Mother's Day Post from Examiner

Mother’s Day is a time to pay tribute to our mothers, grandmothers and wives. Since 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, I want to pay special tribute to my mother and all the women in this world who have battled breast cancer.
As a child we look to our mothers to take care of us and always keep us safe. However, for many of us, our mother's will face breast cancer at some point in their lives. Due to this, we need to switch roles and be there for our mothers during this terrifying journey. For my mother, I was there at the moment of her diagnosis, her follow up appointments and for her double mastectomy. I also spent countless hours searching the Internet for any information that might help save my mother’s life or I would email her inspirational poems or blogs by other women that would help lift her spirits.

My mother was diagnosed with two separate invasive breast cancers in her left breast. Thankfully, her cancer did not spread to her lymph nodes. Therefore, her cancer was considered Stage I. After careful consideration, my mother chose to have a double mastectomy for her sanity’s sake. She wanted to free herself from the great burden of having repeat mammograms and living in fear of those results. During all of this, my mother remained a true champion. Although she was scared about what was to come she still remained strong for all of us.

This Mother’s Day I am grateful to have a mother who is a survivor, who is strong and who is my role model. I am mostly grateful that she is now cancer free. This Mother’s Day take the opportunity to remind the women in your lives to do monthly self-exams, have routine mammograms, and to donate to breast cancer research. If you are unsure of what to give as a gift this year, try giving something meaningful and support breast cancer research as well. There are several websites where you can actually buy nice Mother’s Day gifts and part of the proceeds go to breast cancer research. Can you imagine a world without breast cancer? I can! Happy Mother's Day!!