Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Canadian Cancer Society statistics may be just numbers to some. When breast cancer affects someone you know, it is the survivor statistics and the decline in death rates that gives hope that some day breast cancer will no longer be a statistic.

On Sunday, October 5, 2008, unite with all Canadians in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. Be part of the largest single-day volunteer-led fundraising event dedicated to creating a future without breast cancer.

Logos, nation-wide fundraising runs, pink ribbons, advertising — information that is useful and important to raise awareness of the importance of breast cancer.

This October, breast cancer awareness hit a raw nerve in me. I just found out a friend will be undergoing possibly a double mastectomy and the accompanying rounds of chemotherapy and likely radiation treatment.

Since I received her e-mail last week, I wake every morning and think about her and send her thoughts of courage and strength as she faces this challenge. Yet, somehow I know she will be a survivor in her personal battle with this disease.

My mother died of lung cancer but true to form in exasperation one day just before she passed away she said to me, “Why didn’t I get breast cancer? These things are useless; they could have cut them off!”

There was a pause and then we both started laughing — the snorting, guffawing type of laugh that cleans out the sinuses.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 12:50:27 PM and is filed under JOURNAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.