Dear Breast Cancer Patient,
Since I first wrote to you a lot has happened. New research is coming out every single day. Recently I received another e-mail about another genetic marker for breast cancer. But here is the thing. Since I first wrote to you, some of you have passed on for this earth. Some of you far too young. It wasn’t that long ago that I was first meeting one of you. You had been battling this awful disease for many years. You were fighting to have just a few more days with your young children. You were fighting until your very last breath. And when I said goodbye to you we both knew it would be the last time I saw you and you collapsed in my arms crying. I’ll never forget that day. I’ll never forget what you taught me about life, love, fight, and utter and complete strength.
I’m so thankful for all the money that has been donated to help, but I still sit in awe as it often isn’t hard to figure out why a young woman is sitting in a chemo chair worried about her babies at home. Often it is breast cancer. Not always, but more times than not. 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer in her life. That is 12%! (Source). And this is something I am not okay with. Not at all. Lung cancer is the first leading offender in cancers causing women to die followed by breast (Source).
I’m so incredibly thankful for those of you I have had the privilege to rejoice with as we dance around celebrating your last chemo. I’m so glad to know that thanks to the money that has been donate to research deaths caused by breast cancer have been decreasing since 2000 (source). But my heart continues to break every single time a women sits in that chemo chair and I talk with her about her cancer.
Breast cancer patient, seriously, you have made my life so much richer. Every. Single. One. Of. You. I’m blessed to get to work with you and I look forward to fighting for a cure with you.
Until then, thank you for the honor of getting to be one of your nurses.
With gratitude,
One of your nurses