Seeing past breast cancer

Talk about using your own experience to help others! Joy Jones found that regular clothing stores were just plain unhelpful and even treated her coldly after her mastectomy when she went to buy bras, swimsuits and clothing items in general. She heard similar stories from her friends, including one woman who said she was told by a sales clerk fitting her for a wig that she had the biggest head she had ever seen.

Okay, I admit it. I am a book fanatic. I buy far more than I read, but I find something comforting and soothing about having books surround me. I guess part of that feeling started many moons ago when I was a small girl. Each week, my mom and I would walk to the shopping center where she would buy me a book, which we would read together when we returned home.

A study done by the National Cancer Institute of Canada followed 5,000 women who were breast cancer survivors over four years to monitor changes in health and causes of death. Of the 256 participants who died, 60% died from causes not related to breast cancer, a figure that jumped to 72% for women aged 70 and older.

I came across a recent article from a Missouri newspaper recounting the journey of a 73 year old, 17-year breast cancer survivor. She shares, for the first time, her roller coaster experience with the disease and the difficult trade-offs she had to make while undergoing her treatments.

Many of us know about Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, cancer survivor and founder of LIVESTRONG, a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting people affected by cancer. Last week, he gave a shout out to another, lesser-known Lance—37-year-old Lance Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who recently won his second consecutive Iditarod, a grueling 1,100 mile dog sled race held annually in Alaska.