10/02/10 Day Two of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In my article yesterday, I stated that I would appreciate anybody who is willing to share their personal breast cancer story to PM me or leave it in the comment section. This could either be yourself, a friend, a loved one anyone in your life. I think that by not allowing this disease to be a faceless one more people would stand and join the fight against breast cancer. After all, strength in numbers right? My goal is to share a story a day the whole month. I also said breast cancer awareness shouldn't be a month, but year round, so as long as people's stories are coming in I will share them. I may not even make the story a day, but I hope we can do this together and do a story a day all month at minimum.

The first story that came in to me was by Kathy Minicozzi a great writer whose articles I enjoy everyday. I guess I didn't go back far enough into her work though because I completely missed her breast cancer article called Cancer is a Dirty Word . When I logged on early AM her story was in my inbox. Thank you Kathy for sharing and helping create awareness. Below is her story exactly as told by her to me via email:

Hi! I am a seven-year survivor of breast cancer. I was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer in my right breast in 2002. I was given a lumpectomy (the surgeon had to operate twice because the margin after the first surgery was too small for his comfort). I was given the choice of whether or not to get chemotherapy, and I chose to get it because it upped my survival chances from 90 percent to 95 percent. My surgery was in April, and the rest of the treatment lasted for the rest of the year, including chemo treatments and radiation. The cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes, and so far I have been cancer-free.

I have a message for the families of breast cancer patients: Your love and support is crucial. My family lives on the other side of the United States, and it my case it was out of sight, out of mind. Even my mother didn't make much of a fuss, which hurt me a great deal. I don't think they even knew when my treatments were finished.

Fortunately for me, I had some very supportive friends, and they served as a surrogate family throughout the treatment period. It still hurts, though, when I think of the seeming indifference of my family, especially my mother. We should have been celebrating the end of my treatments and my survival. Instead, it went unnoticed.

My fellow patients were an inspiration to me. During the seven weeks that I was receiving radiation treatments, I would see some of the same people every morning, and also new people each day. There was some amazing camaraderie, good humor and even fall-on-the-floor laughter -- and this from people being treated for a disease the very name of which inspires terror!

Again, thank you so much Kathy. To those of you who do not know Kathy's work, you can visit her profile here . Her articles are very enjoyable.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2612543/cancer_is_a_dirty_word_pg2.html?cat=2&post=comments#comments
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/695138/kathy_minicozzi.html