Kimberly
"Our super scientist needs funding, not awareness."
I love October for the most part. The beautiful fall colors, the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and most importantly, Halloween!
As of October 30th, it will be 3 years that I have been in treatment for Metastatic breast cancer. It’s stage IV, in my bones and liver mostly, sometimes other spots depending on the treatment. I had to have my cervical spine fused because the cancer had eaten 75% of 3 vertebrae. Without the fusion, I would have been paralyzed from the neck down, if I got lucky.
In a lot of ways I did get lucky: I’m still here and I fight every day to be here.
But, then the Other October comes around, with all the pink ribbons on pink products and clothes. They ask you for a donation or purchase for awareness. Believe me, I’m AWARE. What we need is Research and Support.
“They” have enough now for awareness. Make sure your hard earned donation goes to where it’s truly needed, for Research and Patient Support. Granted it’s not very glamorous: you won’t find happy smiling survivors decorated with pink ribbons. You will see people like me, fighting an unending fight for every single day we can get. My treatment will never end, until it doesn’t work anymore. I am sure that there is a remarkable scientist(s) out there working hard to come up with more treatment options for Metastatic Breast Cancer that will not only extend our life expectancy but improve our quality of life. But our super scientist needs funding, not awareness.
My personal experience with support has been rocky. Medically, my Oncologist has been amazing. The medical services like the pharmacy, for instance, is never consistent. I tried to go on disability. I was rejected. Didn’t matter that I had been working all of my adult life, when I took time off to help my family through a tough transition, it made me ineligible. So now I’m working. I’m running a screen printing company with stage IV breast cancer.
We are kinda crazy for going all in like this, but this was our best chance to make a better life for ourselves and the wonderful people who count on us. I’m sure there are thousands of women like myself, that have to do whatever it takes to support their families because there’s no support system otherwise. We are in an unending fight for our lives. So before you buy that pink ribbon thingy, question where the money goes.
I think awareness is one thing, but actual support and research are essential.
You can read my full story on www.carringbridge.com
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