It's interesting how some things don't really mean as much to you, until it hits someone you know.
There is a woman in my ward that has Breast Cancer. When they found it 18 months ago, it was stage 4, Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I just got back from the fundraiser that the was citywide for her. (Our city is about 3000.... small place).
A little about her. She just turned 30. She's actually a little bit younger than I am. She has 5 kids. Her oldest is around 12 and her youngest is 2 1/2.
The main park is across the street from my house, so my son wanted to know why there were so many people over there. We went outside to check out the 1 mile / 5 K run. He wanted to run so bad. There I am 7 months pregnant, but we went on the 1 mile walk. He ran a good chunk of the time. He was probably about a block ahead of me at one point. I know a lot of the people walking (nice thing about small towns), so I wasn't worried about him. But then he fell and cried walking all the way back to me. Poor kid. Then they had an auction afterwards. It was pretty fun. I wish I needed a new leather overstuffed chair, because it went for $300. A nice vacuumm went for $50. I did donate some money though, so I didn't feel too bad for not bidding on stuff.
A travel agency donated a 5 night trip, park hopper passes, and free airline to go to Disneyland for their family. I can tell there was quite a bit of money raised for her. I'm sure it's exciting for the family to have that much help financially and lifting their burden some. And the trip I'm sure will be fun for all. But I'm sure it's bittersweet too. She definately had a good fight so far, and I hope that without too much pain she can stay around as long as she can.
Her favorite saying is "Every day is a gift, that's why it is called the present."
Her is a link to her blog http://amberchase.weebly.com/index.html . I'm really glad that I know Amber and am glad that they were able to have this fundraiser.
4 comments:
Hello,
I am so sorry to read your post about the young mother with IBC. I lost my daughter to this nasty disease, and am working very hard to educate as many people as possible that there is another kind of breast cancer. One that we are not told about. Hopefully the more I tell people, there willl be more awareness of IBC.
Patti Bradfield, President
The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation
www.eraseibc.com
Okay, I'm a total lamo, but I didn't realize you lived so close to me. I was there, I ran the 5K and bought a cedar chest I thought looked new and is likely 10 years old and will need sooooo much more work than I thought. But, it helps my ripped off feeling to know it went to a good cause and my husband paid for it :-) It was really an amazing day, wasn't it, to see so many people come out to help the family? I don't know Amber or her family but I was choked up a good portion of the time.
It's true that you don't think about serious illnesses and disabilities until they touch you or someone you're close to. My grandmother had both her breasts removed last December. Before then, I had never actually met anyone with breast cancer. Our family just ran a 5K for a woman who passed away from breast cancer - and her son passed away from leukemia. Thank you for your post.
That's so young to be facing such a hard struggle. I wish her best of luck.
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