Unfortunately with my amazing personal news comes the unfortunate stark reality of Metastatic Breast Cancer #MBC aka Stage IV.
7 people, 1 of whom I consider a personal inspiration and part of my inner support group of friends (on Facebook, across the world) that communicate and share the good, bad and ugly of living with Stage IV breast cancer on a daily basis, have died from this horrible disease in the past 48 hours.
I am devastated and back to reality, and why my advocacy will never stop! Approximately 40,000 women DIE everyday from #mbc in just the United States alone, that is 110 women EVERY DAY!!
We need to change this. I will again post the graph from the CDC that shows that with all the strides made with Breast Cancer research, the number of BC deaths has not changed annually in over 25+ years! This is unacceptable. As Beth Fairchild (the founder of METAvivor) started 5 years ago #stageivneedsmore
This is so unfair, my friend who passed was under 40 years old and had 3 young sons, deserved so much more. Through it all she blogged about her journey, educated, raised awareness and funds for research and finding a cure, advocated for change and her story was even told by People Magazine less than a year ago.
Please continue to support the charities you KNOW make a change, there are many out there, but a limited number, who really fight to find a cure for Stage IV breast cancer.
While the official announcement has not been made yet, I have agreed to come back at the event chair of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event on October 19, 2019 in Jacksonville, FL. Any doubts I had about signing up again for this commitment are now gone and we will make this the best fundraising year this event has ever seen Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Jacksonville. I know the Amercian Cancer Society will use the funds raised in last years event (over $570K) and this years event, make a difference in finding a cure by funding grants and clinical trials dedicated to #mbc
Only we can make a difference, our voices needs to be heard. This is not about pink ribbons or runs, or even walks, this is about saving lives, I will not sit on the sidelines and allow Breast Cancer “awareness” be about partial truths and fundraising directed at these efforts.
The truth is there is NO CURE for Stage IV breast cancer, any kind, and to quote Beth again from her appearance on the today show “no one dies from a lump in their breast” but 110 women die a day in the U.S.