Marina
"I'm eager to engage in legislative, policy and research advocacy."
I was diagnosed with Metastatic Breast Cancer on New Year’s Day 2016. I felt like the universe was playing a joke on me. As a Registered Dietitian, I counseled people on making healthy food and life-style choices. How ironic that practicing what I preached failed to protect me from stage 4 cancer.
Still, as I went through radiation and chemotherapy, I began to see my knowledge of nutrition as an asset again. True, my healthy habits did not prevent my cancer. But eating nutritious foods does help keep my activity level up as I go through treatment cycles. I’ve even dubbed myself Superhero Nutritionist on my new blog, nutritionistvcancer.com. I focus on what scientific research tells us about the anti-cancer effects of certain diets and supplements.
Investigating cancer studies on pubmed.gov for my blog has made me aware of how many treatments that look promising in petri dishes and mouse models never actually get to the clinical trial phase. For treatments that do make the leap from petri dish to patients, the process can take 15 – 20 or more years. We can, and must, do better!
In September 2016, I received training to become a Living Beyond Breast Cancer Young Advocate. I’m eager to engage in legislative, policy and research advocacy. I’ve never felt a greater sense of purpose and urgency about a cause before, and I want to convey that sense of urgency to lawmakers and scientists.
My life, and the lives of 155,000 men and women living with MBC in the US, depend on it.
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