I haven't written a word on this blog this month about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Part of that had to do with it being a busy month in many other ways. Part of it had to do with feeling like taking a break from all the discussion and hype surrounding Pinktober.
If any day in this month of awareness needed to be hyped more, it is October 13. This is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. The 40,000 breast cancer deaths a year, pretty much unchanged over the last 2 decades, are deaths from metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Cancer within the breast is not fatal, except maybe to the breast it is in. MBC is cancer that spreads from the breast to places like the lungs, liver, bones, and brain.
MBC is deadly and there is no cure. Be aware of that and if a donation or purchase is made, consider if it will help move forward research that will find more treatment and a cure. Understand what metastatic breast cancer is, and that it can happen to anyone. It can be the original diagnosis, or it can start as early stage BC and sooner or later become metastatic.
One of the scariest statistics to me on this scary Halloween is that 30% of early stage breast cancer diagnoses will one day metastasize. Diagnoses like mine. That is a 30% I hope the other BC patients I care about and myself are never, ever part of.
Whether or not you have had breast cancer yourself, you know someone who has. Another way to help is to become part of the Army of Women and also the Health of Women Study. Both of these help move research forward faster, and they are in need of all women, regardless of whether or not you have had cancer. They are sponsored by the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. You can't get much more reputable than Dr. Susan Love and her work.
This post includes some of my other writing on this topic, as well as some of the writers I have appreciated reading.
Awareness, advocacy, and action all start with telling our own truths, our own BC stories. Mine starts with living gratefully each day, because each day is a gift. Truths like research is what will lead to a cure, so research should get the most funding. Truths like each woman and man with breast cancer is a unique individual worthy of making the decisions that make sense to them. That may or may not involve anything pink.
Thanks for an important message Lisa.
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