Blog Archives
Please show your support of the EARLY Act for Breast Cancer
I’ve posted before about the importance of the EARLY Act. FORCE is submitting a wonderful letter showing their
support and I urge you to add your name to the letter. Feel free to read the full letter or some of my other breast cancer posts on this topic to understand the importance of the EARLY Act. If you would like your name added to the letter, just email info@facingourrisk.org and type EARLY in the subject line.
Thank you again for all your support!
Continue the fight against breast cancer and support the EARLY Act today!
Yesterday was a wonderful Mother’s Day. It started off with a great breakfast prepared by my husband and children and ended with a super night at the Fisher Theater seeing Annie. The kids loved it and it was fun to watch them enjoy it so much. I loved it too. In between, we had a soccer game (kids against adults because the other team did not show up). And I even scored a goal. As I went through the day, I couldn’t help but think about all the people who didn’t get to share Mother’s Day with their mother because of breast cancer. Especially the younger women diagnosed too late and leaving young children. Consider this:
• Each year, 10,000 women under age 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer.
• 1,000 of these women will die.
• Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women under 40.
Breast cancer awareness has traditionally been focused on women over the age of 40. Today, we have the opportunity to change the faces of breast cancer awareness advertising and education by supporting the EARLY Act. I encourage you to help keep more mothers celebrating Mother’s Day with their children by sending a note to your representative. It’s simple and takes less than 5 minutes but it can change so many lives. Do it for your daughters, your sisters, your friends and your mothers. Let’s continue to fight this disease together.
Two of the many reasons why I continue to raise money and awareness in the fight against breast cancer — my daughter and my mom.
Great breast cancer news straight from Washington!
I’m anxious to hop on my treadmill for a quick walk—back in training mode. But I’m even more anxious to share my excitement at the latest news coming out of Washington. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz along with Senator Amy Klobuchar announced legislation they will introduce to educate young women (women under 40) about their risks of breast cancer. In a TV interview, Debbie Wasserman Schultz talks about her own successful battle with breast cancer that included 7 surgeries over the course of the year.
Ironically, she just told her children Saturday Night which made me chuckle a bit since there wasn’t anything my kids didn’t know. I’m guessing if I was a Politician I might have kept my discussion about my new nipples to myself instead of posting on my Facebook status and blogging about them. But I’m not and I did. And now I’m digressing a bit.
Representative Wasserman Schultz sums it up so well when she says that people don’t necessarily think about breast cancer under 40 (unless you have a family history and actually know you have one—unlike me). Even Physicians don’t always look at breast cancer as a serious risk for women under 40 and often insurance companies don’t want to pay for diagnostic testing for women under 40. So the plan for this bill is to change all of that with The Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act (EARLY Act) which would direct the CDC to implement a national education campaign directed at women under 40 and Physicians.
This bill will truly save lives by making sure women understand their risks before they turn 40. Right now there are over 250,000 women under the age of 40 living with a breast cancer diagnosis. Each year over 10,000 young women are diagnosed and 1,000 of them die. It’s time to make sure everyone knows they are at risk for breast cancer regardless of their age. Thank you my fellow survivor for helping us all through this battle.
Ellyn Davidson 