Helix of Joy

Each month, The Poster Cause Project has a limited release of a poster and donates 50 to 100 percent of the proceeds to a charity.

Twenty-five prints of “Helix of Joy” by Sket One were released on January 12, 2010 and 50 percent of the profits will benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  Described as a “visual artist with an old school urban background,” Sket One is both a graffiti artist and toy designer.

The 11 × 17 posters sell for $25 and printed in full color on high quality 100# stock.

Good stuff!

I just bought one.

East Coast 2010= snow, snow and more snow

I haven’t written a blog post here in quite some time. So I will start off just by mentioning that I am fine. In a few weeks I will be four years cancer-free. The uncomfortable truth is that when a cancer blogger stops blogging, it isn’t always because she has “moved on” from the cancer experience and is out living an enlightened life. Sometimes the blog just stops because she has been swept away by the disease.

More than a year ago, one of my breast cancer blogging friends stopped posting without explanation. I had been away from the message board where we had first become acquainted, and it wasn’t until I started sifting through old message board posts, looking for my fellow blogger, that I discovered that she had passed away. Her blog is still up and occasionally I stop in there and look at her exquisite nature photography, and I think about her and her family and I miss this woman who I never met.

The Young Survival Coalition occasionally provides a telephone support call called “Grief Matters…Let’s Talk About It.” While I have yet to be able to participate, I hold out hope that sooner or later I will get to be part of that call. The folks at the Young Survival Coalition recognize that those of us who open ourselves up to the breast cancer community risk grief on a regular basis.

If you are not familiar with the Young Survival Coalition, hop yourself over there. NOW! They have a fantastic new web design, too.

It is not quite October but breast cancer awareness activities have already begun.  In October 2007 I wrote A Tale of Three Octobers, a short chronicle of my evolving thoughts about Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Two years later, I still have somewhat of the same problem.  My e-mail inbox is overflowing with volunteer opportunities and I simply can’t say yes to everything.

Does Breast Cancer Awareness month just keep getting bigger each year or am I just more aware of the awareness?  Just like when you are pregnant the world suddenly seems to be filled with pregnant women.  I guess I will just never know…

This week, I put a blog post up on skirt! greensboro magazine.  It is a short piece of creative nonfiction that I hope will do a little bit to raise awareness.  Here is the link:

I am Pretty in Pink

And if you happen to be in The Triad:

• skirt! Greensboro is having a  Pretty in Pink expo this weekend
• next Saturday is the Women’s Only 5K in Greensboro

Both events provide funds for mammograms for local women.

I had a good summer.

And I didn’t blog at all.

And then the kids went back to school.

And I was ready to start blogging again.

And then a breast-cancer-blogging-friend of mine died.

And nothing that I wrote seemed right.

And it still doesn’t.

As promised, here is the rest of my interview with Maimah Karmo, a young breast cancer survivor & founder of the Tigerlily foundation.

Let’s talk a bit about your experience leading Tigerlily.  I think that a lot of women want to get more involved in advocacy but don’t always know where to begin.  And in a very short amount of time your organization has grown by leaps and bounds.  Any suggestions?

You need nothing to start besides your passion.  I started Tigerlily while I was in bed going through chemo. I knew  nothing about breast cancer, non-profits, running an organization, how to get awareness, exposure or how to create something that would make a difference.  All I had was a burning passion and desire to make a difference and a deep love and compassion for the young women being affected by this disease. I also pray constantly that I be shown the steps to take and the people that I should reach out to.  Every morning I ask God what our plan is for the day and I listen and do…that is how it has worked. I have had no plan, formal training or strategy… just love, desire, passion and the memory of the pain and isolation I felt during that time and my knowledge of the potential for transformation through a challenge.

Women who want to get involved should just start acting and stop thinking about it.  Call me, email me, commit yourself.  People are dying because of lack of information.  That is unacceptable.  Lack of action can equal a life lost…that is how I see it and that is why I don’t stop and will never stop in my mission to educate and help young women. I owe it to them and to my daughter and to the young women who are dying or have lost their lives to this disease.

I see that you are also a life coach and an editor for Global Woman magazine.  Did these endeavors also flow from your breast cancer experience, or were they activities that you were already involved in prior to your diagnosis?

After I got diagnosed, I wondered, if I’d died, what would have become of all my dreams?  They would have died with me.  So, I decided to create a life where I did any and everything I wanted and dreamed of…and I have and still am. I became a published writer, I wrote a book, I use my life in service to others, I am truly alive, I coach others and share the lessons I learned, I’m a better mother and Maimah, I have more fun…all of the things you see came from my “after life” – my life after I was confronted with my mortality and it has been amazing.  When I die, I want to be smiling and ready to go.  I want to have no regrets, no “what-ifs” and no dreams left unfulfilled…so I’m making them happen.  I also want to leave my daughter with the tools she needs to really live and she will have them because that is what she grew up with.  I want her to be happy and love herself, be at peace and be the change she seeks in the world.  Oh, and I’m not done yet…I’m just getting started!

You are a very busy woman – you are growing Tigerlily, working at another job, and raising a daughter.  How do you keep up with everything?!

A LOT of prayer, juggling and very disciplined time management.  I couldn’t do it otherwise.  I pray unceasingly and ask God to guide me and show me what to do.  Building Tigerlily and being a mother are the most important works of my life and I have to do them both well.  So, I really have to balance my time.  I take my daughter everywhere I go, to events, expos, Capitol Hill, Congressional receptions, speaking engagements, meetings, everything.  She is getting  a hands-on education on how to create the life she wants.  I think hands-on education is everything.  She was three when I was diagnosed, so she went through everything with me and I watched how it changed her, so she knows how important the work  we (she and I) do is.

I make sure to really connect with my daughter and we have one-on-one time, and little special moments and things that we do that are just between her and I.  We take mini vacations and have quiet time at home, where it is just she and I and all electronics are off… We have movie nights and go to get our nails done together or get sushi, we have water gun fights and mommy and me night in, where we do fun things, so I really have to make sure that I balance, she knows she comes first, and that Tigerlily is very important.  Last, but not least, I make sure that I have time for me, where I power down and just relax, center and do nothing…or I treat myself.  I know, a lot, but it works!

Any particular programs / events that you would like to highlight?

Our primary programs are the Chemotherapy Buddy Program, Funds for Families, At Home and Day of Beauty, which provide women with buddies, financial assistance, meals and empowerment, in that order.

In June, we are having our 1st Annual DIVA Night Out, to connect young women, mothers, families and friends in a fun event, while educating and empowering them in terms of their breast health.  There will be a mother daughter fashion show, spa treatments (manicure, pedicures, massages and facials), we will hear from empowerment speakers and breast cancer survivors, women will be able to eat, dance, shop with vendors, and they will get swag bags.  Tickets are $60 per person; groups of 20 get 5 free tickets and groups of 10 get 3 free tickets.  It is an event not to be missed.  Especially after being on the Oprah Winfrey Show, tickets have been really selling.  This event is basically a way to bring young women together in a fun arena and open up their minds to their breast health, while having a good time.

What is your long-range vision for the organization?  How can people help?

The goal for Tigerlily Foundation is that it will be a nationally recognized, then global foundation that provides young women with hands-on support and services – before, during and after breast cancer.  People can help by donating, doing fundraisers, starting affiliates/chapters and spreading the word, to educate others and get young women educated and aware.

One of your stated goals is to “promote ferociously fearless females.” Love that!  How would you define a ferociously fearless female?

Someone who lives her life on her own terms, who creates the life she desires, that makes her heart sing and who realizes that its all in the journey, who is truly alive and lives life in spite of her fears and claims her place in the world.

Thanks, Maimah!  You rock!

Click here for more details about Tigerlily’s the 1st Annual DIVA (Divine Inspiring Vivacious Aware) night coming to Fairfax, Virginia on June 25, 2009.

Maimah Karmo was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only thirty-two years old. While going through chemotherapy, she had the idea to start the Tigerlily Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young women with breast cancer. Maimah has infused Tigerlily with her passion and enthusiasm, and the result is that – just a few short years after its conception – the Tigerlily Foundation has grown by leaps and bounds. Here is the first of a two-part interview with Maimah:

Tell me a bit about your breast cancer journey. You were very young when you were diagnosed – only thirty-two years old. Did you find the lump yourself?

Yes, I found the lump in the shower while doing a breast self-examination. My mother had taught me to do my exams at thirteen, and it formed a habit that ended up saving my life. I became so accustomed to doing the exams that it was second nature. I went to see my OBGYN, got a mammogram and then went to a breast surgeon, who told me that I was too young to have breast cancer, even though the lump wasn’t aspirating. She told me to come back in six months. Over that time the lump doubled in size. I pushed for a biopsy and was diagnosed the next day. It turned out that the lump was aggressive. If I had waited, I may have been metastatic or dead by now. Good thing I was doing the exams, knew my body and was my own best advocate.

I love the name of Tigerlily Foundation. Is there a story behind the name?

When a woman loses her hair, one or both of her breasts and possibly her ability to procreate (due to chemo), she loses the things that many women use to define themselves as women. She feels as if she has lost her petals. Likewise, a lily, in the fall and winter becomes dormant and its petals fall off, but in the spring and summer it transforms into a magnificent bloom. The stargazer lily is our emblem. It is beautiful, proud, fragrant and can never be forgotten. The fragrance is intoxicating.

Women go through a “shedding,” a dormancy and time of change while undergoing treatment. But they can be transformed through their experience, like a flower and realize that their beauty and strength is not about their hair, breasts or other external things. Tigerlily helps to remind them of that… that they are beautiful, strong and can be transformed though this experience.

There are many organizations devoted to breast cancer advocacy. Tell me a bit about Tigerlily’s focus – what makes it unique? What inspired you to start the foundation?

Tigerlily is focused solely on younger women – under forty – because they are often overlooked and underrepresented when it comes to breast cancer. Most women think that breast cancer happens to women who are forty and older and that is not always true. Younger women tend to have more aggressive breast cancers and higher mortality rates – often because they are misdiagnosed.

In addition, younger women have specific needs to their demographic that women who are older might not grapple with – lifestyle issues – dating, insurance coverage, financial issues, fertility, coping with a longer lifespan while living with cancer or being metastatic, life after cancer, during college, dating, caring for younger children, not having a strong support system, being single, being in the prime of their lives and then having to face their mortality. Even the issue of them thinking they are too young and not being aware of their risks – someone needs to stand up and create a voice and a change for these younger women – that is what Tigerlily is doing.

Furthermore, while other organizations are supporting and raising funds for breast cancer research, which is critical, we are there in the trenches, supporting these young women “between the phone call and the race.” We are there from that initial phone call -supporting them with financial assistance, meals, buddies, empowerment and understanding – until they are whole again. Until they are on the other side.

Coming up next: Maimah offers inspiration! She is really living out her dreams, and her enthusiasm is contagious. Check back on Thursday to find out more about Maimah and the Tigerlily Foundation – and to read Maimah’s definition of a “ferociously fearless female.”

The Canvas of Hope is a collection of works of art created from microscopic images of breast cancer from the pathology department of Touro University in Vallejo, CA.  This project began when a group of medical students realized that what they were seeing through their microscopes often resembled abstract art.

The image shown here is a digital pathology print by Robert S. Kelly, a 4th year medical student at Touro University.  The book version of Canvas of Hope explains that the “ribbon is composed of healthy breast connective tissue, which unites various parts of the breast. In fact, pathologist refer to this as ‘ribbons of tissue’, and it looks pink under the microscope. The ribbon is pining down a field of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast.”

The book is available from Blurb ($24.95 for softcover) and proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer programs.

Art for My Mom is a daughter’s tribute to a mother who died of breast cancer in 2007. This very talented and dedicated daughter created a new piece of visual art EVERY DAY for an entire year. The artwork is for sale with proceeds going to a variety of charities.

Be sure to look through the gallery.

Collage, acrylic, ink, watercolor: there is quite a variety of techniques. Wow, this must have taken an enormous amount of dedication (the artist has three children including a set of young twins!) but I am sure that it must have felt oh-so-good to do a project this intense. What a lovely tribute to the mom that she lost to this awful disease.

Cancerversary #3 passed without much fanfare this month. In April, I am due back at the oncologist for a follow-up visit. Currently, I go once every six months.

I do not feel secure; I know too many stories of recurrences after 3, 5, 12 + years. But I am cautiously optimistic. These days, my active worrying is likely to be about (a) regular family stuff or (b) the economy and the associated fallout.

When my body exhibits a quirk, anything from a rash to a broken blood vessel, I am reminded of my vulnerability.

I check my breasts and poke around my armpit and collar bone to check for lumps, but not obsessively. Once, someone pointed out to me that if I check for lumps too often then that becomes like trying to watch my children grow – a change could be so gradual that I’d actually miss noticing it. And since that made complete sense to me, I was able to let go of obsessively checking for trouble.

As I wrote in a previous post, journaling doesn’t have to focus on what-I-did-today. Great journal entries can come from memories. And I said that I was going to journal about my memories of Washington DC, a city that I’ve been to countless times.

In summary, here is how the journal entry turned out. The details would bore you, but maybe the process will inspire you!

Right now, I am using an 8 1/2″ x 11″ unlined sketchbook. I began this particular book in May 2008; I have just a few pages left in it.

• Without fail, I begin with a header: Wednesday, Jan 21 2009 5:25 AM
• I wrote about watching the inauguration on TV. This was one page.
• I wrote just little bits about the different events that have taken me to DC: childhood field trips, hanging out in Georgetown as a young adult, business trips, taking my children to the Smithsonian, my favorite hotel (it is the Mayflower on Connecticut Ave. if you’d like to know). This was two pages. Two pages really isn’t a lot for all of these categories: just a few sentences each. But it was enough of an effort that some old memories bubbled up to the surface, and maybe later I’ll flesh out one or two of them.
• Then I drifted into stuff about my children, some related to the inauguration experience, some not. Two more pages.

Five (handwritten) pages. Twenty minutes. Time well spent.