I am a Survivor!

I wrote this email to those that donated to my Avon Walk campaign. Some of the emails didn't go through so I am posting it here and thought it would be good to add it to my online blog diary.  It has been a progression for me to "accept" or call myself a survivor. More on that in another post. 

Love and light to all. Good Night!

Sent via email - 9/26/11Thank you so much for your donation to my Avon Walk in Santa Barbara. I walked 26.2 miles. With your support I raised over $25,000 towards the fight to end Breast Cancer. 

Avon asked me to be the keynote speaker at the Opening and Closing ceremonies this year. They said they were inspired by my story of survival. I was honored by the ask but wondered, am I really a survivor? After all I just finished radiation therapy at the end of July and I'm still receiving low-dose Chemotherapy. What makes me qualified to talk to thousands of people on the subject? I felt phony making a speech as a survivor and felt I would come off as naive. Over the weekend, my attitude changed...

 Well, what are the facts? 1) This year an estimated 40,000 women will die from the disease. 2) Breast cancer takes another life every 14 minutes. 3) Another woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes. 4) An estimated three million women are living with breast cancer. 5) One million of them don't yet know it.

I am one of three million women living with breast cancer. Walking in the Avon Walk on September 17th and 18th helped me realize that I truly am a SURVIVOR. I have persevered, with the help of my loving family and friends, to make it through one of the toughest challenges of my life. As Ashley, one of my "Team Wonder Women" teammates said (or rather, yelled), when I told her I felt "really lame" for not walking the whole marathon on the first day: "In LESS than a year you have...been diagnosed with breast cancer, went through Chemotherapy, TWICE, lost your hair TWICE, had seven weeks of radiation therapy, a mastectomy with complications and reconstruction, had several transfusions, while taking care of a toddler, oh and gave birth! - you are certainly NOT lame"!! That really drove the point home over the Walk weekend and I no longer felt like a fraud saying I was a survivor.

I walked in this walk for the one million women who don't know they have breast cancer. If I understood the risks and got tested two or three years ago my situation might have been different. My cancer might not have been so advanced. I walked for all those young mothers like me who don't think to get mammograms or ultrasounds because they are too "young" to start diagnostic testing. I don't want young mothers to ignore warning signs or lumps because they are too young or don't have any family history. I walked to raise awareness and to honor all the young mothers before me who had to fight this fight and blaze the trail for me.

Your support really means a lot to me, and to the millions of people affected by breast cancer. I will be walking next year, city not yet decided, and I sincerely hope that I can count on your support once again.

 I want to give a special shout out to my team members Vizhier, Ashley and Lindsey. They made the weekend that much more special and worthwhile. We will be holding auditions for new team members and crew for next year’s walk, I hope you can join us!

I am including a photo of an emotional moment for me from the opening ceremony and the transcript of my speech from closing ceremony.

With gratitude,

Jess