Christina Applegate with host, Oprah Winfrey
Christina Applegate, an Emmy Award-winning American actress, known for playing Kelly Bundy on the long-running FOX Broadcasting Company sitcom Married… with Children, will kick off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month on The Oprah Winfrey Show by setting the record straight about her breast cancer. She recently had a double mastectomy and is now cancer free, without having undergone chemo.
The upcoming episode will be aired on Tuesday, September 30, so please mark your calendar. Also, check out the 35-second promotional video clip.
Also on the show will be Nancy Brinker, who brought breast cancer to the forefront after founding the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and subsequently the 5K Race for the Cure. To date, the foundation has raised over $11 billion for the cause!
– Pelf Nyok
When you hear the term “breast cancer survivor”, you probably think of someone who has had AND beat this dreadful disease. Have you stopped to consider the other survivors of this disease, the silent survivors?
First off, I am not taking anything away from the unfortunate people that have been diagnosed with breast cancer — I lost my mother, my maternal grandmother, and a cousin to breast cancer so I have the utmost respect and admiration for these survivors.
However, it is because I lost these loved ones that I feel I am a survivor.
I first realized that there was something different about my grandmother when I was a child. One day I went into her bedroom without knocking (a BIG NO-NO) as she was dressing. I quickly noticed that she was missing a breast and horrifically scarred.
I remember asking her where her “boobie” went. She sat me down on the bed and explained that when she was 33 years old, she had breast cancer and had her breast removed to ensure that she would be around for her grandchildren. I accepted the explanation without much thought and went about my happy way as any child would do.
Nineteen years ago, I was your average 17-year-old when my mother died after battling breast cancer for 16 months. I was thrown into shock and despair. Suddenly, my curiosity about breast cancer became an obsession!
I talked to doctors, specialists, and other breast cancer patients to learn as much as I could about this disease that took my best friend. At that time, my grandmother had been cancer free for almost 30 years, bless her soul. With her guidance, she finished the chore of raising a motherless child.
For eight years after my mother died, I adored, listened, and cherished the bond that I had formed with my grandmother — thankful that I was lucky enough to have another love like my mother. Unfortunately, time was not on our side. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in her other breast and the odds were stacked against her. “NOT AGAIN” was my first thought.
I really didn’t think I could bear to lose another person and to the same disease. Being wiser the second time around, we made the best of our time and said our good-byes on my birthday. Three days later, she passed away — from breast cancer.
So you see, I have survived this disease. I survived the deaths of two great women. I have stayed educated and healthy thanks to my doctors.
I have tested positive for the BRCA gene – no surprise there – and I am classified as high-risk. Even though it’s a lifelong fear that I will get breast cancer, I remain positive that I won’t die from this disease. I’ll simply become a different survivor – a breast cancer survivor, not just a silent survivor.
All year long, especially in October, I honor their memories and support the efforts for all breast cancer initiatives. Please do the same.
by— Dana P. at Peapod Studio
Hello ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, my name is Pelf. Yeah, I know I said that already but I just wanted to make sure you that remember my name because in the next few weeks, I am going to run a contest here on Pink for October, and yes, there will be prizes up for grabs :D
But before that, let me quickly introduce myself.
I am a Malaysian grad-student and I maintain a personal blog — pelf-ism is contagious. I have been blogging since October 2005, but back then, I didn’t know that October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
By October 2006, I have spent enough time surfing the internet and blog-hopping that I not only learned that October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I learned a whole lot of other things too, but I won’t go into much details now. So in October 2006, I published the following posts on my blog:
And in October 2007, I thought I should do something more intense, like writing a series of blog posts on breast cancer. And that was what I did:
So this year, I am excited to be recruited by Matthew to join his Pink for October team :D To get more people involved, as in, turning their blogs pink and writing and spreading awareness on breast cancer related matters, I will be running a contest right here. Hence, I would really suggest that you subscribe to the feed NOW and keep yourself updated!
P/S: If you would like to be one of our contest sponsors, please let me know. For your information, some 3,000 bloggers turned their blogs pink in 2007, and we are expecting more bloggers to join us this year. With a little sponsorship, you are actually increasing your visibility. It’s a win-win situation. Really!
– Pelf Nyok
While only tested on mice to this point, the results are positive for destroying HER2 tumors.
The vaccine targets breast cancer caused by an excess of a protein called HER2 - and even destroyed tumours resistant to current drugs.
Source
As usual, these findings are relative to the method. Transitioning the same or similar results into humans will come, but from the tone of the article, it sounds like it will take a while.
Do me a favor today: read the HER2 article, learn something new. And if you know about it and can add to the article, by all means do so.