Breast Cancer Awareness Month

At 15, I didn’t know anyone with cancer. I heard stories but it was always about people who seemed very distant or unreal.

At 28, I know at least five people and five friend-of-a-friend individuals who have, had, or lost their life to breast cancer. I have a dear relative abroad with a blood-related cancer. I lost a very close family friend to a lymph node cancer. I know two people who are no longer here because of brain tumors. I have one family friend abroad whose breast cancer is spreading to her brain.*

Between ages 15 and 28, I learned something very important:

It doesn’t matter if we don’t know anyone with cancer. It matters that we care and support one another as humans.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

* She passed away October 8, 2005 in Sweden.