October is finally back and I know the one thing everyone is thinking about—Halloween! Yet, Halloween is never the first thing to come to my mind. Now that I am a third year here at UC Riverside, it is crazy to think back to my eighth grade year in middle school, when my mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer. It was sort of a blur, since my family didn’t really know how to tell me. Actually, they never did tell me, personally. I was coming home to my mom being sick all the time, being in bed sleeping, and then one day starting to lose her hair. She started her radiation process and one day had surgery, and that seemed to have been the end of it.
Two years later, the cancer came back, and I felt my walls tumbling down. My mom had to remove one of her breast, and I saw a piece of her confidence be cut away with the surgery. But then a confidence I had never seen grew in her. We began to go to breast cancer support groups as a family. My mom met some new people, who she now calls best friends, and she learned that she is not alone!
Tania’s Mom is on the far left
Every year I participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a fundraising event for breast cancer research that happens across the United States! I get geared up in my pink attire and walk the course with my mom, and I watch her face glow with so much happiness. Groups participate in shirt competitions, men wear pink tutus, and most of all, there are breast cancer survivors all around you. It is a life impact to see so many supporters for woman struggling with a sickness that attacks one of our most feminist characteristics, and threatening to our lives. Breast cancer walks keep faith and hope strong, but are only a small part of this faith system.
Women dealing with breast cancer should know that there are multiple support groups out there somewhere in their area. There are organizations that show women how to do beautiful bows on their head wraps, how to apply make-up, and how to keep a spirit at its highest! And who says you have to be affected by breast cancer to start looking into groups like these? There are work-shops that a woman should attend at least once to learn about getting mammograms, breast cancer prevention, and doing self-exams! We shouldn’t wait!
My mom has overcome breast cancer, but she hasn’t stopped her fight. And nobody should ever give up the fight against cancer. There is a cure! So take the step today and research where you can start getting involved with your health, personally.