My Story

Prevention is the Cure...The Pink Vaccine is the Answer!

Signatures Needed: Sign Our Petition to President Obama to support the Vaccine:

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-pink-vaccine

Hope for Our Daughters...Prevention is the Cure!

The Pink Vaccine is the Answer

Thanks to Maureen McFadden and WNDU for a wonderful

feature story on the vaccine:

Watch the story

My Story

In January, 2009, I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Every woman who has heard the words, “you have breast cancer” knows her life has been changed forever. My treatment required a double mastectomy and I chose to have “immediate” reconstruction. I was finally finished with treatment in December of the same year, and in the words of Queen Elizabeth II. I call it my “Annus Horriblus”…AKA very, very bad year!

Not only did I have breast cancer, I had two types of breast cancer in each breast. My doctors at Dana Farber informed me this was very rare. Rare or not, it was breast cancer. I had been hijacked into the breast cancer sisterhood… my journey had begun.

Since the beginning of my journey, I have tried to learn everything I could about the disease with respect to causes, treatment, and prevention. Prevention of recurrence through diet and lifestyle changes became my passion, and it was during this extensive research that I learned of the various ongoing efforts to develop a preventative breast cancer vaccine.

My personal story, diet and lifestyle research are chronicled in my book, A Teacher’s Journey What Breast Cancer Taught Me. You may also purchase my book by following the link in the previous sentence or by clicking on the box at the bottom right corner of this page.

I was a retired fifth grade teacher at Saint Philomena School in Portsmouth, RI when diagnosed, and the prayers and support of my students became an important element in my recovery. In addition to writing my book and donating the proceeds to vaccine research, I still felt I needed to do more. When I was teaching, I always encouraged my students to make a difference. Now it was my turn to “walk the walk”.