Doing something for breast cancer survivors

Elizabeth Edwards is fighting the good fight and I'm sure we all admire her strength and courage. I know I do. My husbands first wife died of the disease after many hard years of struggle.

Not everyone wins the war however and there is an organization out there whose mission is to see that families get some quality time together before the end by granting wishes to families in need.

If you want to do something to help women and their families currently fighting breast cancer, this organization might be just your thing:

http://www.makingmemories.org/

More on the flip....

The goal of Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation is to grant wishes to people who have been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. Their wish granting services are made possible by corporate donations and partnerships, and by fundraising programs such as Brides Against Breast Cancer, Quilters Against Breast Cancer and the Pink Envelope Project.

I'm just getting ready to walk out the door and donate a wedding dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer. This organization takes donated wedding dresses on a nationwide tour. The bride gets a reduced price wedding dress and the proceeds are donated to the Making Memories Foundation. The web site states "Brides Against Breast Cancer continues to be the Making Memories Foundation’s number one fund-raising event across the nation. Over 32 shows every year enable brides-to-be to find the gown of their dreams (at an incredible savings) while making wishes and dreams come true for women and men diagnosed with terminal breast cancer."

If you can help, now would be a great time to do so! Luckily Making Memories is based here in Portland, OR so I'm hopping in my car now and heading out to donate a dress. There is shipping information on their web site if you have anything to donate!

Thanks for reading!

•  Hey! We're activists!

  So lets act! (And thanks for donating whatever you can!)

  by cls180 on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 12:01:24 PM PDT

•  And don't forget this one

  Always seems a tad hokey, but it can't hurt:

  Fund Free Mammograms @ The Breast Cancer Site

  by lgmcp on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 12:10:19 PM PDT

•  Thank you for the diary. Can I also mention

  the organization Us TOO which supports. While I'm not one for comparisons, prostate cancer is similar to breast cancer in its rate of new cases, deaths, possibility of early detection, and benefits of early detection, but certainly not similar in funding or general public awareness.

  Amongst my older relatives and inlaws there are previous cured cases of breast cancer, one current prostate, one current leukemia, and one death each from skin and colon. So I've donated to and received support from several different cancer organizations. Thanks for highlighting a great one I hadn't heard of.

  by retrograde on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 12:53:07 PM PDT

•  All these cancer related diaries

  make me recall the posts and emails that were sent out during my late wife's encounter with cancer. An encounter that did not go well in the end. You may note that I don't use the word battle as most people tend to use to describe their own encounter with cancer... she did not approve of the term and thought it a silly way to explain what she was gong through.

  Like Elizabeth Edwards, she was a strong willed person and never gave into the disease. Her favorite book was "Cancer: Let Me Check My Schedule". It was the first book that she felt spoke to her about cancer and living with it. The emphasis was on the idea of "living" with cancer.

  Even in remission, she still lived with cancer and what it had wrought upon her. Later, when the cancer had returned, she was adamant about still doing what she wanted to do, even when she could no longer physically do so.

  She wrote a lot about what it was like to have cancer, what she envisioned her chemotherapy infusions to be and what the future held. After the cancer spread to her brain, it eventually silenced her and gave rise to my writing for us both.

  The one thing I recall more than any was the comments I found written in a notebook after her passing... It was titled "Fear of Dying", except that she had corrected it afterwards to "Fears Before Dying", an admission that she knew she was not going to make it.

  by VinBacchus on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 01:09:02 PM PDT