Tiffany Edmondson
Blue & White Flash / Associate Editor
Every day I receive phone calls phone from my family, friends, and close associates. But one particular morning I got a call from my mother. Before I answered the phone I already knew that something must have been wrong because of the time of the call.
Once I saw “mama” on the ID screen, I quickly answered and said hello but her response after hello was the day that changed my family’s life forever. Never in my life have I received a phone call from my mama crying about the news she received from her doctor. She had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.
This news was devastating to me because I didn’t want my mother to be hurt, sad and scared about her life after finding out she had it. There was nothing else for us to do but pray for the best and pray for her health.
Usually when people are diagnosed with cancer, not only does the individual hurt, but the family hurts as well. This is the time when a family has to pitch in and help keep the family together, happy, and faithful.
Days go by and the only thing that is really on your mind is finding a cure for your loved one. Maybe your mother didn’t have breast cancer but if you know someone that does, go out of your way to show them that you love them regardless of what they are going through at the moment. Like our elders always say, “It too shall pass.”
I can’t even imagine what my mother went through but I do know that she is a strong woman and she loves to give hope to other women. Hope is what we all need and hope is what makes a woman a survivor. We should support breast cancer survivors and give them a shoulder to lean on through their journey.
It was 2006 when we found out about my mother’s breast cancer and now she is a six year survivor. People are surviving everyday thanks to continuous efforts of communities and organizations like the Susan G. Komen For the Cure.
There are so many ways that you can get involved whether it is volunteering to help spread awareness to other women or donating time and money to fund the research for a cure.
My mother tells me that everyday is a blessing because she is so thankful to be here. One thing that she always tells people when they ask how she was able to pull through, she would respond by saying that she found strength by talking to other breast cancer survivors and by encouraging other women who had recently find out that they had cancer.
Finding out about any type of cancer at an early stage gives people the opportunity to seek the medical treatment that they need to fight it. If my mother didn’t go to her doctor appointments or give herself regular home breast exams, she would not have found out about it during its development in her body.
Yes, sometimes women do have to sacrifice their breast or in the words of our editor Diamond “the girls, the twins or chimichongas” to get rid of the cancer, but the world doesn’t end there. That is why it’s so important for women to go to their annual appointments to find out about what’s going on inside of their bodies.
October is the month dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness so let’s do just that and become aware of the disease, ways to prevent it and ways to help someone become a survivor.
The views expressed in the commentary are those of the writer(s) and in no way represent the views of The Blue & White Flash.
Be First to Comment