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• 08 Oct ' 07:44

  Does Someone Need Your Help to Heal?

  Sunday, September 30, 2012 This is my little man, Sam. If you look closely, you'll see fur peeking out from between his toes, a sure sign he's a house puppy, which is fine with me. Being an indoor dog makes it easier for me to give him hugs, rub his soft silky ears and tell him how much he’s loved and adored. Sam is the only one of my four-legged family members who gets to do pretty much whatever he wants, and because he's nearly perfect, he has rarely heard the word "no." Sam captured our hearts the second we saw him. James said Sam was the only dog he knew who’d read and memorized the “Puppy Handbook.” He oozes cute and knows all the ways to make you say, “Oh... Isn’t he adorable?”<PREVIEWEND> When James first found him on our property, Sam was emaciated and had a severe case of heart worms. Even so, he smiled big; wagged his tail and pawed at the air as he danced around on his hind legs. The vet was amazed Sam had mustered that much energy and was hesitant to say if Sam would make it through the next few days, much less survive heart worm treatment. However, he was adamant that Sam wouldn’t have survived another two or three days without us. While there are those who might say, “he’s just a dog,” I haven’t met another living creature, man included, who’s consistently as loyal and nonjudgemental as a dog.For the last four weeks, Goldie’s been restricted to the bathroom except for when I take her outside on a leash. The vet said she has spinal stenosis, a type of arthritis in dogs that causes the joints in the vertebrae to swell, which puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves and causes acute pain. With lots of luck and quiet time, she may heal. If not, I can’t allow her to suffer in pain. Recently I’ve let her outside alone, but since her mission seems to be singularly focused on chasing deer, I’ve resumed taking her out on a leash. The good news is, she’s no longer imprisoned in the bathroom, and she seems to be pain free. During the weeks she’s lived in the bathroom, my little man, Sam, repeatedly pawed at the bathroom door. The first time I let him in to see her, he walked over to Goldie, leaned his head down until their noses touched and then placed his paw on top of hers. Goldie perked up and wagged her tail, and with that, Sam laid down in the shower and stayed there for the next few days. We all value friendship and loyalty, but did you know that love and friendship is one of the most important components of healing? To have a friend, you must first be a friend, which means you must sometimes make the first move. Like Sam, sometimes all you have to do is just be there so your friend knows you care. It’s really a small gesture, but it means the world to the one in need. Last night my friend, Elaine, in North Carolina, called to check on me. She made me feel loved and valued. Thank you, sweet friend:)Is there someone you should reach out to; a person who could benefit from knowing that someone cares and thinks about them? So what if it’s “their turn” to call you? Send them an email or a Facebook message. Better yet, pick up the phone and call them. ... and thank you, God, for sending us Sam. He needed a good family, and we needed a great dog.

  What Were You Wearing?

  Sunday, September 23, 2012
  Isn’t it funny, the things we remember after a crisis, like what we were wearing? At the end of my junior year in high school, the girls’ PE teacher and sponsor of the Brahamadoras, a varsity dance group, called me into her office. While the rest of the school was gathering in the auditorium to learn who’d been selected as next year’s cheerleaders and Brahamadoras, my PE teacher was telling me she hadn’t selected me for a second year as a Brahamadora. She told me she didn’t like me because I didn’t suck up to her like the other girls did, and I should be grateful she’d given me this advance notice so I would be spared the embarrassment of sitting in the auditorium when my name wasn’t called. I’ll never forget the look on her face: It was cruel and smug; a smirk befitting a little dictator. Never in a million years had I seen this coming. In fact, some of my friends were speculating I would be named head Brahmadora. Instead, there I stood, in my new blue dress, speechless, trying to process the fact that I’d just been socially banished.<PREVIEWEND>That was the first and last time I wore that dress. I’d won it in a raffle at a local department store fashion show. It was very “mod,” something Twiggy would have worn on the cover of a magazine: a navy blue, sleeveless miniskirt, with a white Peter Pan collar. “Well, what are you waiting for?” my PE teacher asked. She stood up and smiled, “I have an assembly to attend. I suggest you go home.” I don’t remember what happened next, but my friend, Gayle, says I went to her homeroom and told her. The only thing I remember is literally running to Lee’s house, my other best friend, to the comforting arms of her mother.
  Fast forward 20 years: I’m standing in the doorway of an emergency room in Washington, DC, wearing a pale blue dress, as ambulance attendants are shouting, “If we move him, we’ll lose him.” I’d ridden in the front seat of the ambulance as the same attendants had worked frantically to save my first husband. I could see everything they were doing as they hooked him up to bags of IV fluids and gave him multiple injections. The floor of the ambulance was littered with tape, discarded syringes, little glass bottles and rubber tubing. A nurse took my elbow and guided me away from the ambulance to a small, private waiting room and closed the door. Ten minutes later, a doctor came in and said, “I’m sorry, but we lost him.” “Lost him... “ I remember thinking, what a strange term to describe the death of someone. We lose things like sunglasses and socks, but my husband wasn’t “lost.” He was down the hall in the first room on the left. A nurse asked if I was bleeding. She pointed to the cushion I’d been sitting on. It was covered in bright red blood. She looked at the back of my dress, and it, too, had a bright red bloom that was spreading like a Rorschach test across the pale blue of my dress. “Do you need a tampon?” she asked. In a blink, the conversation had switched from “we lost him,” to a dissertation on how shock can trigger a woman’s menstrual cycle. In that moment, I was as speechless as I was in my PE teacher’s office, only I had no nearby home to run to; no best girlfriends; no mother to comfort me, just a freshly packaged tampon and a white sheet to wrap around my waist. A white sheet like the one they’d wrapped my husband in. It’s strange how we remember what we were wearing during the traumatic times in our lives. If only we could “lose” some of those memories along with the clothes. Do you remember what you were wearing during a time you’d rather forget?

  How You Can Stand Up to Cancer!

  Sunday, September 02, 2012This coming Friday, September 7th at 8-9pm EST, Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) will hold it’s third, live, primetime television fundraiser to underwrite new ways to develop cancer breakthroughs. ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and several cable channels will donate one hour of simultaneous, commercial-free television that includes a phone bank that will allows callers to interact with the biggest A-list celebrities in entertainment. Started in 2008 by a group of visionary women, including the late film producer, Laura Ziskin, who died of metastatic breast cancer; Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and advertising executives Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz, SU2C hopes to accelerate collaborative and innovative research by bringing together the best and the brightest cancer scientists.<PREVIEWEND>Instead of competing with one another for cancer research dollars, the SU2C “Dream Teams,” made up of scientists, clinicians, bioengineers, molecular biologists and other experts, are working together to move research from the lab to the patient in record time. Some of the areas the SU2C Dream Teams are working on are: • More effective, less toxic therapies for three major breast cancer subtypes • Identifying predictive biomarkers & effective drug combinations to treat breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer • Precision therapy for advanced prostate cancer • Personalized target/therapy identification in patients with BRAFwt metastatic melanoma • Cutting off the fuel supply to pancreatic cancer One of the areas that interests me is spearheaded by the Epigenetics Dream Team. They are concentrating on self-renewing cancer cells, commonly known as cancer stem cells. These cells often escape, evade and become resistant to cancer treatment. Researchers believe that by developing therapies that can target and strike cancer stem cells, they may “silence” key genes that permit cancer to exist and flourish. Another Dream Team is working on a Circulating Tumor Cell Chip (CTC-Chip). Cancers typically develop in an organ but spread, or metastasize, through the bloodstream. These circulating tumor cells that spread from the primary tumor are extraordinarily rare. By developing a CTC-Chip the size of a business card and containing 78,000 microscopic columns, each coated with a special material, researchers hope they can “catch” a circulating tumor cell, while allowing normal blood cells to flow through unimpeded. By using something like the CTC-Chip, the Dream Team hopes to be able to detect primary and metastatic cancers earlier and less invasively, as well as determine whether a tumor is responding to treatment. Unlike the Susan G. Komen Foundation, 100% of SU2C publicly raised funds goes directly into research grants. Since Stand Up to Cancer was founded in 2008, they have granted over $109M to seven Dream Teams, along with 26 high-risk, high-reward Innovative Research Grants. SU2C’s administrative expenses and overhead is paid for by a portion of funds raised from major donations and third-party fundraising. The Stand Up to Cancer Dream Teams believe they are at a pivotal moment when scientists have the knowledge and the technology to make the breakthroughs that are critical in the fight against cancer. From everything I know, other than the Love/Avon Army of Women, the continued funding of Stand Up to Cancer is one of the most important things you can do with your donation dollars. I hope you’ll consider taking out your checkbook and joining them this Friday, September 7, to Stand Up to Cancer!

  Day 3, Celebrating the Ordinary

  Tuesday, August 28, 2012 ©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved. Can you see that? It's rain, rolling in rivulets off my roof! Ordinary and yet, sometimes rare, rain! Granted, it didn't last more than five minutes, but I hurriedly removed the cushions from the chairs and then stood in the doorway and smiled. Rain! Our cracked dry earth is drinking it in like the life-giving elixir it is.  What is it about the smell of fresh rain? Do you suppose that loamy, earthy smell is universal, or does Marie's rain in Ireland have a different smell than Philippa’s rain in Myanmar or mine in South Texas?

  Day 2, Celebrating the Ordinary

  Tuesday, August 28, 2012 ©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved. As a part of continuing my friend, Marie’s, challenge to photograph and write about the “ordinary,” let me say I’m not sure anything about yesterday was ordinary. The day began in the limestone courthouse of my little town. After several hours of listening to testimony in a case James had been an integral part of, and that affects me and my neighbors and our right to enforce our deed restrictions, I had to leave to check on Goldie. My girl is on pain meds and is restricted to the smallest room of my Little House, the bathroom. For now, all I can say is there’s a real possibility I may have to send my best girl to live with God, and I’m not ready, yet, to think about losing another family member.<PREVIEWEND> After checking on Goldie, I headed into San Antonio for an appointment with the dermatologist. Because I carry the BRCA2+ breast cancer gene, which means I’m predisposed to melanoma, once a year “Dr. Humorless,” cryogenic bottle in one hand, and a magnifying glass dropped down over his glasses, checks every inch of me. I think he enjoys it, but I’m not sure whether “it” is my naked body or the process of freezing off suspicious moles. If I had to guess, I’d say the freezing part gets Dr. Humorless’s juices flowing, if you know what I mean. It’s just the way his one, magnified Mr. Magoo eye looks up at me, as if to say, “Heh, heh, heh, little girl.” Reminiscent of Hannibal Lector, he makes me wonder if my moles would go well with “some fava beans and a nice chianti.” My next stop was a television studio to shoot a spot for Cure Fur Cancer, an upcoming fur fashion show and cancer fundraiser. You would have thought I would be a pro at this, but I was terrible! When I started talking about cancer and the devastating affect it has on families, I was emotional toast! No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the lump out of my throat. It wasn’t just that I was talking about how families are pulled apart by cancer. My emotions about James, and the case he worked so hard on and the prospect of losing Goldie, were all jumbled up together with cancer families. Carol Glaze, owner of Morris Kaye & Sons Furs, was so gracious about my on camera ineptness. Thank you, Carol. Each year Carol does an amazing job of rounding up ever more awesome auction items and then making it easy for people to bid lots of money for them. If you’re in the San Antonio area and would like to join us, September 15th, or donate money to Cure Fur Cancer, come on down! By the end of the day, I’d put 150 miles on my car, but not before I stopped at a favorite place for a quick bite to eat. What could be more ordinary and basic than a simple meal of water, that when really cold, has the texture of velvet; goat cheese and basil pesto; fruit and crackers and prosciutto and fontina paninis? Considering my long, disjointed day, it was exactly what I needed. The Fonze would have said it was “Perfectamundo.”

  Sunday: Celebrating the Ordinary

  Sunday, August 26, 2012 ©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved. For most of my life my camera has been an appendage I’ve rarely been without, but since James died, it has languished, unused, in the bottom of my purse. The fact that my camera’s been relegated to a purse is extraordinary in and of itself, especially considering that until a few years ago, I rarely owned or carried a purse... only camera cases.<PREVIEWEND> Recently, however, when friends came to visit, I pulled my neglected camera out of my bag. It felt good to have a camera in my hands, again. It was particularly timely because my friend, Marie, has challenged her fellow breast cancer bloggers to capture, in photographs, the ordinary things around them and post them to their blog each day for a week. While I may not post everyday, I’ve accepted Marie’s challenge. So, dear readers, this means you’ll be hearing from me a lot this week. One of the places I took my friends, and my camera, was to Mission San Jose, an historic compound many of us locals take for granted. While it may have become commonplace for many, it is anything but ordinary. Mission San Jose was a walled community built in 1720, on the banks of the San Antonio River. To see it now, lovingly restored, it’s easy to imagine it as a bustling outpost on the Spanish frontier. Inside high stone walls, Franciscan missionaries worked to convert 350 indigenous Indians to Christianity, while outside the walls, residents built an aqueduct, tended crops, worked in the granary, raised livestock and defended themselves against marauding Apaches and Comanches. Even though the Mission was at the very core of their ability to survive, I can’t help but wonder if the residents got so they took their Mission for granted? How quickly did they forget the hardships of living in thatch and mud structures, trying to survive on their own? After a while, it’s easy to take even the most splendid of surroundings for granted. They become commonplace and ordinary, making it easier for us to focus on their flaws and shortcomings. This week, my camera will no longer be the thing that makes my purse heavy. Instead, it will go back to being a creative part of my heart and soul; the way I celebrate and separate the ordinary from the extraordinary. Is there something, or someone, you’ve taken for granted? Perhaps it’s time to celebrate what’s become ordinary in your life, especially if it’s life itself.

  Breast Cancer Clinical Trials

  Monday, August 20, 2012 Last week, Elly Cohen, Ph.D. gave me an online tour of BreastCancerTrials.org. As Program Director for the site, as well as Asst Professor at the University of California San Francisco, Department of Surgery (UCSF), Elly and her team have worked hard to develop a resource for those seeking further Stage IV breast cancer treatment.<PREVIEWEND> BreastCancerTrials.org was originally based on a patient idea: Since many physicians don’t discuss clinical trials with their patients, the study wanted to know whether women could self-report their breast cancer history online (age, type of cancer, pre or post menopausal, bio marker status, mets/no mets and treatment to date), and match their history with an accurate clinical trial that suited their needs? In 2008, the nationwide personalized matching service was launched as a collaborative research project between the National Cancer Institute and UCSF in hopes of reaching women who didn’t know about clinical trials. Since then, the system has been tested, retested and refined, then tested again, and site organizers continue to respond to user suggestions. While I haven’t personally gone on this site in search of a trial, the online tour Dr. Cohen gave me seems intuitive and easy to navigate. Because not everyone wants to do the personalized matching service, the site offers an alternative that allows you to"See All Trials"and organize research studies by zip code. Patients can see trials nearest them and read what they’re about. It also gives trial location, a map and the trial coordinator along with their email and phone number. Users can also see all newly opened trials, even if they’re far from home. Another feature allows patients to enter their type and place of metastasis, filter out all trials that don’t pertain to them, then save them to the secure site and/or email them to their oncologist. The latest version of the site was launched in March 2012 and allows users to select a “QuickView” to browse by tumor type, including Triple Negative and Inflammatory Breast Cancer and trial type.One of the hottest trials is the“Vaccine Therapy,” designed to harness the body’s immune system. Researchers hope vaccines will be good for those whose body’s are failing to respond to other treatment. Complementary and Alternative Medicine trials are also available. While clinical trial providers are careful not to recommend any of the trials listed as the way to go, since patients can email their doctors the studies they’ve found, providers hope this will begin a much needed dialog between patient and doctor about further treatment options. When most of us hear the term “clinical trials,” we think about treatment trials for those who have no other treatment options, however, numerous trials are also looking at quality of life issues. One of these is “cold caps,” a refrigerated unit worn on the head that constricts the flow of chemo to the scalp in hopes of lessening hair loss. Other quality of life trials involve adding treatment agents to alleviate symptoms of neuropathy, and 30-minutes of radiation during surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, as opposed to up to six weeks of daily radiation after surgery. Still other trials are psychosocial studies about the side effects of treatment on the brain. BreastCancerTrials.org will also email you if a new trial comes online that’s a fit for youThey also have a quarterly newsletter and new weekly articles posted on their Facebook page, so you might want to “Like” their FB page. Since many of you are looking into further treatment for Stage IV breast cancer, I hope this site will be a valuable resource for you. Please let me know what you think of the site and if you join any of their clinical trials. Wishing you all God’s blessings.

  Will Komen Really Have New Leadership?

  Sunday, August 12, 2012 ©The New York TimesWho would have thought The New York Times would print one of my Twitter posts? I'm not an Ashton Kutcher or a Lady Gaga, whose every Twitter and Facebook message is monitored and scrutinized by the press. However, The New York Times and USATodaydid see and respond to my Tweet about the controversial Nancy Brinker, soon to be ex-CEO of the organization she founded in name of her sister, Susan G. Komen. As my Tweet suggests, unlike Elvis, Ms. Brinker has not left the building. It seems as though she may just be playing musical chairs.<PREVIEWEND>In what may be a delayed and long over due attempt to appease Komen’s critics, Ms. Brinker will be moving from CEO to a supposedly "lesser role" that focuses on strategy, global growth and fund-raising. Hasn’t she been doing that all along? It also seems as though she will be the decision maker on who becomes the new CEO. Hmm... In addition, Komen’s president, Liz Thompson, and two Komen board members announced they were leaving Komen, all moves that for many are too little, too late.Nancy Brinker and her Komen organization have long been heated targets of breast cancer advocates worldwide, not to mention anti-abortion activists and supporters of Planned Parenthood. For anyone who doesn’t read the “pink stories,” Brinker and her organization’s decision to cut funding for breast cancer screening grants to Planned Parenthood caused many potential donors to put their checkbooks back in their wallets. Even before the Planned Parenthood debacle, Komen’s serial failure to make good decisions (unhealthy choices of funding partners like Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, not to mention the dismal amount of money that actually goes toward finding “the cure”) have caused Komen to repeatedly find itself teetering on the edge of it’s own pink ribbon. In February I wrote a blog called, “Should Komen’s Nancy Brinker Step Down?” That was the first time I took off my journalist’s hat when writing about Komen. Prior to February, I reported the facts, with no editorializing, and gave them the benefit of the doubt until: Komen decided to address the breast cancer community via my blog and then didn’t engage, as promised, in a dialog with readers. Once again, Komen has handled yet another incident poorly, or perhaps we should say, “What incident has Komen handled well?”While many think the recent position changes are a PR move, it seems like once again, Brinker’s lofty goal of finding a cure for breast cancer has turned into a three-ringed circus with what may be ego in the center ring. In February, I suggested:

  “...in order to rebuild their image, it’s crucial for Komen to have the support of breast cancer advocacy organizations and top breast cancer social media mavens. ...they must gather breast cancer bloggers into their fold, listen to our concerns and once again, gain our trust.”
  

  If anyone doubts the power of Social Media, the millions of us out here in digital land have left organizations like Komen with no place to hide. Thank you Jennifer Preston at The New York Timesand the always incredible Liz Szabo of USATodayfor asking for my thoughts on the matter and for sharing them with the world. The real story in the Komen soap opera shouldn’t be about poor choices, skepticism or ego. The real story is about the millions of breast cancer families who are devastated and shattered by this terrible disease. The ultimate story will be about the heroes who find a cure for this insidious destroyer of life and love.

  Komen and Women with Stage IV Breast Cancer

  Sunday, July 22, 2012 ©DonnaPeach.com In recent weeks, many of us in the breast cancer blogosphere, including me, have written about what the term “survivor” means to us. I even polled readers on BreastCancerSisterhood.com’s Facebook page, but none of the responses or blogs have saddened me like this blog from my friend, . I'm reprinting it in hopes you’ll read it, and leave a comment that let’s Donna know you’re cheering for her, even though Komen might have been uncomfortable acknowledging her, and the existence of others with Stage IV breast cancer."Again, the Question: Who are Breast Cancer Survivors?" by Donna Peach The word “survivor” in the world of cancer is one that is loosely used, misunderstood by most and loathed by many. When I was diagnosed, my oncology team told me that everyone with breast cancer is considered a survivor. I find that definition to be consistent within the medical community where they do not differentiate between those who are in remission and those who are in active treatment, regardless whether the treatment is for early stage or stage IV breast cancer. After my remission went kaput, four years after my primary cancer, and I returned to active and strenuous treatment, I found that definitions in the lay population seemed to be different. Even among the populations that you might think would understand the term “survivor.” When I attended a Susan G. Komen event, the largest organization representing the world of survivorship in the land of breast cancer, I was a few months out from my diagnosis of bone metastasis, or stage IV, breast cancer. I had had extensive surgery on my back for the damage from the cancer, and it required me to use a walker and to wear a TLSO (thoraco-lumbo-sacral orthosis) brace. When I got to the site of the race, I asked a number of Komen volunteers and staff if there was a place for me to sign in or to go. They looked at me a bit oddly and responded to my statement that I was in treatment for mets, and they told me that the sign-in was “only for survivors” with a not-so-subtle tone of disbelief that I presented myself as a survivor. I felt a bit shell-shocked at, first, being at a breast cancer event of that magnitude and being told that I was not a survivor and, second, being made to feel uncomfortable because they seemed not to know what I was. They simply excluded me because they assumed I did not fit their impression of a survivor.<PREVIEWEND> Still, I pursued my query. As I became inured to the responses I received, I became a bit more assertive. I said to one person, Well, really, don’t you think that if anyone is a survivor, it is women like me who are fighting to stay alive from mets: I got a blank stare. When it came time to participate in the so-called victory march where survivors run or walk a circuit to show that they have achieved the stardom of remission, more commonly called survivorship, I walked up to the folks at the entrance and simply told them that I was going to do the walk with my walker because I thought I deserved to be recognized as a survivor. They looked very uncomfortable but did not argue with me. After all, probably the last thing they wanted was to have a woman in a big back brace hobbling around their victory course and tainting their projection of the so-called survivor. Throughout that event I was constantly amazed that no part of that huge Los Angeles style event included any recognition for the women who had metastasis and were in the throes of staying alive through treatment for the rest of their uncertain lives. How in the world does an organization like Komen leave out the thousands of women, and men, whose ranks will lose 40,000 every year and whose members never know when that fateful day will arrive. That day lasted privately in my mind for a long time. I never even told the wonderful folks who sponsored Team Peaches and ran and raised money on my behalf because I never wanted them to feel any of the disappointment I felt with Komen. It was, after all, not a disappointment with the people who trained for the event and generously gave of themselves but for the breast cancer community who should know better and should be teaching others what survivorship means. It was the first time I realized such a disparity exists, but it made a lasting impression on me that some of us need to help define that word better. Do you define yourself as a survivor? Do you define yourself at all? How do you define others you know who are in remission and those who are living on the edge of uncertainty with metastases? Do you think we should have different labels or no labels?

  Do You Have Pink Rabies?

  Sunday, July 08, 2012SYMPTOMS: • Zealous, fervent and fanatical when faced with consumer products displaying the pink breast cancer ribbon. • Irrationally extreme in opinion or practice; furious or raging at corporations, especially those that manufacture products containing carcinogens and other harmful ingredients that support Komen for the Cure.TREATMENT: • Stop all purchases of products that contain carcinogens and bear the pink breast cancer ribbon • Stop all purchases of pink products except for those that openly disclose to whom and how much of the proceeds from the sale goes toward a known breast cancer cause. • Do not purchase pink trinkets at the checkout counter (keychains, bottle openers, cheap jewelry, etc.), bearing the breast cancer ribbon. More than likely, no money will be donated to any breast cancer-related cause. • Do purchase pink products that allow you to designate which organizations you want your pink dollars to support, or write a check to the organizations yourself. • If symptoms persist, get rid of your credit cards, checkbook and cash until you come to your senses. • If all else fails, immediately call or email a breast cancer advocate for help. • Do this until the cause of breast cancer and the prevention, or the cure, is found.WARNING: • Excitability may occur, especially with companies that have no intention of donating a dime to breast cancer. • Do not become so obsessed with avoiding all pink products, or ranting about what’s wrong with them, that you fail to purchase products that contribute to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation or the Love/Avon Army of Women and their search for the cause and prevention of breast cancer. • Do not lump all breast cancer foundations and their leaders together with erroneous statements like, “When one name leads a foundation, the cult of ego begins.” Instead, consider that 98% of all foundations are led and/or funded by the person who’s name is on the foundation.PROGNOSIS: • If you “Think Before You Pink,” and urge everyone you know to do the same, the incidence of Pink Rabies will hopefully subside in our lifetime.FOLLOWUP:
  The pink marketing dollars’ issue will continue for as long as it takes for all of us to understand the pervasive depths of the problem. However, if we look hard enough, we can probably find something wrong with every product or corporation that funds breast cancer research. As breast cancer advocates, we must be careful that we don’t alienate ALL sources of funding. Every train runs on fuel, which costs money, and in the case of breast cancer research trains, a huge percentage of underwriters want visibility in exchange for their dollars.
  
  I'm currently raising $1Million for a project I’m working on, and I’m here to tell you: Corporations want more than just a mention as a Sponsor, Underwriter or Charitable Contributor. They want a bigger “footprint.” And for those who think corporations should simply write a check, no strings attached, we need to remember that corporations are not in the “altruism” business. They’re in the business of selling their company’s goods and services. They have their own trains to run, and like everything else, they run on money. The Dr. Susan Love Research train is no exception, so let’s be careful we don’t derail them just because "evil corporate America" gives them money.
  
  PS: For other blogs written about this topic in recent weeks, go to and ChemobrainFog.
  

  17

  • Does Someone Need Your Help to Heal?
  • What Were You Wearing?
  • How You Can Stand Up to Cancer!
  • Day 3, Celebrating the Ordinary
  • Day 2, Celebrating the Ordinary
  • Sunday: Celebrating the Ordinary
  • Breast Cancer Clinical Trials
  • Will Komen Really Have New Leadership?
  • Komen and Women with Stage IV Breast Cancer
  • Do You Have Pink Rabies?

  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (5)
  • July 2012 (2)
  • June 2012 (2)

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