The below message in italics comes from a new friend. She asked that her friends share this. She is someone I met recently for something else entirely and I found out she lives with Stage 4 breast cancer.
She is not my only friend who lives with Stage 4 breast cancer. These women are my heroes. They are also incredibly zen considering what they live with.
As a survivor they inspire me to be better.
So I am honored to pass along this message. This is why you #thinkbeforeyoupink during Pinktober and breast cancer awareness month. Message runs BELOW this photo. This is brave to me.
Well, it’s “Pinktober”/ National Breast Cancer Awareness Month & I am emboldened (see photo). This is part of what Stage 4 breast cancer looks like for me.
I write now from my weekly chemotherapy chair and in half an hour I travel down to Philly for my daily cutting-edge radiation treatment at Penn. At some point I will likely experience brain, liver, and further bone metastases, along with the pain I contend with. I will be in treatment for the rest of my life, however long that may be…. I hate October.
As a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, friend, I would URGE you all to support research into PREVENTION this month vs. finding a pink ribbon “cure.”
We are doing something terribly, terribly wrong: 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.
Let’s work on the CAUSE end of things.
Of the 596 current breast cancer studies, only 22 are looking into PREVENTION.
And of course clinical trials are looking to drugs to treat the disease & extend life. Beneath the shawl in the photo is an area of aggressive skin metastases and a mastectomy scar which I will not share.
PLEASE help to keep my daughter, my nieces, my sister, sisters-in-law, cousins, friends from struggling through this devastating disease. This month I will be looking for and suggesting to you places to donate toward research into PREVENTION.
Please give generously and honor the future of those women and young women closest to my heart.
Thank you so.
ihavebreastcancerblog 
I never know how to respond to these types of writings. I was diagnosed in April and my prognosis is good. I have the guilt associated with hearing my “sisters” who are struggling with their future. I have never been an advocate for #pinktober and even more so feel like this year I’m on display. I don’t participate in Relay for Life, nor do I refer to this as “my journey”. Journeys should be fun . . . this is far from fun. I do want to advocate for more awareness but not to line the pockets of advocacy groups or drug companies.
I participated in relay for life for the first time this year – I did the survivors lap. I had never done anything like this before and I just participated in this quietly with a group of people on the relay for life day near me. It was surprisingly emotional for me, but I did it four years after my initial diagnosis. The reason I did it now is a friend of mine’s children have made things for survivors and whatnot for this event, so truthfully I did this for these children more so than me. But when I was finished I was glad I had done it. What you will never see me do a Susan G Komen three day. That is so entirely commercial and overwhelming and it’s pink pukiness.
Journeys are journeys to me. Some are fun some are not so much fun. Like it or not this has been a journey. It’s been a journey of self-discovery, new awareness, survival. It hasn’t been all good but it hasn’t been all bad. But it has been a journey. And I always advocate for more awareness and for groups that don’t spend it all on overhead .
Funny, when you phrase “journey” like that I can relate . . . I also think I can handle it better coming from a survivor than someone who has no clue. Thanks for blogging!