October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many of us have been touched by breast cancer. We’ve watched family members or friends struggle with the disease or maybe you have been diagnosed with it yourself. We want you to know that whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver or friend, you have support. DIVINE is a magazine for women, mostly by women and we want you to share your hopes, dreams and yes, even struggles with a friendly community.
In 2012, I returned from a vacation. My sister and I were visiting our mother when she casually told us that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. That began a seven-year journey of ups and downs. After her lumpectomy and 6 weeks of radiation, my mother was declared in remission. In March of 2015, she once again told me that the disease had returned and metastasized to her bones. I’d like to tell you that at that moment that I was brave, but I wasn’t. I burst into tears as my strong, brilliant mother told me not to worry, that she was tough.
My mother went through unimaginable ups and downs until breast cancer took her life 3 years after her diagnosis. She never lost who she was or her sense of humour even when she found out, in 2017, that my sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer too. When I eulogized her, I said that I like to think that cancer didn’t beat her, but she beat cancer. It never took away who she was as a person.
When any type of cancer takes over your life, and you are not the one with it, you go on autopilot. You do what needs to get done. Aspects of your life go on hold. You schedule your life around appointments. There will be countless hours spent searching for treatments, side effects, definitions and doctors’ ratings. In short, you become an expert at something that never wanted to know so much about in the first place.
Throughout the month of October, we will share stories from a patient and a volunteer from Look Good Feel Better. We will also showcase some of the products that you can buy that will help support breast cancer research. Even though this is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month, remember, that in the other 11 months of the year, people still need your support. Our goal is to share inspiration all year with the stories that have touched us most.
