The search for a cure for breast cancer must continue, but the physical and mental impacts of diagnosis and treatment cannot be underestimated. For too long we have not given breast cancer prevention the priority needed to stop this disease before it starts. And on a personal level, I want to protect all my loved ones from having to deal with this devastating disease, whether as a patient or caregiver.
This #GivingTuesday, join us and honor the many Faces of Prevention. The real people who inspire our daily work to create a toxic-free world. Up first is Melissa, a clean beauty crusader focused on empowering women and families to make the best choices for healthy, clean living.
I believe prevention protects our loved ones. I think of the many women firefighters in the past and present who have had to face their challenges and hardships with breast cancer. I lost my Aunt Paula when she was 50 years old and two more dear-to-my-heart firefighters, Alyson and Denise. They will be with me always.
We got the wake-up call 4 years ago: my beloved wife Chen was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were shocked: why would a young and healthy yoga therapist, a vegetarian without a family history of cancer, get cancer?
While I’ll never really know what caused my breast cancer (I have no genetic link), the thought of potentially harmful ingredients being in the products that I used, makes me really angry. We shouldn’t have to wonder if the cosmetics or personal care products we used, caused our cancer.
For me, that climb was the ultimate evidence of the quote, “while I had cancer, it didn’t have me.” I was 53, had never seen a 14,179 foot mountain, never mind climb one and yet in June of 2009, four years after my initial diagnosis, I stood on the summit of Mount Shasta in northern California and soaked in the glorious moments of pure joy, of pure living.
