3rd Annual One Woman 5K-Stage IV Breast Cancer $
Donation protected
We all know about the "pretty" sister who wears the pink ribbon– the one who can be cured, making her more attractive to the press and to the fund raising efforts. Why? Because cure sounds nicer than certain death.
It is the ugly step sister few of us know about. Her clinical name is Metastatic breast cancer ––breast cancer cells that travel to the bones and brain, lung and liver. Cells that will travel through you, root down, grow and devour you, often silently until the pain gives them away.
Metastatic Breast Cancer takes a life every 13 minutes.
Only 7% of the 15 Billion dollars raised goes to fund metastatic research while 30 % of all women and men diagnosed will have this death sentence.
There is no cure for metastatic breast cancer. Treatment never ends unless we are out of options or the toll treatment takes on us is too great. Then, we are left to prepare our own funerals, to look into the faces of our young children, our husbands, our loved ones and say goodbye.
For every 8 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer, 3 of us will become metastatic.
For some women, years go by before the metastatic diagnosis is handed down. For others, it is their first diagnosis. They can’t even ease into the horrors that accompany any cancer, let alone this one. For me, it was 3 months. Until I was diagnosed, I didn’t even know what metastatic breast cancer was.
About 150,00 women and men are currently living with MBC in the United States.
About 40,000 will die from it this year in the US –a half a Million world wide.
16% of those are women younger than 50.
The 5 year survival rate has increased from 18% to 36% in the last 20 years. Strides have been made in treatment but it is not enough.
What does that survival rate really mean? I was diagnosed in August of 2016. I am almost 3 years into that 5 year average.
In real numbers that means I have a 36 percent chance of seeing my 5 year old enter 2nd grade.
It also means I have a 64% chance of not seeing her finish 2nd grade.
Living with metastatic breast cancer is not normal. There is nothing normal about being on drugs that have a long list of devastating side effects. They make you feel exhausted, not to the point of tears, but where you actually just sob in despair that this is your life-as grateful as you are for every moment-this is your life.
Death sits at my door step each day. For now, we have an agreement. I am stable. I am grateful. I love my life and live it as fully as I can. So, I do what I can to take charge, to make a difference, to change the future of those who follow me if not for myself. That is what this page is all about.
More awareness and more funding needs to be given to this disease that robs families of their mothers, sisters, grandmothers and let’s not forget the men that it takes as well. Breast Cancer and MBC is not gender exclusive.
*Spread this knowledge. Speak for us, speak with us.
*Donate now to give those diagnosed with MBC more than a statistical life span of 5 years.
*Donate to change the future of thousands of women and men, and their families.
*Join me on June 23, 2019 to walk in my 3rd Annual One Woman 5K Raising Funds for Metastatic Breast Cancer Research. Look for future posts on this site for details.
Donations will be sent to the Northwestern Memorial Foundation in Chicago.
Thank you,
Sue
It is the ugly step sister few of us know about. Her clinical name is Metastatic breast cancer ––breast cancer cells that travel to the bones and brain, lung and liver. Cells that will travel through you, root down, grow and devour you, often silently until the pain gives them away.
Metastatic Breast Cancer takes a life every 13 minutes.
Only 7% of the 15 Billion dollars raised goes to fund metastatic research while 30 % of all women and men diagnosed will have this death sentence.
There is no cure for metastatic breast cancer. Treatment never ends unless we are out of options or the toll treatment takes on us is too great. Then, we are left to prepare our own funerals, to look into the faces of our young children, our husbands, our loved ones and say goodbye.
For every 8 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer, 3 of us will become metastatic.
For some women, years go by before the metastatic diagnosis is handed down. For others, it is their first diagnosis. They can’t even ease into the horrors that accompany any cancer, let alone this one. For me, it was 3 months. Until I was diagnosed, I didn’t even know what metastatic breast cancer was.
About 150,00 women and men are currently living with MBC in the United States.
About 40,000 will die from it this year in the US –a half a Million world wide.
16% of those are women younger than 50.
The 5 year survival rate has increased from 18% to 36% in the last 20 years. Strides have been made in treatment but it is not enough.
What does that survival rate really mean? I was diagnosed in August of 2016. I am almost 3 years into that 5 year average.
In real numbers that means I have a 36 percent chance of seeing my 5 year old enter 2nd grade.
It also means I have a 64% chance of not seeing her finish 2nd grade.
Living with metastatic breast cancer is not normal. There is nothing normal about being on drugs that have a long list of devastating side effects. They make you feel exhausted, not to the point of tears, but where you actually just sob in despair that this is your life-as grateful as you are for every moment-this is your life.
Death sits at my door step each day. For now, we have an agreement. I am stable. I am grateful. I love my life and live it as fully as I can. So, I do what I can to take charge, to make a difference, to change the future of those who follow me if not for myself. That is what this page is all about.
More awareness and more funding needs to be given to this disease that robs families of their mothers, sisters, grandmothers and let’s not forget the men that it takes as well. Breast Cancer and MBC is not gender exclusive.
*Spread this knowledge. Speak for us, speak with us.
*Donate now to give those diagnosed with MBC more than a statistical life span of 5 years.
*Donate to change the future of thousands of women and men, and their families.
*Join me on June 23, 2019 to walk in my 3rd Annual One Woman 5K Raising Funds for Metastatic Breast Cancer Research. Look for future posts on this site for details.
Donations will be sent to the Northwestern Memorial Foundation in Chicago.
Thank you,
Sue
Organizer
Sue Madsen
Organizer
La Grange, IL
