2009 Calendar
On behalf of myself and the entire Sisters’ Journey family, we welcome you!
Whether you placed an ad, bought a ticket to the Pink Tea, purchased a calendar, or just spoke some kind words of support on our behalf, we the Sisters of Sisters’ Journey send expressions of our sincere thanks and appreciation for your ongoing support.
In 1999, my mother – the late Linda White-Epps, a breast cancer survivor – had a vision of creating a support group for women like herself who were surviving cancer diagnosis and treatment. In the following years, she was joined in her effort by many, who also saw an enormous need for sharing their unique experiences and histories regarding their personal fight to maintain a positive medical, emotional and spiritual status. These efforts resulted in the birth and early successes, of Sisters’ Journey, a Breast Cancer Support, and Advocacy Organization.
This is our 10th calendar, and I don’t know if my mother could have ever imagined the amount of support her vision and the efforts of the survivors of this organization have received.
I miss my mother terribly, as many of you miss the loved ones you have lost to cancer. My grief is what drives my passion to educate myself as well as others on how to live healthier and to aspire towards life extension.
As you look at the faces in this calendar, of breast cancer survivors and read their stories, feel free to cry with us, pray with us and even at times laugh with us as we celebrate lives extended. And as we celebrate, know that my Mom’s Spirit is in the midst on each and every page, and she too is celebrating with us and rejoicing in the legacy of her vision.
Early detection is the key to saving lives, get screened… and as my mother has taught me – “BE AN ADVOCATE OF YOUR OWN BODY!”
Again, I thank-you, the Sister’s Journey family thanks you and may the Almighty Bless You.
Respectfully yours,
Dawn White-Bracey
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JanuaryWhen he said the words, “It’s Cancer”, I was in total shock and could think of nothing else except how this news would ultimately affect my family.
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FebruaryThe biopsy report revealed cancer cells were in my lymph nodes. We decided on chemotherapy and radiation for treatment instead of a mastectomy.
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MarchI had first noticed something abnormal when I was breast feeding my daughter a couple of years earlier. I saw my mid-wife and was told that it was most likely a clogged milk duct and should go away. It never did.
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AprilThe worst part was telling my kids, especially since they knew I had lost my mom to breast cancer in 1991.
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MayI was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 when a routine mammogram showed a lump in my left breast. Although it caught me by surprise, I don’t remember getting too upset.
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June“I have cancer,” I thought, “and I am entering into a world of uncertainty, of doctors, nurses, hospitals, needles, tests, and surgery.”
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JulyIn my teens I had been diagnosed with Fibrocystic Breast Disease, which is described as common, benign changes in the breast. At the ages of 15 and 19 I had benign tumors removed and was cautioned to watch any new growths.
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AugustMy journey began on Memorial Day weekend in 2006 while on a camping trip. I had gone for my annual mammogram two weeks prior.
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SeptemberThe colors started to fade long before I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in late spring of 2003.
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OctoberMy journey may have begun in November 1996, when I went for my yearly mammogram. At that time, I was told that my breast had calcifications in them. I wasn’t familiar with that term.
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NovemberIn the year 2005 during my summer vacation I found a lump between my right breast and arm pit. I thought it was a cyst, being that I’m a diabetic and it is common to have cysts under your arm pit. I have seen it before in my family members.
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DecemberTwo months later, the middle of February just days before my 42nd birthday on February 20th, 1991, I was at work sitting at my desk and happened to put my left hand up high above my right breast and I felt a lump the size of a dime.