Click inside to watch this video of Giuliana Rancic back in the E! newsroom Monday after undergoing breast cancer surgery just five days earlier. She thanks all her fans for their pink support.
Something happened when the boys — ages 7, 9 and 11 — learned that their mother had breast cancer. They started to wear pink awareness wristbands. They put pink shoelaces in their shoes. The little gestures meant the world to Andrea as she prepared to face her cancer head-on with a bilateral mastectomy at age 41.
“Ideally, a child would want to hear it from a parent, and not somebody else,” she said. “It’s OK to say mommy’s a little scared. But give a strong message that the child will be safe and loved and taken care of — and will remain so, no matter what.”
Each October, consumers find themselves awash in pink, the adopted color of breast cancer, as companies strive to outdo each other with pink product offerings and promises that a purchase means more money for breast cancer research.
Healthy and in her mid-30s, Amy Harper knew her chances of developing breast cancer were low as she conducted a regular self-examination one night at home in 2009. But her findings that evening nearly two years ago ended up saving her life. Harper was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after, at age 36 — far younger than the 50 years or older range doctors normally deem “at risk.”
The National Breast Cancer Coalition has a mission of finding a cure by 2020. Sargent says the field begs for transparency, with privately funded research often done behind closed doors. If the medical community at large could learn from each other’s failures, it could help direct someone towards trying a new approach.
Recently I had my first mammogram. I had heard all the rumors. My “girls” were going to be sandwiched down to pancake-like proportions and I might pass out from pain. My anxiety at an all-time high, I questioned my cousin Paula, a breast cancer survivor and mammogram pro, for all the gory details. “Just pop an Advil and you’ll be fine,” she said.
Marcia Lievense doesn’t feel bad or bitter despite all she has lost to cancer. In fact, the two-time breast cancer survivor calls her cancer a gift. After battling the disease for years, she looks at life differently now, all thanks to family and friends — and a little positive thinking.
