See ya! I am going to "Breast Camp"!

Well, it's really not breast camp but that's what some of us jokingly call it. On Thursday eve I am flying to Dallas to attend a conference dedicated to young women with breast cancer. I will be there until Sunday afternoon. I am so excited to finally get a chance to meet so many of the wonderful women that I have met online since I was diagnosed. Besides the "medical" side of the conference there will also be lots of fun. On Friday night a large group of us are going to a "cowboy" bar/dance hall with a mechanical bull...nope, I don't plan to ride and you all know how much I don't like line dancing but it should be fun to watch! On Saturday they will have a dinner for everyone attending the conference and then there will be a DJ after that. They have some great meetings planned with excellent speakers so I am looking forward to learning a lot...the main issues I hope to focus on are my reconstruction options and new defenses against recurrence.

I am going to copy someone else's writing on here again but when I read this I felt like I could have written the exact same thing. This was part of a eulogy written for a young wife and mother that past away on Valentine's Day after a very long battle with breast cancer ...the woman that wrote this met her in our online support group and during the service she wanted to explain the bond that we all have....

Angela (Blessed4) 11/28/74- 02/14/09

Hello, My name is Bethany. Angela and I met in cyberspace. Turns out we live 21 miles apart, with Angela in ***********, and me in *******. But it took breast cancer and the Internet to bring us together, and for a beautiful eternal friendship to be born.

Angela asked me to tell you the story of her breast cancer sisterhood.... She believed it was very important for you all to know about it, because it was such an important part of her life. And who better to tell you this story than one of her breast cancer sisters.

There is an instant, indescribable, unconditional bond that exists between breast cancer survivors. Maybe because we’ve all been there, done that and bought the t-shirt.

But we love and understand each other without speaking the words. When a sister is suffering, we are all there with unconditional love. We understand each other on a level that perhaps friends and family will never fully experience or understand.

We speak openly of our fears, our rage, our worries and our heartbreaks.

Once you’ve stared the beast in the face. Your innocence is gone. You realize that your body can betray you, that perhaps you don’t have the control you thought you had, and you start to think about your mortality.

You have to make difficult decisions about surgery and treatment. And you live with the knowledge that despite your best decisions and efforts, and God’s Love, you may die. Perhaps sooner than you ever expected. You may not survive your encounter with the beast.

I, myself, am a nine-year survivor of the beast. I will NEVER understand why some people survive and why we lose so many blessed ones, especially tragic when one is so young and loved by so many as Angela was. I think we lost 34 sisters in our online young survivor community last year. The youngest was 23.

I want you to know that Angela became everyone’s sister... I want to tell you that HUNDREDS of hearts all over the United States, Canada, and throughout the world were broken on Valentine’s Day, 2009 I know mine was.

Today, I was going to tell you the story of a beautiful princess in cyberspace whose dying wish was to take her family to Disneyland to create beautiful forever memories. But I’ll bet most of you already know this tale. She was in hospice care, was turned down by a wish granting foundation. Then hundreds of women in cyberspace who had never met Angela and were dealing with their own serious health issues, along with generous Denver citizens who saw her story on Channel 2 News all banded together with small and large donations and raised thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks and made Angela’s wish come true. We called ourselves her Fairy GodSisterhood!! A large National non-profit would not grant her wish, but a bunch of sisters tied together by the bonds of breast cancer made her dreams come true.

Many other magical things happened along the way to Disney including Angela and her husband’s fairytale dinner at the exclusive Club 34, an opportunity that was beyond Angela’s wildest dreams!!

Now, I want tell you about how the magic continued for Angela and her breast cancer Sisters, AFTER the Disney trip. In the remaining months of Angela’s life, the sisterhood continued to support her in real and tangible ways.

Every week, people asked for updates. What’s new? How is Angela and her family? Does she need anything? One sister put it best, “These updates helped make Angela real, kept her a personality for all of us, not just another name on the computer screen”

Angie D., in Toronto. started a list she called “Angela’s Care List.” Every week some one would send Angela a gift and or card so she would never feel alone or forgotten by her sisters.

Hospital stay after hospital stay I would post updates, as Angela requested. With each new message, dozens, sometimes hundreds of responses poured in, each filled with more love and more prayers.

I’ve never witnessed anything as magical, powerful and inspiring as the love the sisterhood felt for Angela and her family. My heart was touched day after day by all the genuine love. I would always read Angela the messages and she would smile. I know she felt the love and I’d like to think all the love strengthened her will to live and persevere.


I hope this gives you a little insight about who I am talking about when I say "my online support group". It will be an honor to be with so many of these incredible women who have offered me so much support during my journey....there was always someone on the other side of the computer that could tell me "I understand exactly what you are feeling"....it is a gift I will never take for granted....

Please keep those prayers coming for JD and family!! Thanks