MSABC Boston 2016

Because everything gets abbreviated today, that's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Boston 2016. Mom and I participated again this year. And it reminded me, how important it is to get out there and show everyone that women under 40 do get breast cancer. In fact, according to the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), 12,000 women under 40 get breast cancer every year.

"Breast cancer is officially an epidemic, with an annual increase in incidence of 3.1%. Young women make up 33% of global diagnoses, and women of reproductive age are dying from breast cancer at an annual increase of 1.8% per year.¹  Letting people know that young women can and do get breast cancer just isn’t enough. This year alone, more than 12,000 women under 40 will be diagnosed in the U.S.^2" 

If you click on the above link, you can also get the information on the petition from the YSC to get more  funding for research for breast cancer in young people. You know I can get behind that.

It's amazing at the MSABC when you walk into the survivor tent to get your sash, everyone is so excited to help you celebrate being a survivor. I picked up a pink sash and a sticker denoting that I have been a survivor for 3.5 years. As my mother and I walked through the tent an older woman asked me "How long?" "3.5 years" and then she said the most wonderful thing, the thing that gives me hope "26 years". She then hugged me. And my mother and I moved on to start the walk. My mother asked me if I had ever met that woman before, I told her no. But, hey hugging strangers and celebrating being a survivor all while raising funds for research/support/ and all the other things that the American Cancer Society does, what's not to like?

I was relaying this story to one of my colleagues and she said to me "You need to keep going to those. Imagine at some point you will be able to walk it saying 65 years as a survivor". I like where her head is at.

During the walk, at one point a new survivor ended up behind me. Her husband asked her how she was doing as they approached the end. Her voice quivered and she told him that she was doing great, but the walk was way more emotional that she could have imagined. I smiled while walking in front of her, but I couldn't turn around because all that emotion would have gotten the best of me too.

My mother's favorite part of the walk is the look on people's faces when they see that I am younger than others and have the survivor sash on. She enjoys seeing people's eyes widen, or the men pushing strollers who unabashedly turn around multiple times to try to figure out my age. Most of all she love's seeing me in the survivor sash and feels like I should wear it everywhere I go during Boob-tober or at the very least hang it over the back of my chair at work.

Here's to October and celebrating survivors and pushing for funding for breast cancer research. I look forward to walking with more and more people draped in survivor sashes next year.