Help for Breast Cancer Patients

Hi everyone!  This is a very important topic.  Please stay, read, pass on the word, and donate if you can.  Thank you!

Early on in my blogging I found Minky Moo she's a great blogger and I always enjoy reading her posts.  Yesterday, was one of the best, most heartfelt posts yet, same title as mine today, Help For Breast Cancer Patients.  It was all about her amazing friend, Susan, a cancer survivor, astrophysicist, and Mom of two . . . I know, Wow! right?  And Minky describes her as being made of Alpha waves and awesome.  Pretty much just the kind of person you want to be around. all. the. time. because you are made more awesome just by being lucky enough to be in her presence.  This is how I imagine her anyway :)

Well, Susan has these pretty amazing sleeves,   that she gets to wear for the rest of her life.  You see, what I didn't know, is that a side effect of breast cancer treatment can be permanent swelling in the arms, lymphedema.  It has been found that compression sleeves are, often, the best treatment.  But, unfortunately, they're not covered by medicare, or most insurance plans and they range from $200-$500.  Heartbreaking.  Well, Susan, being the amazing woman she is, decided to do something about it!  She made some phone calls and she made some big things happen!  Here are some of her own words explaining it:

Both the foundation (Crickett’s Aswser for Cancer) and my favorite lymphedema sleeve maker (Lymphedivas) were founded in honor of thirty-something women (one a blogger!) who had breast cancer (and then died).  I made an earnest plea to each of them, told them about the women that each other were honoring, and then held my breath and made the ask.

Would you, could you, please consider working with each other to provide lymphedema sleeves to women in need?

They agreed to talk to each other.  They liked each other, and a few weeks later, box upon box of lymphedema sleeves and gauntlets (like a glove without fingers – you can see mine in Monday’s post) arrived at the foundation.  Sue’s friend Carole, the foundation’s VP, unpacked them, totaled it up, and found that she had received over $12,000 worth of lymphedema sleeves and gloves to give away.

Pretty amazing, no?!  So, you may be asking, why does this matter to me?

Well, first, you are a woman too (probably because I don't think any men currently read my fancy blog) and you have or will, likely, be touched by breast cancer at some point in your life, whether you yourself, a family member, or friend.

If you are currently a breast cancer survivor in need, you can now go to Crickett's Answer for Cancer, and complete the forms requesting help by writing in “lymphedema sleeve and gauntlet” on page 2 of the application.

Or, if you want to help someone else, you can pass this message on.  Either directly to a friend/family member in need, blog about it, email it out, or make a donation here.

And if you want to tell Susan how awesome and fabulous she is, go vist her at Toddler Planet.

Now get to work!  Love ya ladies!