Perhaps you have heard the news of actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene and had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. With the surgery, she writes in the New York Times, her risk for breast cancer is now 5%.
This talented and lovely young woman's decision was a very personal one which she chose to publicly share in order to help other women. I hope her mission is accomplished. I hope that dialogues are happening across the U.S. -- and due to her humanitarian work -- maybe even around the world regarding breast cancer and choices we now have the ability to make.
However, I don't want to lose the fact that many women are still unable to make such a choice. Testing for the BRCA genes is expensive and out of the reach of many of the women served by The Rose. While the Supreme Court is set to discuss the patent issues related to the genes, many women who carry it have to settle for living with the unknown.
Knowledge helps put us all on even ground, but economic realities keep us from all having the same choices. I'm glad that information is currently being disseminated in print and across the airwaves as a result of Ms. Jolie's actions. Health care reform has addressed that preventive actions such as the breast screenings we provide at The Rose are covered. But so many women are still uninsured. So many women are still at a loss for how to access not only coverage but information.
That's why The Rose has a commitment to Patient Navigation -- where we connect women with funding and treatment options for which they are usually totally unaware. That's why The Rose has a commitment to the underserved and the uninsured. And that's why we need you. For every three insured women -- women blessed with choices -- we can cover the costs of care for one uninsured. Thank you for making The Rose's quality, breast health care possible.
-- Dorothy Gibbons, Co-Founder and CEO of The Rose
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
A Pink Day in the Life of The Rose ...
During the process of making origami cranes, the creators often say words of blessings. Carefully folded paper that become stars are sometimes called lucky. Such were the elements on the table for the women taking part in the monthly Pink Days at The Rose Galleria.
Brittany Burch, a therapist at Montrose Center and a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed at 29, had discovered the calming effect of origami as she took up the art form last year. When asked if she would consider sharing an art project with the women who were waiting for diagnostic results at The Rose Galleria, she readily agreed and spent several weeks collecting various shades of pink papers, beads, and charms for the budding origami artists to utilize in making their own creations.
What she didn’t plan on was breaking her foot just days prior to her scheduled Pink Day. But the crutches only slowed her down. Nothing could quite steal her desire to introduce the healing technique.
Her good friend Fiona Dawson happened to be in town from Manhattan and as a journalist/media personality who is always intrigued by the story of a nonprofit making a difference, she was delighted to assist for a few hours of the project.
Both of the women – community leaders who have heard many stories of tragedy and triumph because of both their activism and their professions – teared at the story of another volunteer, Maria.
Maria has been assisting with Pink Days since she started the Community Health Workers certification program at Houston Community College. She was easily familiar with the practices of obtaining photo releases so that the days’ activities could be shared on Facebook. She knows where the coffee is kept and how to make the cookies look particularly pink and enticing on the plate.
What she didn’t know was how to best translate the intricate folds needed to make those cranes and stars into the Spanish that some of the participants required. So she began to practice and learn and soon had her own wall hanging and a flock of cranes. As Maria learned the craft, Fiona, who had just seen a photo of her at the Capitol in Austin with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst urged her to tell her story so that she could capture it on video for her online website.
“We met him for a photo opportunity as part of the Breast Health Advocacy Day in Austin,” she explained. “And as soon as I could, I said something like what we had rehearsed the night before. I told him that as he considered the funds for Breast and Cervical Cancer Services in Texas, he needed to remember my face because my face was the face of breast cancer. I explained that when I got my diagnosis it was a calm and reassuring voice of a Patient Navigator at The Rose who told me I wasn’t alone and I was going to get the care I needed. As an uninsured woman I needed to hear that. When I learned I was cancer free, I quit my job of 15 years and enrolled in the CHW program at HCC. I showed him my certification card and told him, ‘I proudly carry this with me because it certifies that I can help other women like me across the state of Texas. And no woman has to go through cancer alone.’”
Brittany, who knew all too well the parts of Maria’s story related to losing hair and the pain of chemo and radiation, murmured agreement as more of Maria’s background unfolded. When Maria got to the part of how her friends had fashioned a hair piece for her for her folklorico dancing she had continued doing even during chemo and then made their own versions of the headpieces so that she would once again be in step with the group, each of the women at the table wiped a tear.
The day continued and patients came and went, each one convinced they could not do the complex maneuvering to turn sheets of paper into delicate treasures. And each one was proven happily wrong. They turned furrowed brows of focus into faces beaming at their accomplishments and more than one commented on how the time had flown.
As they strung beads and designed necklaces and wall hangings, they sometimes expressed their fears … of what the pain might mean, of going against a doctor who had told them “it was nothing.”
“I told that woman that she should listen to her body, and take care of herself,” Maria said. “I told her she was at the right place. She was at The Rose.”
Pink Days at The Rose are made possible by a grant from Pink Ribbons Project.
Brittany Burch, a therapist at Montrose Center and a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed at 29, had discovered the calming effect of origami as she took up the art form last year. When asked if she would consider sharing an art project with the women who were waiting for diagnostic results at The Rose Galleria, she readily agreed and spent several weeks collecting various shades of pink papers, beads, and charms for the budding origami artists to utilize in making their own creations.
What she didn’t plan on was breaking her foot just days prior to her scheduled Pink Day. But the crutches only slowed her down. Nothing could quite steal her desire to introduce the healing technique.
Her good friend Fiona Dawson happened to be in town from Manhattan and as a journalist/media personality who is always intrigued by the story of a nonprofit making a difference, she was delighted to assist for a few hours of the project.
Both of the women – community leaders who have heard many stories of tragedy and triumph because of both their activism and their professions – teared at the story of another volunteer, Maria.
Maria has been assisting with Pink Days since she started the Community Health Workers certification program at Houston Community College. She was easily familiar with the practices of obtaining photo releases so that the days’ activities could be shared on Facebook. She knows where the coffee is kept and how to make the cookies look particularly pink and enticing on the plate.
What she didn’t know was how to best translate the intricate folds needed to make those cranes and stars into the Spanish that some of the participants required. So she began to practice and learn and soon had her own wall hanging and a flock of cranes. As Maria learned the craft, Fiona, who had just seen a photo of her at the Capitol in Austin with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst urged her to tell her story so that she could capture it on video for her online website.
“We met him for a photo opportunity as part of the Breast Health Advocacy Day in Austin,” she explained. “And as soon as I could, I said something like what we had rehearsed the night before. I told him that as he considered the funds for Breast and Cervical Cancer Services in Texas, he needed to remember my face because my face was the face of breast cancer. I explained that when I got my diagnosis it was a calm and reassuring voice of a Patient Navigator at The Rose who told me I wasn’t alone and I was going to get the care I needed. As an uninsured woman I needed to hear that. When I learned I was cancer free, I quit my job of 15 years and enrolled in the CHW program at HCC. I showed him my certification card and told him, ‘I proudly carry this with me because it certifies that I can help other women like me across the state of Texas. And no woman has to go through cancer alone.’”
Brittany, who knew all too well the parts of Maria’s story related to losing hair and the pain of chemo and radiation, murmured agreement as more of Maria’s background unfolded. When Maria got to the part of how her friends had fashioned a hair piece for her for her folklorico dancing she had continued doing even during chemo and then made their own versions of the headpieces so that she would once again be in step with the group, each of the women at the table wiped a tear.
The day continued and patients came and went, each one convinced they could not do the complex maneuvering to turn sheets of paper into delicate treasures. And each one was proven happily wrong. They turned furrowed brows of focus into faces beaming at their accomplishments and more than one commented on how the time had flown.
As they strung beads and designed necklaces and wall hangings, they sometimes expressed their fears … of what the pain might mean, of going against a doctor who had told them “it was nothing.”
“I told that woman that she should listen to her body, and take care of herself,” Maria said. “I told her she was at the right place. She was at The Rose.”
Pink Days at The Rose are made possible by a grant from Pink Ribbons Project.
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