BRCA Sisterhood

Wow - what a day!!

As I mentioned before I have come across some incredible ladies during my journey over the past year. I introduced myself to Facebook just a little over a year ago and I have met dozens of everyday heroes. Women who have seen cancer, women who have felt cancer and women , as BRCA carriers themselves who provide support to other previvors, as we struggle throughout our decisions and experiences.
The BRCA Sisterhood, which is a name we now call ourselves has been mobilized. The world changed today and shifted to action. We, dozens of women from Canada, to the Unites States and the United Kingdom joined as a power of one to get the word out. The word being we are fighters and we will not wait for the 'boogie man' inside us to take us. We are taking control of our lives and our destinies.

We have mobilized our words into action and have sent dozens of individual letters to Oprah to share in the vision that women like us have choices. More importantly they do not have to be afraid. They/We are not alone. We are a sisterhood that loves one another and supports our decisions and tears while facing this genetic destiny.

My letter to Oprah is as follows.

I sat there in disbelief. I cried then walked away. I wasdiagnosed with the BRCA gene. Once handed your fate you feel like you are put in a dark room, alone, with the door closed. There you wait, in the dark, wait for the monster called cancer to arrive. I am 36 years of age and diagnosed with BRCA2 ten years ago. I was one of the first women in my city to be diagnosed with such a genetic destiny and to this day there exists very little support and knowledge surrounding the issue. When faced with my mastectomy decision I had to ask “who am I? Who did I want to be?” I want to be the woman who is around to hug her children, be there when they cry over boyfriends, be there to take them out for shopping sprees, to be there when they have children of their own. But most importantly I just want to be there. Surgery, here I come. Ready or not. I often receive the question why not wait and see if you get cancer? The impression that breast cancer is somehow the "good cancer" to get befuddles me. Have we really sanitized the disease so much with all the pink ribbons and smiling bald ladies in ads that breast cancer has just become a woman's right of passage? Breast cancer changes lives. And breast cancer ends lives. I'm not sure why we've forgotten (willfully ignored?) this inconvenient truth. And unless I missed the headlines, there still is no cure for cancer. As a mother of 3 daughters, I want to lead by example, show them they can own who they are and control their own destiny. My mastectomy is about taking control, and not the disease controlling me. I am not waiting for the monster to arrive. So that no other woman felt as alone as I did, I took action and started my own support group. Only connections like sisters know what horrible decisions we face like hysterectomies and mastectomies. We are a powerful group of women who chat to strangers but frequently extend I love you over the internet because we truly do.

We are the BRCA Sisterhood.

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