Breast Cancer Awareness

I'd like to meet:

Please forward this page onto friends and family. Post a bulletin so that all your friends know about the page. Leave a comment to say hello, or to share your thoughts and experiences with breast cancer, or to ask for more information and I will try my best to locate that information for you.

Music:

EVENTS
Contstant Trek
In 2004, Paula Constant began walking from Trafalgar Square in London. Since then, she has walked over 7000km, through France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and the Western Sahara. For the last 2,500km Paula walked through the desert with just four camels and two local guides. In September this year she is returning to the desert to continue her walk, with the aim of crossing the Sahara from West to East - travelling through Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Libya and Egypt. Last year, whilst Paula was walking in the desert, her mother, Bev Walshe, was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in Melbourne. Bev is the reason that Paula is dedicating the next phase of her walk to raising funds for Breast Cancer Research. Paula has self funded her walk from the beginning, working and saving for five years to make the walk possible. But now the walk has become about much more than a personal dream. Paula's Mum taught her to never give up; Paula wants to raise money so that the one in nine women worldwide affected by Breast Cancer, never have to.http://www.constanttrek.com

Mobile phone need updating?
If you're looking for a new look for your mobile, why not purchase a Pink Ribbon for your wallpaper. Just SMS the word 'pink' to 193 939 and we'll send the image directly to your mobile. The wallpaper costs $5.55 (GST inclusive) with part of the proceeds going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Please note, the mobile must have GPRS activated and be able to receive premium SMS. Black and white mobiles will receive a different image to colour phones.Please call 1300 724 406 or e-mail [email protected] if you have sent an SMS but have not received the image.This new service is proudly sponsored by MIA - Mirror Image Access

Movies:

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Donate to research
Volunteer to help
Purchase Online
Go Shopping
Fundraising Activities

Go to National Breast Cancer Foundation site- www.nbcf.org.au

Television:

PRODUCTS YOU CAN BUY
Drink Pink Bottled Water
Pink Swing CD
Pink Ribbon T-Shirts
Tax Pack Express
Books
The Cosmetic Department
David Jones Charity Bear
Diva Pink Wristbands
Filofax Pink Organiser
Pink Angel Products
Double A Paper
10th Anniversary Commemorative Pin
Ishvara
ItSimplicity
Meds
Marbig Pink Ribbon
Nine West
Panafen
More information on Products go to www.nbcf.org.au

Books:

My Story
I don't know what it was that made me feel my breast that night. Maybe I was horny and thought feeling myself up would relieve some tension. Maybe I knew something was wrong. But, whatever it was, I am grateful. On my right breast, just to the left of the nipple, was a lump, about the size of a 50 cent piece. I immediately started to cry, because I knew it wasnt like the other tissue and that other big lumpy thing that sits under the nipple. It was late, so I didn't bother telling anyone, not even my parents. I lay awake for longer than usual that night, wondering what to do, what would I do if I found out it was cancer. And even the unthinkable went through my mind, what if I was told I only had a short time to live?
The next day, I decided after I had bowled with a mate at work, that I would see my local GP. The mate that I bowled with found out what was going on that morning, and my tears met with his shoulder a lot over the next week or so. So although he offered to come with me, I decided I really wanted to go alone. I don't know what gave me the courage to do so, as usually I'm quite a socialite, and crave my support group, but nothing about this situation was usual. The wait in the doctors waiting room was horrible. I could tell people were looking at me, wondering why this seemingly healthy 19 year old girl was waiting to see a doctor, as people around them coughed. It wasn't until later research showed me that breast cancer is actually more agressive in younger people, its just that its not as common as it is for women who are at a later stage of their life.
The doctor was a pleasant women, who seemed to notice my distress and worry. After a quick feel from her, she told me I had to make an appointment for an ultrasound. The unfortunate thing was that it wasn't for another week that they could see me. And that wait was worse that waiting to see the doctor. I told a few close friends and also told my parents. My parents were like steel. They told me that I neednt worry until I knew more. My friends weren't like that. I suppose being young girls who had never dealt with anything like this before, they reacted as I would have done, if one of them had told me the news that I had for them. They were full of questions, worry, and I guess sadness. Other than that, I can't remember much of that week. Everything I did was consumed with the thought that I had a lump in my breast. I couldn't bare to touch my breast. Sometimes I would tell myself that if I didn't touch it, it would go away. Other times I just simply had to see if it was still there.
A night whilst waiting for the ultrasound, I went to a friends party, to try keep my mind off it. It didn't work for long. I ended up telling the guy I was seeing at the time about it, and after some concerned questions from him, he actually made me laugh. He said to me, "You know Cass, in my spare time I have been studying medicine so if you like I could feel it for you..."
brThe guy who performed the ultrasound was nice. I mean, it could have been quite an uncomfortable situation.... a young girl half naked in a room alone with a man aged in his thirties.... I must admit I was a little scared. However, he made sure he kept asking me questions about what I did, and showed an interest in my uni work, and I forgot that he had his hand on my chest. Then he said something that was the best news I had all week. The lump had decreased in size and it wasn't cancerous. I was overwhelmed with joy. The worry from the past week seemed to disappear as I put my clothes back on. I had been saved.
After that, I found it hard to check my breasts. After knowing what it is like to find a lump in your breast, you know what you're going to feel again if you find another one. Not just physically, but mentally as well. A lot of my time over the next few weeks was put towards researching breast cancer, and it was during this time that I decided that I was going to be an ambassador for the research and prevention of breast cancer. And it is now that I realise that early prevention is one of the key factors in surviving this disease. And to do so, women need to perform self examinations regularly, at least once a month, to note any changes in their breasts. What I try to promote is checking your breasts on the first of every month. That is why I feel so strongly about breast cancer, and developing a greater awareness and understanding of the disease. I will never forget the weeks proceeding the night I found the lump in my breast. Never. And I'm glad I wont. It means I won't ever forget to check my breasts regularly, and means I won't ever give up the fight to beat breast cancer, so that women all over the world, as well as some men, have the quality and quantity of life they deserve.
Audi's Story
For as long as I can remember, I have been in search of the words to capture someone who made my life, and then the element that took that person away.
Dad and cancer...
two words that capture what has made me who I am at this very moment in time.
I have written poems and letters, thought unsaid thoughts, and it never seems enough, I know it never will be enough. Maybe in our lifetime we are not meant to try to capture another person's life, maybe all we can do is go on and live, carrying them with us. In that case, mine is a pointless exercise, however I choose to write on.
Right now, I am compelled to write to capture a person who in part is starting to form a dream like state in my mind. A person whose voice has softened until I see a home video again, a person whose smell, touch and presence is slowly but surely fading. How feeble the human mind is for given time each one of us will forget the little things that make up a person once they are gone, even if they did help to make, shape and nurture you until you were able to stand alone. Each one of us will have our turn of bearing the guilt of the forgotten, some sooner than others but, it is an inevitability.
I was never daddy's little girl. The most likely contributing factor towards this would be the fact that I am essentially a mirror image of my father in many ways. A stubborn, hothead I can remember always answering back to my father as a child and then proceeding to have him chase me to belt some sense into me as a result. My father had hands like tree trunks, embodying strength that to this day I have never seen in another man; they petrified me, so I made sure to always be at a safe distance when making my defiant stance. However, as the years went on, and my father's body slowed down to the progression of my own, he gave up trying to chase me and simply resorted to throwing fruit at me during an argument. I tell you what, he had a freakish aim on him, one attribute I myself did not gain from him. I can still see my dad saying in arguments that I would be so beautiful if only I didn't open my mouth to expose that sharp tongue of mine, and how the only thing I focused on when I went to bed at night was that my dad thought I was beautiful, and that was all I needed to know.
It was only until the word cancer entered into our lives that I caught a glimpse into who my father really was as a man. I just wish somehow we could've had more time, even just a minute to say for the first time I love you, but this will never be, and I have to accept that.
I can remember getting my driver's license not for the desire to cruise around like everyone else my age, but so I could take my dad to chemotherapy and, to this day I am grateful for that time. Even today when I pass that particular building of the RPA Hospital, I can close my eyes and see my dad, with his fisherman's hat on, trying to chat up the nurses whilst pumping his veins up so they could find a vein to inject. I remember he had healthy looking veins, so plump, so full of life.
In the months that preceded the man I knew deteriorated to a point where I lost the ability to feel or process what my eyes saw. All the blood in different forms; coughing up blood, blood for tests, falls creating gushes of blood, I still see the shade of red blazed in my mind, the redness of my fathers blood, the first colour that conveyed with a screeching scream, "No, your daddy is not invincible!".
This is where I shall stop and say, my story is not meant to be one that will insight your pity upon me for I don't need that, for I have led a blessed life. This story is one of resilience and love that goes beyond logic or reason, and I know this for a part of my father lives in me, and to me that means that we beat that big fucker, cancer (pardon my foul language but I have met cancer and it is one hell of a fucker).
When my father died, I felt like I was unworthy of mourning, of standing with my family to grieve because I felt I had not been a daughter to him like my sisters had, I would not make him proud, and that due to that he could not have loved me. It was only a few years after he died that I found out differently.
My mother came home one day and told me a story that an old neighbour of ours told her of my father gloating about one of his daughters constantly. He had said how smart and beautiful she was and how proud of her he was. I did not pay attention as I assumed it was about my other sister who was always his little girl, even my mum thought as much, but when my mum mentioned my sister's name the neighbour was adamant that it was not her, that it was the youngest, the baby of the family... me!. It took so long to process the thought of my dad standing proud whilst talking about me, and I relished in the sheer ecstasy of the moment, it was almost as if he had waited for that particular time for that message to reach me, so I would know, I was always and will always be my father's daughter. To feel close to him I went to sit in his car, his pride and joy. Gliding into the front seat I looked at his photograph placed in this meticulously maintained vehicle and recalled how he would always say "use but don't abuse what you have". I fumbled through the glove box, flicking through the car manual and his possessions still untouched, and there emerged a photograph of me as a child that I had never seen. It was like everything he held precious was there... including me... he did love me.
With that moment of elation I grieved with the knowledge that we will never have that harmonious relationship in the flesh, where I had passed my teenage years, all the hormones and disjointed views on life to leave remaining our unity, our bond in blood.
So on Sunday I will go as I have for the past 6 years to see my father. I will mute the music in the car out of respect as I approach him, get out of my car and see his photograph and feel nothing of him there. Yet, I will as I always do go up to his coffin and trace the timber, the place where I last saw those tree trunk hands, so withered, so dead, and I will whisper ever so softly a silent prayer just for him and I so that not even God will hear the words.
During this Easter break, and everyday you have with the people you love, cherish it like it will be your last. Hold that certain person for that extra moment, inhale their scent, their texture for one day those things will be what you search to remember. Focus on their features, on their gestures, on them and embrace it for it is ever so precious. Make it so that when you are here in my shoes you are not having to write these sentiments when they should have been said, years ago.
To truly love someone isn't an easy task. To swallow your pride and say those three words and follow it up with action is even harder but, sometimes it needs to be said, it needs to be heard not only by the reciprocant but by you, so right now call, whisper, scream or cry the words I love you to those you love.
I love you Dad!
Lea's Story
I had my first pap smear at age 19. You are supposed to have your first pap smear either when you become sexually active or once you turn 18, whatever comes first. I became sexually active from age 17, so it was silly of me not to go.
I went to a female doctor about a month after I turned 19 to have one. When i told the doctor i came for a pap smear, i noticed a tongue click and an eyeroll, and she was acting quite agitated, while she was setting up this table thing. The only information i knew was what i read in magazines or books, and she did nothing to make me feel comfortable, didnt explain what she was doing and didnt even use lubricant! After that i went to my(at the time) boyfriends house, in tears, feeling violated and and like an inconvenience. She said she would call me if there was anything wrong, and never did, so it went fine i guess.
I cruised through life, me and boyfriend broke up, got a new man, work, family, friends was great. Then the inevitable. My 2 years was up. I needed another pap smear. I had tonsilitis at the beginning of last year, and went to a different doctor straight after work one day, one closer to work. I went to the same one when i had to have my pap smear. I like to think of myself as a strong person, and i wasnt going to let one cranky doctor stop me from having a very inportant examination.
So she told me she would call me in about a week to tell me the results. The very next day i got a call from her, i recognised the number on my caller ID and knew it was bad. She wanted me to come in and see her, whenever i could. I was there within 45 minutes. She told me the results were inconclusive, and also that i have H.P.V-Human Papilloma Virus. She gave me pamphlets on hpv and pap results, and said that i would have to see a specialist for a colposcopy, gave me the contact details of the specialist they normally use, gave me a referral. It was too much... i cried, i had no idea what was happening i didnt know what a colposcopy was. She was great and talked me through everything.
I had to tell my partner everything, and he was just as confused as me, i tried to figure out who i got hpv from. (im not a ho, hpv is spread from skin to skin contact of the genitals, u dont have to have sex, and condoms do not protect that. Most ppl under the age of 30 who have ever had any sexual contact have it and dont know it. It really doesnt do much, but some cases u can get warts on hands, feet and or genital area.)
I could be from my ex-i thought he cheated on me, and he could have got it from the other girl, i could have got it from sum1 in melbourne, or could have got it from the new guy. There is no test for men, it only shows up in pap smears. So we will never know.
I went to the specialist, who is a man, but i didnt really care, i suppose he sees ppl all day... he did the colposcopy, first he 'paints' my cervix with vinegar stuff, then looks my cervix through these binocular type things, to see whats there. He said he saw some white skin, primarily to do with hpv, and he took a biopsy, the size of a pen tip, to be tested.
I had to see him again when he got the results, and there is CIN I II and III which is the way they grade how abnormal the cells are, how severe it is. I is low grade abnormality, and II and III are high grade. CIN II & III are severe abnormalities in the cells of your cervix. No one knows how cancer happens, therefore there is no cure right? Well the closest thing that made me understand sort of how cancer occurs is what happened to me. H.P.V had many 'strains' Whichever strain or strains i have, is what caused my cells to freak out, and have abnormalities, which is CIN. If i did nothing, it would progress to CIN III, and then 5-10 years later it would continue to get worse and then i would have full blown cervical cancer. However - with CIN I, it may just go away by itself, it may not get any worse and can come and disappear without you even realising. And i read a few months ago that they have a vaccination for some of the HPV strains, so thats good news for other ppl. I dont know whether or not it is available in australia.
CIN I isnt really anything to worry about, but i had CIN II, which required me to have an operation LEEP / cone biopsy, which involves a hot looped piece of wire to scrape / cut the outside of my cervix off, and all the abnormal cells off with it. I had to go to hospital for it, and if they dont get all the abnormal cells first time they have to do it again. i had to wear 'normal, giant' undies, and a pad for the next few weeks instead of my normal lil bonds g strings. Apparently after the operation, during the healing process about 5% of ppl will get an infection. Guess what i got..., i was already back at work, and i felt my pad needed a change. When i saw it i was like FUCK! it was FULL. I changed and wen i looked, i was literally dripping blood in the toilet, which worried me. i told me boss i was worried, but continued working, and felt like i needed a change within an hour, so i went and again it was full, and i was near panic, but i held control and told the boss and called the doctor, cos they said if u soak a pad in an hour.... well its bad.
Doctors receptionist told me to go home, lay down and get some rest and so i did but it didnt help. The lowest point in this whole thing had to be getting up from my 'rest' to go change pad again, feeling stuff start to come out and then tripping on a shoe getting out of bed, spilling blood all down my leg, onto my pants...then sitting on the toilet, with a face washer, rubbing blood off my leg, with the door open and mum there, then hearing a massive blood clot plopping into the toilet. So my parents took me to emergency section of hospital, and the gyno there cauterised the bleed with silver nitrate and stuffed me with gauze, then i had to stay overnight in hospital. This time i healed properly, they gave me antibiotics too, which led to a severe bout of tonsilitis... which led me popping 8 penicillin tablets a day for a week... which led to me becoming allergic to penicillin.
After the operation i had to have 6 monthly colposcopy and pap smear for 1 year, and if all went fine, i would go back a year after that, and if all is fine gain, i can then go back to having one every 2 years as normal. My second 6 month check up is on Thursday. Yes this thursday 24th. At the last one, he said there was a lil bit of white skin, but he didnt take a biopsy, so im guessing it cant have been too severe, and my pap results came back normal. So hoping its the same good news.
Melissa Etheridge I Run For Life Lyrics
It's been years since they told her about it
The darkness her body possessed
And the scars are still there in the mirror
Everyday that she gets herself dressed
Though the pain is miles and miles behind her
And the fear is now a docile beast
If you ask her why she is still running
She'll tell you it makes her complete
[Chorus:]
I run for hope
I run to feel
I run for the truth
For all that is real
I run for your mother your sister your wife
I run for you and me my friend I run for life
It's a blur since they told me about it
How the darkness had taken its toll
And they cut into my skin and they cut into my body
But they will never get a piece of my soul
And now I'm still learning the lesson
To waken when I hear the call
And if you ask me why I am still running
I'll tell you I run for us all
[Chorus]
And someday if they tell you about it
If the darkness knocks on your door
Remember her remember me
We will be running as we have before
Running for answers
Running for more

Heroes: