October 13th is National Metastatic Breast Cancer Day and this year, some brave women with MBC shared their stories with NBC10’s Lu Ann Cahn, a 20-year breast cancer survivor herself.
Among those diagnosed with breast cancer, twenty-percent of patients’ cancer returns or begins elsewhere in the body. Most often, breast cancer is later found in the lungs, liver or bones according to cancer.gov.
Penny Moy survived breast cancer for twenty years before it returned. “I thought I was home free, you are never home free with breast cancer."
Researchers are attempting to learn how and why cancer cells can lay dormant and then grow again despite aggressive treatments like chemotherapy, that try to combat the disease.
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Deb Strauss who has survived twenty years with MBC says October’s sea of pink is not for her, “I’m very turned off by ‘save the ta-tas’ it just makes it seem like it’s a fun trivial thing when it’s really deadly serious.”
Rather than to live in fear of breast cancer, the women want others to become empowered and educated about the disease, to go beyond “pink” and find a cure for the next generation.
Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) is a national education and support organization devoted to helping women in all stages, deal with breast cancer. To get more information on Metastatic breast cancer or to make a donation visit LBBC’s website.
