Everytime I visit my doctor, I prepare myself for the worst: A simple blood test could reveal that I have a terminal illness that I never knew about, an awful condition that was waiting to ambush my life when I least expected it. Call me a worrier, call me a coward, but I admit that I am terrified this will happen to me.
Is that so silly? After all, these things DO happen to people...
In fact, it happened to Marty, my friend Erin's baby sister.
When Marty was either 28 or 29 years old, breast cancer picked her out as its new best friend...and Marty had no idea. She had noticed a few lumps in her breasts before, but her doctors assured her that it was nothing. After all, breast cancer is rare - very rare - in young women. Like, .04% rare. It almost never happens. Marty continued on with her life and at the age of 30, she married the man of her dreams and started a new life with him and their three children. She was very happy.
But then Marty began suffering from excruciating pain all over her body, pain that was so bad she sometimes couldn't walk. Something was not right, so she went back to the doctors. This time, they told her that she had breast cancer. Stage 4 breast cancer, to be exact. The cancer had metastasized, spreading to her skeletal system. In no time at all, the tumors weakened her bones so much that they broke just from walking around. She's gone through radiation and hormone treatment. She's had her hip replaced. She's gone through forced menopause and chemotherapy and she's now facing a mastectomy and reconstruction.
Marty is 32 years old.
If this is just another sad story of an unfortunate person to you, someone suffering from something you know must really suck but you can't really relate, let me help put it into perspective. Think back to any frustrating moment you have ever experienced - something trivial, like being the next person in line at the bank only to have the second to last teller window close on you. "Man," you think, "this shit only happens to me." (I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel like this several times a day.)
Now, take that bit of bad luck and turn it into something deadly that really truly almost never happens to ANYONE...but it happens to you. Something like, say, being a young woman in the prime of her life and discovering you have Stage 4 breast cancer. So now, something is trying to take your life away and you are very nearly the only person like you having to fight against it. Just how scary, sad, unfair, frustrating, and infuriating that must feel, I cannot imagine, but I can see how you would feel so...all alone.
Marty is the younger sister of my good friend, Erin Seitz, a pastry chef at Public Restaurant. This year, like last year, Erin will be walking for her sister in the Avon Walk to raise money and awareness for breast cancer and breast cancer research. She needs to raise $1800 and I am asking you to please help her. Erin's Avon Page
So the question is: Why should you? You don't know Marty. And who has money to spare in this economic recession? Besides, others will most likely give, so your contribution won't be missed.
These are all valid points, and I won't argue with you. But here is why I think you should give: You may not know Marty, you may not have a lot of money to spare, you may think your help isn't needed. But by helping, you show Marty that she is not alone. You show her that just because she's not like us right now - the perfectly healthy - she is still one of us. That although cancer has singled her out for a battle that only she can fight, we want her to win because we know it could have been, and can still be, one of us. That even though we cannot fight with her, we are supporting her any way we can.
The money goes to a great cause: breast cancer research that will hopefully cure Marty and save millions of women in the future. But in the end, I think that our contributions to things like this mean much more than the value of the dollars we give. They show Marty, and people like her everywhere, that although cancer is incredibly unfair, life has surrounded her with as much love and support as she needs to get through it. Every dollar that is given - even if you can only give one dollar - stands for one more person behind Marty giving her strength and reason to fight hard.
Please donate to Erin's Avon Walk cause for Marty by visiting her Avon page:
Erin's Avon Page
It can be just one dollar. Anything you want.
If you want your contribution to go directly to helping Marty and her family as she fights her cancer, that can be arranged as well. Email me at TheRahRahRah@gmail.com.
If you cannot contribute anything right now, please pass on this article to everyone you know. I promise to tell Marty just how many hits this article gets so that your spirit of support is passed on to her.
By all accounts, Marty is a much stronger and more courageous person than me. She has done remarkably well over the last year and has remained in good spirits. She made a recent trip to New York City to visit Erin, and she even walked all over town like a true local! So you see, Marty doesn't need your pity. She needs your support, as does her family. Let's show them we are all in this together.
But then Marty began suffering from excruciating pain all over her body, pain that was so bad she sometimes couldn't walk. Something was not right, so she went back to the doctors. This time, they told her that she had breast cancer. Stage 4 breast cancer, to be exact. The cancer had metastasized, spreading to her skeletal system. In no time at all, the tumors weakened her bones so much that they broke just from walking around. She's gone through radiation and hormone treatment. She's had her hip replaced. She's gone through forced menopause and chemotherapy and she's now facing a mastectomy and reconstruction.
Marty is 32 years old.
If this is just another sad story of an unfortunate person to you, someone suffering from something you know must really suck but you can't really relate, let me help put it into perspective. Think back to any frustrating moment you have ever experienced - something trivial, like being the next person in line at the bank only to have the second to last teller window close on you. "Man," you think, "this shit only happens to me." (I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel like this several times a day.)
Now, take that bit of bad luck and turn it into something deadly that really truly almost never happens to ANYONE...but it happens to you. Something like, say, being a young woman in the prime of her life and discovering you have Stage 4 breast cancer. So now, something is trying to take your life away and you are very nearly the only person like you having to fight against it. Just how scary, sad, unfair, frustrating, and infuriating that must feel, I cannot imagine, but I can see how you would feel so...all alone.
Marty is the younger sister of my good friend, Erin Seitz, a pastry chef at Public Restaurant. This year, like last year, Erin will be walking for her sister in the Avon Walk to raise money and awareness for breast cancer and breast cancer research. She needs to raise $1800 and I am asking you to please help her. Erin's Avon Page
So the question is: Why should you? You don't know Marty. And who has money to spare in this economic recession? Besides, others will most likely give, so your contribution won't be missed.
These are all valid points, and I won't argue with you. But here is why I think you should give: You may not know Marty, you may not have a lot of money to spare, you may think your help isn't needed. But by helping, you show Marty that she is not alone. You show her that just because she's not like us right now - the perfectly healthy - she is still one of us. That although cancer has singled her out for a battle that only she can fight, we want her to win because we know it could have been, and can still be, one of us. That even though we cannot fight with her, we are supporting her any way we can.
The money goes to a great cause: breast cancer research that will hopefully cure Marty and save millions of women in the future. But in the end, I think that our contributions to things like this mean much more than the value of the dollars we give. They show Marty, and people like her everywhere, that although cancer is incredibly unfair, life has surrounded her with as much love and support as she needs to get through it. Every dollar that is given - even if you can only give one dollar - stands for one more person behind Marty giving her strength and reason to fight hard.
Please donate to Erin's Avon Walk cause for Marty by visiting her Avon page:
Erin's Avon Page
It can be just one dollar. Anything you want.
If you want your contribution to go directly to helping Marty and her family as she fights her cancer, that can be arranged as well. Email me at TheRahRahRah@gmail.com.
If you cannot contribute anything right now, please pass on this article to everyone you know. I promise to tell Marty just how many hits this article gets so that your spirit of support is passed on to her.
By all accounts, Marty is a much stronger and more courageous person than me. She has done remarkably well over the last year and has remained in good spirits. She made a recent trip to New York City to visit Erin, and she even walked all over town like a true local! So you see, Marty doesn't need your pity. She needs your support, as does her family. Let's show them we are all in this together.
Thank you to Erin Seitz of Brooklyn, New York, for this topic. Erin's Avon Page
What a sad story, but do you think that partly to be blame is the Doctor whom she consulted when she was 28, the day when the Doctor noticed that she has lumped across her breast. That the Doctor is confident that only .4% can be affected with such illness in that stage.
Posted by: Breast Reconstruction Los Angeles | 01/12/2010 at 12:28 AM
In each case the simple answer to why did not breast cancer. Possible only with a certain degree of credibility to talk about some of the factors. It is known that the cause of the cancer cells are mutations of normal cells in breast cancer. Under the action of carcinogens, genetic material in cells varies. The cells become cancerous. It is known that the more often the cell divides, the more likely that sooner or later, under the action of carcinogens, is its degeneration into cancer cells. In the case of breast cancer there are many factors that play a role in carcinogenesis, which they reinforce. Because elevated levels of estrogens or their relative abundance compared with other hormones are often found in women with breast cancer. Other factors of importance in the development of breast cancer include: irregular menstruation, abortion, and the absence of lactation, the violation of the thyroid gland, disruption of the adrenal glands, etc. The men also found breast cancer, although much less frequently than women. Most often this disease occurs in men in the background of gynecomastia.
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