Dear Diana,
"A woman is like a tea bag—you can't tell how strong she is
until you put her in hot water."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Since its inception in 1985, I've advocated October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. While every day and every month should bring health awareness, it's powerful to have one month dedicated to what affects one in eight women at some time in their life. This amounts to 13% of the female population in the United States.
As a woman afflicted by breast cancer twice (2001 and 2024), I am only too aware of the ramifications. As a former nurse, I've always been diligent about my health and medical appointments, yet both of my cancer bouts have taken me by surprise even though I was getting annual mammograms. But the good news is that they were both caught early enough so as not to be fatal. Treatment was not easy, but it saved me. So for me, early detection was the key.
There is no history of breast cancer in my family, but in addition to proper health care maintenance, what my journey has also taught me is the importance of self-care and nurturing the part of us that needs it the most. Anecdotally, stress has played an important part in my pre-cancer journey, so now especially, I make it a point to do at least one self-care activity a week. While I've not wanted to make cancer my identity, I still do want encourage both women and men to be diligent about their health care. We are blessed to be living in a world where modern medicine is, for the most part, available to us. And yes—men too. A good family friend, who is male, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, he was also diagnosed early enough for successful treatment.
Here's to your good health!
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