Blogging for Breast Cancer

I know I don't usually talk about personal stuff on this blog, but today I wanted to share something close to my heart. 

Today I am participating in a HUGE Breast Cancer Blogging Event! Hundreds of blogs around the globe today are encouraging our readers to take a moment out of your day and donate $5 or $10 to Jacqueline Reitz, a Breast Cancer 3 Day walker. Jackie is a fellow blogger based out of Dallas, and she's on the 3day team "Betties for Boobies".

While the original hope was to include over 300 blogs, only time will tell how many have participated, so be sure to check out the www.bettiesforboobies.com blog tomorrow for more information.
If just ONE of the readers from each of the 300 blogs takes a moment and donates $10, that will raise over $3,000.00 in the fight against Breast Cancer. AMAZING!

Let me explain why I decided to participate.

When I was about 10 years old my parents brought me and my siblings back to my their bedroom (a sister that was 20 & two brothers aged 15 and 5).  My Dad tearfully told us that my Mom had just been diagnosed with extremely aggressive breast cancer.  They had scheduled a double mastectomy for a few weeks in the future.  The surgery went well and Mom completed a few rounds of chemo and was told she was in remission.  About 7 years later my parents again called us into their bedroom.  Moms cancer was back.  This time though, nothing could be done about it.  It had never really gone away in the first place.  It had just been so aggressive that it had moved into her spine, hiding from any mammograms they preformed.  They found it this time through MRI's to figure out why Mom was loosing feeling in her legs.

I was in my senior year of high school at the time.  My younger brother was now 15 and had been home schooled by my mom for about 3/4 of his classes due to learning disabilities.  I took it upon myself to take over that schooling and attend teacher conferences for my parents as much as I could.  The cancer slowly spread into her ribs and skull over the next year and a half.  I finished high school and my first 3 semesters of college, driving home every weekend to help out.

During that time my mom was on Hospice Care, refusing to be admitted to the hospital saying that she wanted to be where her family and friends were.  She peacefully passed away on November 25, 2005, five days before her 55th birthday.  Myself, my dad and my siblings were able to be with her until the very end.  I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.

I'm now 24 yrs old with a daughter of my own.  As my own mother was a victim of breast cancer and her mother is a 15 year survivor, breast cancer prevention and awareness have become a large part of my life. I'd like to do something about it before it can further affect my own or my daughters life, or the life of any one else.


So help us out. Let's make this a tremendous success. Head on over to Jackie's fund raising page (it's all tax deductible!) at http://www.the3day.org/goto/jackier and send her some donation love! Totals will be posted on the team's blog tomorrow, to see what an impact we were all able to make!