Today, on what would have been my mom’s 66th birthday, another woman bravely shared her decision to have an elective double mastectomy after she found out that she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation for breast cancer.

Angelina Jolie shared this very personal decision with the world in the New York Times Op-Ed today.

The sharing of this news has thankfully reignited an important conversation that is near and dear to my heart, breast cancer prevention and the need for a cure.

If you’ve read the article and now have questions about BRCA and genetic testing, I encourage you to please check out the group Force: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered. They do terrific work and provide great information and support for those that are considering genetic testing.

Thank you Angelina for sharing your story and bringing awareness to women everywhere about genetic testing and the preventive measures that are available today for hereditary breast cancer.

Happy Birthday Mom – we are getting closer to a cure. Love you. Miss you.

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This is really cool.  Saw this today in my reader from BoingBoing (don’t ask). Anyway, to my surprise they had this post on breast cancer. It mentions a really cool visual project by GE that monitors, in real-time, who is talking about breast cancer on twitter.

Try it. 

It’s cool.

via Boing Boing via Laura Hollister.

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My Mom and me.

Tomorrow, I’ll be walking in the 2012 San Francisco Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in honor of my Mom. My mom lost her battle with cancer on July 27, 2000.

My mom died after she developed AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) which we believe resulted from the intense chemotherapy she underwent during her stem cell transplant to combat her second aggressive breast cancer in 1998.  That cancer had attacked 37 lymph nodes and they needed to pull out all the stops.  Hence, the stem cell transplant. It was an instense battle.

The stem cell transplant worked (?) but came with a price I guess, and when she developed AML a few years later, her body was too weak to fight yet another epic battle.

The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is a 39.3 mile fundraising and awareness event, where over 2 days, I will walk in a sea of pink through out the San Francisco Bay Area to help fight breast cancer.

This will be my first event with Avon. In the past, I’ve walked with the Susan G. Komen organization and done two 3-Day walks, one in 2011 and one in 2009.  Our team was awesome, the Maidens for Mammograms and Margaritas and you can read about that here. I’ve also done numerous Race for the Cure events with the Komen organization.  For personal reasons, I decided to switch events and walk with Avon. I’m really excited to see what this walk will be like although I’m not expecting too much of a difference.  This isn’t meant to be a statement, well I guess it is… but whatever.

Bottom line, I’m walking to end breast cancer. As Avon says, I’m in it to end it.

I wish I didn’t have to walk at all but if I’m going to walk I’m really glad that my good friend, Rachael is going to be walking with me. My other teammates, my amazing mother-in-law,  sister-in-law and cousin weren’t able to join us this year but I know they will be back another time. Plus, my amazing mother-in-law is watching my kids this weekend for which I’m SO grateful!

Rachael and Sara. 2011 Team Maidens for Mammograms & Margaritas

I look like a chipmunk in this picture but whatever…

So if you’re in the area, come on out and cheer us on as we walk from Fort Mason to Corte Madera and back again this Saturday and Sunday. Oh boy…

Here’s the route:

I promise to tweet and post photos as I go on instagram and twitter!

Thank you to my amazing sponsors and family for supporting me in this important cause! You guys are amazing!

Also, if you want to walk with me in New York or to support my fundraising for that event you can click here. 

xo,

SARA

The post Walking for My Mom. Walking to End Breast Cancer… Again appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

via American Girl on Facebook

American Girl announced today a new doll: a doll without hair  “for girls affected by cancer, alopecia, or any medical condition causing hair loss.”

The doll is beautiful (as are all their dolls), I’m just sad that we need a doll like this to begin with.

Thank you American Girl – this new doll will surely bring comfort to many little girls.

From Facebook:

For more than a year, American Girl has been hard at work developing a doll without hair option for girls affected by cancer, alopecia, or any medical condition causing hair loss. Debuting today as part of the My American Girl® line, the new dolls provide even more possibilities for a girl to create a friend that’s as unique as she is. Due to special handling, orders for the new dolls will be taken exclusively through our contact center by calling 1-800-628-5145. These special dolls also will be included in our $100,000+ annual doll donation to the Children’s Hospital Association.

We recognize the passion and interest expressed for this product over the years and are excited to introduce this new option for girls! Learn more: http://bit.ly/bampbG

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“Mommy? Did your Mommy have loo-kia-meee-ah?”

My back was turned at the sink when my 6 year old daughter asked me this direct question with only 10 minutes left in our morning routine to get out the door. Instantly, I felt like a Mack truck had slammed into my gut. I braced myself with the counter and tried to turn to face her sweet face. She was chewing her frosted mini-wheats and her spoon still dangled in the air. I met her eyes and started to answer but the words did not come. Instead, my eyes  welled and the tears fell.

I had never cried before in front of my daughter.

I have never used the words, “breast cancer” or “leukemia” to describe my mother’s health battles so I was shocked by her question.  To date, I had only shared that Mommy’s Mommy was now in heaven and that she had gotten very sick and that God needed her to do angels’ work.  This explanation had seemed to suffice – until now… when the questions came at me, like a tsunami.

“Honey, where did you hear about leukemia?”

“We are doing Pennies for Patients at school. It’s for loo-kia-meee-ah.”

“Leukemia.” 

“Yes. There’s a Kinderfriend that has leukemia and we raising money to help them.”

“That’s wonderful honey.”

“So did your Mommy have it? What is it?”

“Well… “

And here’s where I’d love to say I handled this parenting challenge beautifully and gave her the most age-appropriate explanation of what ‘cancer’ is and why some people get it and some people don’t. And how I comforted her fears about what this scary disease was and how, yes, even sometimes children get it.

But I didn’t .

Instead I blubbered my way through an extremely lame metaphor of how cancer cells were like bad Lego blocks in your body that stop doing their intended job. I’m pretty sure I confused her the minute I said Legos. Heck, I don’t even know what I was talking about… I said something about needing medicine that works really really hard to ‘poison the bad cells’ so they go away. To this she asked:

“Mommy why does the medicine make your hair fall out?”  Clearly, she had more information than she was letting on.

A second Mack truck slammed into my heart.  The tears came and the words got stuck in the back of my throat like a hard lump. I wasn’t ready for this.

“Mommy, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Oh jeez, please make it stop.

“No honey, I’m ok. I’m just sad.” *tears. gasp. sob*. ” It just makes me sad to think about when my Mommy was sick.”

Again, I made a dismal attempt at a mini-Biology and Chemistry lesson that was appropriate for a 1st grader.  I told her the medicine or “chemotherapy” was supposed to target the bad cells but didn’t always know the difference between the bad Lego blocks and the good ones so sometimes it had to attack the cells that make your hair. She seemed satisfied with the answer and went back to eating her mini-wheats.

“But Mommy, why doesn’t the medicine always work?”

And then I was at a loss. It was a great question. Why can’t we fix this? Why can’t we have a cure for cancer?

“I don’t know honey.”

Luckily my husband was still at home and when I closed the bathroom door sobbing, he was able to run interference.  I told him about the brief conversation over mini-wheats and how worried I was that I’d freaked our daughter out by crying in front of her. Through my tears, I tried to tell him how worried I was that she would think she made me sad by asking about my Mom, which is the last thing on earth I’d want her to feel and how I’d done a horrendous job explaining what cancer was. So he called her in and between the 3 of us sitting on the toilet seat and the edge of the tub we had one of the most meaningful family chats to date. With his help, we reassured her of why Mommy was really crying and how it was ok for me to cry and how it was ok for her to ask questions. Together we tried to explain ‘cancer’ and what it was. We didn’t dwell on it but made sure she was ok with it all.

Thank goodness he had been home.

For the rest of the day, all I could think of was how badly I wished I would never have to explain ‘cancer’ to my kids. But it was too late, the reality of this sometimes unfair world was here and my kids were now privy to this vocabulary: cancer, leukemia. It didn’t seem fair.

That following Saturday, Anna and Jack organized a lemonade stand to help fill her box for Pennies for Patients and Alex sat with them on the curb. I smiled with pride as I watched my kids continue to help find a cure for cancer. I hope that one day, in their lifetime, they will be able to tell their kids: “Cancer WAS this horrible disease that took your great-grandmother, but we helped cure it.”

Wouldn’t that be great?

Pennies for Patients

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Source: Competitive Intelligence Blog

Today is one of those days when I think my brain has reached it’s max capacity for retaining even just one more piece of information. One of the best, and worst things about the speed with which information now travels is that there is SO much of it.

Every day I’m introduced to new and exciting people and their ideas and I struggle to find time to synthesize it all and then incorporate it into my own life. And of yeah, be the CEO of my household. Can you relate?

Currently, I’m knee-deep in trying to navigate education finance reform for my children’s school district, understanding curriculum and standards and trying to decide what the heck to do about my passion for eradicating breast cancer.  I think somewhere in there I need to build a Leprechaun trap with my son.

So bear with me as I download for you what’s in my head these days… you can follow along if you like.

Education

Help California Shine Again – California State Budget Results in Parent Demonstrations Across the State – via LA Moms.  On ‘Pink Slip Day’, Thursday, March 15th, schoolchildren across California will be blowing bubbles before the 1st bell  to tell Sacramento budget policymakers: ‘Don’t Blow It!’ – a very important and effective message for California.

Educate Our State campaign for March 15th, 2012

Parent, Community Groups Pressed to Fill K-12 Budget Gaps via EdWeek. This just about sums up the conversations we’ve been having later about district financing issues and frustrations around it. 

Rethinking School via Harvard Business Review. The US report card shown here is EYE opening and JAW dropping. C’mon people… 

Breast Cancer Awareness

Last month (or was it 2 months ago?), Komen and their major gaffe with Planned Parenthood blew up on the internet. Komen later reversed it’s decision but sadly it was considered by most, too little too late.

For me, it was the final straw in some personal gripes with the organization. I won’t go into them here because I still think the organization does a great job in raising awareness for breast cancer but I  believe that, for me personally, I need to focus my breast cancer awareness elsewhere.

I’m still walking and talking breast cancer awareness until we don’t have to anymore.  I sure hope I won’t have to anymore.

So I made a decision.

This year, the Maidens for Mammograms and Margaritas are going to walk in the San Francisco Avon Walk for Breast Cancer on July 7-8th.  We would LOVE IT, LOVE IT LOVE IT if you joined us!

Last year,  I made a new ‘breast’ friend, Rachael who walked and camped with me.  We’d love to walk with you too! Let me know if you’re interested – by the way, we celebrate the finish line with Margaritas all around!  The team page is coming… stay tuned.

On the Homefront: Cleaning and Groceries

Just when my head was totally about to explode, my bloggy friend, Ilana reminded me that my house needs cleaning and oh! it can make you happy with the right products! Wha? So of course I hop over to MommyShorts where I just have to enter her giveaway for a year’s supply of cleaning products from Method. I mean because NOW I’m all self-conscious about the cleanliness of my house and it’s un-color coordinated soaps!  Thanks Ilana!  Here’s the link for you too. (I won’t hoard it – enter by April 2nd). Pretty sweet right? Also if you don’t think you are going to win, you can stock up on Method supplies with 20% off using the code CLEANHAPPY on their site (ends 3/31).

via MommyShorts

And THEN… Amanda from One Family One Meal (my secret weapon in meal planning) shows me that it’s possible to make 20 meals for 1 week all from Whole Foods for under $200. Excuse me??  Impossible! (Say it with an Italian accent it’s way more fun).  See how she did it by clicking here. She’s also giving away a $200 gift card to Whole Foods which I totally want to win but again I’m not selfish, so here’s the link for that one too.

OK PHEW…that’s it… I’m done for now. That’s a bit of my brain download for ya. I will spare you the parcel tax discussions and descriptions of endless loads of laundry.

Cheers,

Sara

The post Overload: Education, Breast Cancer, Cleaning and Groceries appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

Aside from announcing that we’ve cured breast cancer, this might be the most exciting post on breast cancer that I will ever do. Watch the video below and you’ll see why.

The awareness video titled “Your Man Reminder” is sponsored by (Re)think Breast Cancer, a Canadian based breast cancer charity that focuses on the under-40 crowd. I’ve never been more proud to be a Canuck!

Here’s what re(think) stands for (from their homepage):

Launched in 2001, Rethink is the first-ever, Canadian breast cancer charity to bring bold, relevant awareness to the under-40 crowd; foster a new generation of young and influential breast cancer supporters; infuse sass and style into the cause; and, most importantly, respond to the unique needs of young (or youngish) women going through it.

Love everything they stand for.

Watch the video and then download the free Your Man Reminder APP so those hot guys can give you your monthly reminder to TLC: Touch, Look and Check.

Love their fresh approach. Watch the video and let me know what you thought in the comments.

P.S. – the app was created by Marc Cattapan who dedicated it to his friend Kristin Hower, who blogs over at Kick It Kiki about her journey as a breast cancer survivor.

The post (Re)think Breast Cancer appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

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Source: medgadget.com

Today is the last Friday in October which is breast cancer awareness month.

So in honor of Fridays and Breast Cancer Awareness I want everyone to:

Take (a) Good  Informed Feel!

Give yourself a proper breast self-exam and know your risks. Not sure how? Here’s a quick how-to:

source: National Breast Cancer Foundation

You know your boobs best and can detect any changes that warrant a chat with your MD.

So let’s go ladies and men you can help out here too

TGIF!

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Woo hoo! We have 2 lucky winners in the Denim Day Lee Jeans giveaway!  I love it when there is more than 1 winner!!

I loved hearing everyone’s stories about what would happen if they lost their favorite pair of jeans or if they were stolen.  It sounds like we are all pretty attached to them.

Just a little bit.

For Ilana over at MommyShorts her schlubby pair and her sexy pair are pretty much one and the same. She just switches up the shoes. Brilliant! Why don’t I do that??

These fun pink shoes can go from Day  to Night. Day shoes from dv dolce for $79 and Night shoes are Fergie’s Women’s Awareness shoes at $79.99. Both are available at Shoes.com with FREE SHIPPING.

One thing that was clear from this contest…. People are VERY attached to their blue jeans! For example, Nicolle turned her favorite pair into a mini when they became unwearable and Shelli even drove 900 miles to her mom to get hers repaired!

Those gals are committed.

Shawn, Diane, and Natalie all agreed that it would be “devastating” and “horrible” if their pairs went missing and Diane even hinted at a little violence if she was to be around when the perp tried to nab her favorite pair of blues.

Be warned people! Do not come between someone and their favorite pair of jeans.

source: Inmagine

Lisa who posts over at Frugal Family Fun and Julie who recently lost 20 pounds  (Awesome job Julie!) both entered the contest in hopes of winning a new pair of skinny jeans. I’m not sure ladies, but they might be calling them “jeggings” now?

Teri made me giggle when she told me that if you had to wear clothes at all then you might as well wear your sexy jeans. Good advice Teri.  I’m fairly modest so I think I will wear my sexy jeans over going naked around town

Although when I think about it, I am almost always in search of the perfect pair, like my good pal Rachael from Happy Rachael who like me is forever looking for that magic pair. I do have to say that I’ve enjoyed the pairs I got from Lee to try out for myself. They arrived in the knick of time and I’ve been happily wearing them around town. That’s really true because they didn’t ask me to say any of that!

So first of all THANK YOU to all of you that entered and helped get the word out about Lee Denim Day.  I don’t know how much they raised to benefit  Women’s Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) but I’m hoping it was A LOT!

I do know that a lot of my readers went and made a donation for a couple extra entries into this contest and I’m totally gratefull and again humbled that we raised $475.00 towards this awesome cause.

Thank you guys SO MUCH!

So without further ado… and as decided by Random.Org out of the 132 entries our 2 lucky winners are….

Natalie and Lisa!

Please email me at periwinklepapillon at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

Also, another quick shout out to Mike Rowe and his mom, Peggy. The official celebrity Ambassadors for Lee Denim Day. I can’t think of a better, cuter, funnier team than this mother-son duo for such a great cause.

Here’s a couple of pics from the official Mike Rowe Works blog entry from Lee Denim Day on October 7th:

Could they be ANY cuter?

Finally, I love love love that no one challenged my new word: Schlubby which I totally made up for my original post of this contest! HA!

Thanks again everyone for helping to raise awareness and the funds to help get rid of breast cancer once and for all!

-Sara

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