Making Strides & Taking 2 Steps Back
I'm getting up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning to drive to the Capitol and help emcee an inspiring event: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Hearing that alarm is not something I look forward to, especially because my bedtime is after midnight. However this is an event that makes getting up very very early worth it.
Each year, thousands turn up at the event all fired up, bringing donations and wearing anything they can find that's pink. The air is charged with positive energy. They are there because they are battling breast cancer, have loved ones who are or have lost loved ones to this disease. And some just come because even though breast cancer may not have touched them personally, they know how devastating this diagnosis can be. They come to raise money, awareness and "keep hope alive".
This year, more than ever, that mission is a personal one for me. I have two friends - both mothers with young children - who are battling breast cancer. One you may know: Jennifer Griffin, Pentagon correspondent for Fox News. She was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer in September 2009 and discovered a lump after she weaned her six month old son from nursing. That little boy has two older sisters too.
I used to worry about Jennifer when she lived in Israel and covered often dangerous events in the Arab/Israeli Conflict. I was relieved when she moved back to D.C. because I felt it was safer for her and her family. Life lesson learned. Jennifer battled and beat that cancer and is now sharing what she learned as she works to educate America about that rarer form of cancer. However, as we know, all survivors wait with bated breath for that 5 year mark to call the "All Clear".
And that leads me to a friend I made just recently, after she moved from the East Coast to Northern California. Diagnosed in her 30s, my friend had also had a double mastectomy in her fight to stop cancer in its tracks. And like Jennifer, she too has young (and wonderful) children. She moved after she'd beaten the disease...and was trying to build her future in a new place, on a new foundation of hope. Her first diagnosis was more than five years ago. Just this week I learned her cancer is back.
I cannot write the words that I said when I learned that brutal, unfair fact.
What I can do is offer my support in any way I can. And this weekend I will ask the crowd to pray, or send good vibes, or whatever their belief system supports, to help my friends, their loved ones and victims across the world to heal. These victims are vital, giving, wonderful women (and yes, even some men) who deserve to live disease-free.
