2012 Survivor Fundraising Chair Shares What Homecoming Means to the Delaware Valley Breast Cancer Community
- by Missy Stein
It's time for my regular oncology check-up and as I approach the parking garage at the hospital I feel at ease. I head to the elevator, familiar with my surroundings and somehow I feel at home. At the breast center, waiting to be called to have my blood drawn, people are jovial. They are smiling, nurses and patients are greeting each other like long lost friends.
Everyone looks different; some people wear hats because they have lost their hair, some have very short hair that is growing back after chemotherapy and some like myself are survivors waiting for their doctors at their six-month check-ups.
For those who have not been through breast cancer treatment, it may sound odd that a doctor's office or a hospital would be a place of comfort. That arriving in the place where you had radiation or chemotherapy would feel like a homecoming where your rush to hug those same doctors who you yelled at, cursed out or cried with during treatment.
For most people, Homecoming means Thanksgiving weekend in the town where they grew up. Filling the stands at the local high school football field, reconnecting with friends who went their separate ways after heading off to college or finding a job, and seeing familiar faces of teachers from days gone by.
Here at Susan G. Komen for the Cure Philadelphia, homecoming is on May 13, 2012. Homecoming is the Race for the Cure where friends reconnect, people find comfort and lives are changed forever. But our homecoming cannot happen without you. Your team, your time, your funding is what saves lives.
This holiday season look around the room and give thanks for what you have by forming a team and registering for the Race for the Cure. Help create a new reality where the only homecoming that your sisters, daughters, wives, aunts and friends look forward to is the one around the Thanksgiving table.
Other messages from Missy to our Race for the Cure family:
Missy Stein is a writer, radio personality, and mother of five. You can read this piece and more by Missy about her breast cancer journey on virtuawoman.org.