Vote for young breast cancer survivor to be honorary bat girl on Mother's Day

[ewizabeff]

I received this invite on facebook. Although I don't know this woman, she works for my department and it's a great cause. We all know that BFnetters are great at online voting!

Please go to this website, go to page 2, and vote for Katie R.

Here is her story:

On March 24, 2008 I got news that changed my life; that was the day I heard the words "you have breast cancer". At first I thought there was some sort of mistake, I had a lump removed but I was only 20 years old. I thought I was too young for breast cancer. But I was wrong. I had stage II invasive ductal carcinoma. After I came to terms with the diagnosis I decided to be as proactive as I could and beat this disease. I had a unilateral mastectomy 2 months after my diagnoses, just enough time for me to finish my junior year of college. As soon as I was healing from my surgery I started chemotherapy. I spent my summer vacation doing 6 round of TAC three weeks apart. This is a very powerful combination but I wanted to do whatever I could to beat this disease. I started school in the fall and finished chemo. A year after my diagnosis I have completed a unilateral mastectomy, 6 rounds of chemotherapy, and breast reconstruction. Something I thought I would never have had to deal with at the age of 21. Many people do not know that 11,000 young women a year will be diagnosed with breast cancer so spreading the message of early detection in young women is something that I have become passionate about. I have participated in many fundraisers for cancer research and will be the honorary chair for Relay for Life 2009 in Walworth County. I hope to do more work to help educate young women about their breasts and how to be proactive with their health. Not a day goes by that I don't think about breast cancer and I hope and pray for the day when there will be a cure. By being the honorary bat girl would help me to spread the message for young women to start doing breast self exams and be aware that breast cancer can affect all people at any age. I have been a Brewers fan my whole life and they were even more special to me during my treatment. I had tickets to a couple of the games while I was going through treatment so it pushed me get better and feel well after treatments so I could go and see the Brewers play. In a way the Brewers helped me regain my strength and gave me something to cheer about during a time when I felt like I had nothing to cheer for..

If you'd like to get in touch with Katie or personally offer your support, here's her facebook effort to get out the vote.

[JoeHova]

Barbara Ehrenreich article.

[SeriesFinale]

Barbara Ehrenreich article.

I've read this before and don't entirely disagree with it (although I do with much of it)...

 

That said, I do think it's a little distasteful to "vote on stories."