From June 7th to 11th this year, breast cancer survivors, supporters, health care professionals, researchers, scientists, government representatives, suppliers and others concerned about breast cancer will gather in Hamilton, Ontario to take a global stand against breast cancer at the 6th World Conference on Breast Cancer.

This amazing event, occurs every three years and provides participants with an opportunity to network and gather information from an international perspective.  Unlike any other conference on breast cancer, this unique conference brings together medical and science professionals with survivors, arming both with valuable insight. 

Participants will gather from around the world – many from developing and in transition nations. In many of these countries the only defence they have against breast cancer is education and awareness.  With so many other pressing heath issues, like malaria and aids, participants from these nations are introduced to others from around the globe who can guide them in the development of awareness and support programs in their own communities. These lifelong connections have and can changed the lives of many women internationally.

Past participants have talked about how this conference fills them with inspiration and hope. Many go on to participate in global initiatives through volunteer opportunities as part of the International Support Links Program (one of the initiatives developed by the World Conference on Breast Cancer foundation) or through other volunteer opportunities.  I personally got involved by participating as part of the Board of Directors for the foundation.  The personal enrichment has been amazing.

To learn more about the World Conference on Breast Cancer or to register please go to www.wcbcf.ca

~ Kim T.

Public and Cancer Agency libraries in BC have copies of this book you can borrow, although if you like it, you’ll want to buy your own.

You can find a lot of books out there about life after cancer, recovery, and being a survivor. Like many of them, Picking up the Pieces has quotes from people’s own experiences. What is unique about Magee & Scalzo’s book, though, is the very practical, step-by-step things to do.

Your recovery journal will become your change-tracking system, progress map, and diary all in one. As you monitor your thoughts and feelings, you will see yourself moving from fragmentation towards wholeness.

I can feel encouraged by hopeful stories, and reassured by other’s struggles that I’m not alone, I’m not crazy. Still, it’s a leap from there to knowing what to do with myself each day and figuring out how to change my thoughts or emotions, or get a handle on the transitions. I don’t just want to be encouraged — I need to be coached!

This book will help you navigate the healing process, although we believe that ultimately you are the expert on what you need. The recovery program you find in these pages will help you integrate who you were before cancer with who you are now.

Picking up the Pieces has useful “self-scans,” essentially mini-quizzes to help focus our thoughts and direct our decisions. It recommends a directed type of journalling, using a “5 question check-in.” The authors give specific instructions on how to use Attentive Walking to cope with emotions and distress. All of these are wonderfully practical: I can do this! instead of, “how can I do that?”

Survivors have identified six realistic, specific goals that help ease the transition from being a patient to living well: guidelines; validation; support; empowerment; permission; reordered priorities.

I was particularly inspired by the section on designing a “Healing Plan.” The authors recognize the individual diversity in how we each approach healing and life, and so they talk about four characteristic approaches. These are the Physical approach, the Connected approach, the Creative, and the Contributing approach. Any one person may combine, for example, expression through creating in sewing or woodworking, with a new “healthy lifestyle” to maximize their physical wellbeing. Or any other combination. Just reading through the step-by-step plan design to making these priorities real, is inspiring.

Working with a plan will build your resilience so that you can address the multiple fears that continue long after the treatments are over. Remember: simple plans can be powerful healing vehicles.

It’s not a book for one particular age, gender, or type of cancer. There are six month survivors, 5 week survivors, and 10 year survivors who contribute their ideas. It’s the kind of thing you use whenever you are ready for it, which could be at any time. Maybe parts now, and then parts later. If you aren’t able to access counselling services right now, the authors have created Picking Up the Pieces to cover many of the strategies they use in counselling cancer survivors.

The only way through loss is grief. We need to grieve our losses — to honour and process our sadness and distress — in order to recover and move forward. p.145

The subtitle, “Moving Forward,” seems so important to me. If you are feeling “stuck” after dealing with cancer and the loss and change that comes with it, this book might help get the wheels rolling again.

Returning to Work is a  3 part education series for cancer patients taking place in the lower mainland / Vancouver area … I don’t think you need to be actively in the “treatment phase” though. If you consider yourself a cancer survivor, I’d call and see if you are eligible to participate even if your treatments are completed.

The sessions, roughly 2 hours each, are planned for March 15, 22, and 29, 2011. Depending on interest, the group will run again several more times during the year.

The sessions will be led by Maureen Parkinson, M.Ed. C.C.R.C. Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, Patient and Family counseling services, BC Cancer Agency.

Sessions include:

If these dates and times won’t work for you, the BC Cancer Agency’s counselling services offer alternate options. Why not phone, get some more info, put your name on the list, and if these workshops aren’t convenient, perhaps there is another approach that’s better for you!

To register, please call 1-800-877-6000 ext 2194 or 1-800-663-3333 ext 2194 , or email pfc@bccancer.bc.ca

Outside the Lower Mainland, if you are in BC and you want to travel down for this, again just phone and get some info. Outside BC? Can’t travel? Check out the vocational tips on the BC Cancer Agency website, which cover many of the same issues:

http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/PPI/copingwithcancer/emotional/Work+Related+Issues.htm

~ klc

But there was this venerable older lady doing my move.  Facing the wall, she’s lowered her head and draped a towel over her back as she changes. I know it’s not modesty motivating her because she doesn’t bother to cover her bottom, just (very consciously) her top.  And then as she carefully shifted the towel away before her bra was fully closed, I saw it – a small pink line beginning just under her arm. She had reconstructed breasts. I wanted to dash over and show her my scar exclaiming, “hey, look I got one of those too!” But that would certainly be awkward – and to what end? So I propelled a silent greeting, some positive thoughts with good wishes and go on my way.

I’d like to say that it seems like only yesterday that I was having surgery for breast cancer, but it really feels like ancient history to me now. I was diagnosed at age 28 in 2002. Time has healed my wounds, faded my scars, and time has made a reconstructed left breast feel pretty normal to me. I can honestly say that I hardly ever think about cancer anymore. But it took a really long time and a lot of work to get to this place.

In Sherri Magee and Kathy Scalzo’s book, “Picking up the Pieces, Moving Forward after Surviving Cancer“, they talk about how the side effects of cancer are not only physical, but emotional and and spiritual as well. “Cancer shatters a lot of illusions,” Kathy says. “The illusion of health, the illusion of having control over their lives. Survivors live on a roller coaster of emotions because right next to the intense gratitude for life sits fear and anxiety, even depression because you are not who you were.“1

They write that many survivors experience a dissociation from their physical selves after cancer, and talk about how it’s important to rediscover your body and to learn to live with it and care for it again. Saying that reclaiming your body and adapting to your new physical self are essential to the recovery process.

“We live in a culture that worships physical beauty and perfection. Cancer represents our worst fears of our bodies becoming less than whole, not measuring up to societal norms. There are an infinite number of body shapes, sizes, and features, yet society tries to convince us that only a few of them are desirable. Before cancer, you may have focused on your bodyʼs outward appearance, relating to yourself from the perspective of how you looked rather than how you felt. Now you’ll be turning that perspective inside out and looking at your body differently.” 2

When I had the mastectomy, my worst fear was to wake up without a breast, so I requested an immediate reconstruction. A latissimus dorsi procedure was recommended for by body type.  This surgery involved moving a flap of skin and muscle from my back to fill in and support a small implant. But I had some rotten luck with scar tissue forming a capsular contracture in the weeks following my surgery and I eventually did have to have my implant removed for about a year to allow the reactive area to calm down before attempting another implant leaving me with an odd lumpy void on my left side for at least one bikini season.

At the time it felt like I was having a mastectomy all over again. Over the next few days the breast area filled with fluid and the resulting shape looked better than an implant! It was a perfect tender teardrop shape… and then the fluid reabsorbed and I was left with an odd ripple because of the latissimus dorsi muscle. I began to get terribly annoyed at everything around me: the photos in fashion magazines, the choices of bras and halter tops, the girls at the beach, my itchy prothesis, and the terror I felt about being “ugly” and “broken. I become a little timid with my physical self, freaked out that my divot would show from certain angles. I was worried about how I looked and I was angry at my body. So I pouted for a good long while.

Looking back at it now, I feel that my strong, scary reaction was probably a normal part of the recovery process and something I had to get through in order to move past the pain. The sadness and anger helped me understand what was happening to me – helped me learn where my physical self ended and my true self began.  This is not at all to say that my body became less important! In fact, one of my main pursuits became proving to myself that not only did I look acceptable, but that my body was still trustworthy and lovable.

Reclaiming my body was a multi-stage process. One of the most healing experiences was when I joined a group of breast cancer survivors to model for 2005 edition of the Breast of Canada calendar (month of October). The six of us had a blast in the photographer’s studio feeling a strong sense of belonging and acceptance. I told a TV reporter who was doing a story about us that doing this made me feel proud of my scars. As proud as I was, as much as I wanted to show the world that it was OK about looking like this, I still hid myself in the changing rooms at the pool.

In the years that followed my mastectomy, I experienced a strong need to have my body serve and obey me. I felt betrayed by it. No matter how much meditation or relaxation therapy I did, I still felt like I wanted to challenge and dominate my body – show it who was boss! When the medication I was taking caused me to gain weight, I was lower than ever. But I didn’t give up on the mission.  I worked out regularly, and did things that made me feel connected to the breast cancer world like walking a 60k fundraiser and entering myself and two friends as a breast cancer relay team for the a sprint triathlon.

But I still felt really sad and angry.

As an artist, I found myself creating dozens of plaster casts of my torso and painting them for an art project I called Cancer Xancer. I had four more surgeries to complete my reconstruction and carefully documented the process with art and journaling. The nipple was yet to be completed and tattooed when it happened… I stopped minding. At first I just felt busy, occupied with going back to work, busy with a young child. Then it slipped my mind. Then one day I was showering in the change room at the pool (training to do the same sprint triathlon on my own) when I realized I wasn’t covering or cowering.  I simply was.

I’m not sure when I decided to accept my body the way it was but it felt good when I realized it had happened. And it took a looooooong time. This spring I competed the sprint triathlon in Delta, BC on my own.  It was a 700m swim, 20km bike ride and 5k run… and it felt AMAZING to complete!

~Vanessa

(Republished with permission from the Fall 2010 edition CBCN Network News)

First I gotta say – I am grateful for every birthday! After being diagnosed at 41 and the cancer deciding to take a scenic tour along my lymph channels to stop at few points of interest (the lymph nodes), I know that I am lucky.

Actually at the time I did not think this whole breast cancer thing was such a big deal.  I figured, just take the boob off, flood the nasty cells with a little poison and then fry any of the little persisted ones with a healthy dose of radiation. Once it was all said and done I figured, “I am walking free and clear!”

I guess I was kind of naive.  That became obvious with the post treatment discussion with the Oncologists.  They always get this grave look on their face when they talk about my cancer tourists.  Plus they seem to want to keep me on adjunct therapy.  First it was Tamoxifen for two years – which successfully shot me through menopause at light speed. Then there was the aromatase inhibitor – Arimadex (Anastrozole) for three years, which advanced the age on my bones by about five years (apparently I am unique – so don’t freak’n’peak if you are on Arimadex).  Now I am on another aromatase inhibitor as part of a double blind trial of Letrozole (also known as Femara) for another five years. Are you falling asleep with all of the pharmaceutical talk yet?

Bottom line – all of the treatment and subsequent adjunct therapy has resulted in my being pushed along the aging time line a little faster than most would find desirable.  My bones, my skin, my hair are all about 10 years beyond where they would have been if I had not had cancer.

Now:

It is much harder to maintain a youthful weight.  I am trying the Bootilicious fitness classes, but look like a complete idiot trying to keep up to dance moves, threw my back out last week – I am a freak’n disaster.

Wrinkles are appearing on every part of my body.  If it wasn’t for the weight gain puffing everything out, my skin would look like a crumpled piece of used tissue paper.  Forget the products that claim to ‘keep them guessing’ – I am thinking of resorting to plaster filler.

The vagina is like the Sahara. Side note: found this wonderful prescription product called Estring – clearly developed by a woman with painful dry-vag – it is a gift as it gave me my sex life back.

And: Grey hairs.

Now, after chemo, not much hair came back.  My head, eye brows, eye lashes and about a dozen other hairs randomly scattered around my body came back – but areas that were once youthful lush pastures of annoyance and endless electrolysis did not. But tell me what is the deal?  I did not expect the grey plumes to appear in my eye brows or my half dozen pubes!!  There are some things I am just not going to ask my hairdresser to do!

All of this said I am still very happy to celebrate 49, every wrinkle, grey hair and pound. I am here and hopefully can make you laugh about the aging process through my own experience.  I guess we have to release what was and accept what is and that is – WE ARE ALIVE & FABULOUS!

~ Kim T.

I know I was lucky, I had good doctors and that I was diligent about checking my remaining breast for changes. I was able to have the tumor removed with clean margins, and no node involvement. Feel a bit like I won the human lottery, so now with my new found luck I had to review all the information and decide.

Chances of re occurrence was set at about 10%, but I chose to look at it as a 90% survival rate. So with that information I decided that doing chemo and having all the side effects of the drugs was out. Radiation, well could do it but, instead decided that I would opt for doing a mastectomy. I was choosing quality of life, go thru all the unpleasantness of harsh treatment or the short term uncomfortableness of a surgery.

With my first diagnosis I did not have a choice as I was at a 90% chance of not making it thru treatment, it was either do it or well the other choice was not something that I wanted, so I did full treatment with extreme determination that I was going to make it. (And I did – I remained cancer free for almost 10 years before my second diagnosis).

Remember, for my new diagnosis, I was looking at only a 10% chance of re-occurrence, doing chemo and radiation would decrease that to a 0%, but I was betting the odds that with some other choices that I could also decrease my chances of re-occurrence.  So I have my surgery for the mastectomy for the beginning of October, and have started to see a Naturopathic Physician and I am working with him and taking products that are cancer fighters as well as a product that works much like tamoxifen, but without all the side effects. I have been a vegetarian for over 10 years, so my diet and nutrition are good, but the doctor made suggestions and discussed ways in which I could make small changes to make that even better. I have always been very physically active, running, hiking, swimming, skiing and that will always remain a part of my routine as it is a very important part of being and living healthy.

I discussed my thoughts and feeling with my oncologist and shared with her the same information that I have posted here as well as information from the Naturopath. She was very receptive and interested – most oncologists will not always be so.  She supports me in my decision, based on my odds of re-occurrence and the decision to have the mastectomy.

I feel that I have made these decision to do what is best for me, both mentally and physically. Some may not agree, but I am being pro-active about my health and taking steps to take the odds that I have been given and improve them and ultimately beat them. Choosing to support my body to help itself to become stronger and healthier has been my choice.

Do all that you can each day to improve your health by making choices that work for you so that your body and mind can be stronger and healthy, not just now but always!

Here is an article about some of my approach:  http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/7/2470S

I’m writing this blog on my 39th birthday. I try not to (I’d rather just keep it light and eat cake), but I can’t help but reflect on my life on this day. I have a lot to be grateful for. I have a caring, solid, sensitive husband, a wonderful family including a sister who is my best friend and two amazing step-daughters, and I enjoy a successful and fulfilling career as a sexual health educator.  I am healthy, training for the New York Marathon in November, and I live in a nice home. I am careful not to overlook these things, but for me no evaluation of my life is complete without a check in about my experience with breast cancer.

As I was running on the seawall this morning, the first question I asked myself was “How often do you think about cancer?” My answer was “Not as much as I did last year at this time.” A victory. Although I used to be, I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s only in the last year that I have started to feel that this whole cancer thing is behind me (I will be three years cancer free in November). The black cloud over my head has lightened, but some days are harder than others. Like the day in June when a friend of mine was diagnosed. In an instant, all those feelings of hopelessness rushed in. If she can have cancer, who else around me has it? Who’s next? Although I feel strong enough to support my friend through her treatment, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult to sit in the waiting room while she was having radiation the other day. Then there was the day just last week when the florist at Save-On with the pink ribbon tattoo on her ankle disclosed to me that her cancer returned after 18 years and that “chemo almost killed her.” Again, panic. So, even after 18 years, I’m not going to be home free? Am I just a ticking time bomb? Luckily, I have the support system and the anxiety management skills to bring myself back down to a more optimistic reality. Putting my F@#$ Cancer t-shirt on also helps. Interesting, though, how quickly fear can take power over me. The last thing I want is to live my life from a place of fear.

Not wanting to dwell on the negative, the next question for myself was “What have I learned in the past year?” I’ve read about people saying things like “Cancer has taught me so much, it’s a blessing because it makes you a better person, it makes you change your life in positive ways.” Really? I’m definitely not there, and I don’t think I ever will be. Cancer sucks, I’m angry that it took space in my body that I took such good care of, it’s not fair that good people die of it.  But, I will say that I have learned a lot from cancer. I’m still learning from cancer. At one of my appointments soon after treatment finished, my oncologist and I were talking about follow up. I couldn’t believe she didn’t want to see me for another 6 months, I would have had a mammogram every week if she let me just to make sure everything was good. But she reminded me that nothing and no one can guarantee the cancer won’t come back. What I need to do is learn to live with uncertainty. There are some things in life you can’t control, no matter how resourceful, on the ball or proactive you are. I’m still working on that one. I’ve also learned that you can’t rush healing. And until you are well into this process, you can’t be there fully for others.

As I crossed Burrard Bridge and my run was coming to an end, I felt comfort in the realization that, overall, I had come a long way in the past year. On a day-to-day basis, cancer no longer has a hold over me. It rears it’s ugly hear every now and then, but it doesn’t control me. Now all I have to do is come to terms with being 39…I’ll save that task for my next run!

~ Saleema

Submitted by Kim Tempest

I made the decision to reconstruct after my mastectomy.  Before the surgeons did anything I went to meet with my plastic surgeon, as they like to combine reconstruct with the mastectomy.  I met my plastic surgeon and he went over all of the options available to me.  The two that we discussed in detail was the Tram Flap and a tissue expander followed by implant.  He showed me pictures of other women’s reconstructions.  It was like a brag book of reconstruction. They were beautiful.  A thought occurred to me that these were examples of everything going right – I wondered where the ‘not so perfect’ examples were.

The Tram Flap is a pretty big deal, as they move muscle from the torso and also fat from the tummy area.  The recovery is 6 to 12 weeks, with no heavy lifting, no exercise, no housework.  Now although the prospect of laying back in the recliner eating bonbons was very appealing, I also had a 5 year old who still liked to be picked up.  So the option I decided on was a tissue expander. The plastic surgeon said he would also reduce and lift my opposite breast so we would not have to expand as much and I would look more symmetrical.

Off to surgery day I went.

When I woke up, I lifted the sheet to look down at my very sore chest.  I don’t know what I was expecting to see – everything was bandaged up. What I did notice was that I was a lot smaller.  The right breast, of course, was flat.

Once I was recovered enough, the plastic surgeon started to ‘fill’ the expander with fluid.  The objective was to expand the chest muscle to accommodate an implant that would be representative of the size of my remaining breast.  What we did not know at the time, was I needed to have radiation, as the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes (bummer).  He expanded as quickly as he could before radiation as he knew radiation would harden the muscle and skin and would make the implant more difficult to do.  We almost got there.

I started radiation.  As the radiation came to an end I noticed that my new mound was now in the position that it started when I was around 13.  Perky is great, but this new breast was quickly becoming a chin rest.  The surgeon knew we were not going to have success with an implant.  Only one problem – I had lost so much weight from chemo I no longer had enough fat anywhere to make a breast.  This is when I really learned who my true friend were because I had offers of excess fat from most of my gal pals and family.  I was ordered to gain 20 pounds.

The next couple of months was great – I ate everything – chocolate, ice cream, burgers, fish and chips – if it wasn’t fattening it did not go into my mouth.

Once I had enough fat, I was scheduled for the surgery.  Out came the tissue expander and my new tummy fat was moved to a higher altitude. Unfortunately, the extra 20 had added to other parts of me too, so I now not only had a new boob, I was also packing around new booty in the rear.  At this point I am thinking I might be a candidate for a rap video.

At the end of radiation, I was put on Tamoxifen.  The weight gain continued.  HELLO  – IT CAN STOP NOW!! One day I caught a glimpse of myself nude in the mirror and stopped in my tracks, “Is that me in the mirror”.  I looked like my Grandmother (most wonderful woman on the planet, who loved her food).  Yikes. This was an instant motivator!  I had already stopped with the fattening foods, so now it was back to exercise. That was five years ago. I still exercise, so at least the bigger me does not jiggle as much.

What I learned is that now I am post-menopausal (thanks to Chemo) and still taking meds to stop estrogen, weight gain is easier. I also learned that my girlish form is gone – but I am not.  I live each moment with as much passion as possible and I have learned to look in the mirror and be happy with who I am.  I threw away all of my ‘skinny’ clothes.  I don’t torture myself with the hope of getting back to my smaller self.  If Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe can be sexy in a size 10 – so can I – it is all attitude.  Besides I know that my husband is just grateful that I am still here – no matter what my size. You know what? So am I.

P.s. My pre and post surgery pictures are tucked away in a file and not in the brag book of reconstruction.  Oh well.

~ Kim T.

In my last post I wrote about my experience as a long term breast cancer survivor. I talked about how one of the most notable early side effects of having cancer is coming up against a huge amount of anxiety. I talked about how I found the relaxation and coping skills programs at the BC Cancer Agency very helpful for gaining control over some of the disturbing and destructive thoughts I was experiencing after my diagnosis and surgeries.  But there was another program that contributed to my well-being, and that was the vocational counseling program.

When I was finally ready to go back to work, I realized that I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but for a number of reasons I did not want to return to my job as a flight attendant. I had always been a very creative and organized person, but after cancer I wasn’t sure what kind of employment would suit me. The good thing was that I felt open to anything!

The vocational counseling program consisted of an interview and some survey writing. I’ve always enjoyed Cosmo quizzes and personality tests, so this was not unfamiliar or unpleasant. I discovered that I would do well working at a job that provided me an opportunity to solve problems and think on my feet, that I would prefer to have a mix of working alone as well as within a team, I enjoyed responsibility, and even a healthy amount of pressure and competition! I preferred projects with a beginning, middle and END. I desired work that could create something with meaning, that could make an impact. I would prefer something somewhat technical and detail-oriented. I was suited to leading a team of people and speaking to groups. I had an analytical mind. No shift work or body fluids please. And nothing requiring the preparation of spreadsheets.

It still took me a while to figure out what that really meant for me.  The results listed a set of “suggested” professions that included some pretty interesting jobs such as Fashion Designer, Film Editor and (my personal favorite) Fire Fighter.

The first thing I did was take some community courses in design and technology and volunteer in the breast cancer realm.  It was a sphere in which I already felt like an “expert”, and as a volunteer, was able to get my feet wet with some new skills on my own terms. I helped organize and promote conferences, create media, and stepped forward as a spokesperson/advocate for young women with cancer. It was an amazing time of growth for me. I was very fortunate to have been able to afford time to play and find out more about what I truly wanted to do with my life.

In 2005, three years after my diagnosis, I began to focus more on what I enjoyed most – the web, and realized that I wanted/needed to go to school to learn more.  My family were incredibly supportive.  I wouldn’t have been able to complete the UBC multimedia studies program without my mother’s daily help. After graduation I began working as a freelance photo editor and web designer. It was very rewarding and exciting!

The mind that was responsible for making me anxious and that seemed to run madly off in all directions served me very well in my new career. All that anxiety and those racing thoughts could actually be harnessed to effectively plan, research, analyze, strategize, create, organize, communicate and orchestrate! (I have even discovered a secret love of spreadsheets…)

In 2008, I found my way to an amazing company and discovered  a passion for strategy and larger-scale projects. To further my career, I took the Project Management Diploma at SFU.

My current job as a Solution Architect incorporates many of the strengths that came to light with the BCCA vocational counseling session 6 years ago.  And who knows if I would have found my way this well without that initial guidance!

~ Vanessa

I’ll never forget that day on the school bus in grade 6 when a cute boy looked at my flat, undeveloped chest and announced in a loud voice that he had a joke that’ll “knock your tits off but I see you’ve already heard it before!” Needless to say I was totally humiliated and angry at the little jerk but how was I to know that years later I would rethink his comment as (possibly) the world’s 1st mastectomy joke?

Years later, at the age of 33, there wasn’t a lot I found funny about the bilateral breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes and required 2 mastectomies, many rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and multiple surgeries. But when I found myself at the cancer clinic waiting for 1 of my chemo treatments and looked down at my flat-again chest, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of the situation.

Aside from developing a penchant for completely inappropriate humour, my cancer experience woke me up to my life and my calling. More years later, after the scars had healed and it slowly dawned on me that I might have a future (touch wood), I decided to get the heck out of the corporate world and return to doing what I loved best, helping others in a personal and meaningful way versus a shuffling-paper- really-quickly kind of way.

That’s what prompted me to start carrying school books again and as I approached the completion of my master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, I discovered the Booby Innovation Grant offered by Rethink Breast Cancer. I was stoked to have an opportunity to bring my professional and personal experiences together and drafted a proposal for an employment counselling program to help young women navigate the limbo-land between breast cancer treatments and the world of work.

Well, I was lucky enough to be awarded the B.I.G. grant and the funding has enabled me to develop cedars, an employment counselling program for young women with breast cancer. Along with my personal experience of the challenges of returning to work after breast cancer, I draw on my current professional experiences working in anxiety & depression counselling, and past experiences as a human resources & recruitment specialist, and employment counsellor.

At no cost, young women with breast cancer in Canada can enroll in the program and receive up to 10 hours of individualized support that can be tailored to meet their unique needs. Assistance can include, for example, help in preparing for difficult or illegal interview questions, assistance with developing resumes and cover letters, learning how to tap into the hidden job market, exploring various career options, etc.

To enroll or for more information, check out the cedars program. Do you know a young woman who might benefit from this program? Feel free to give them my contact information!

~ Lina C.