Why I'm Doing This

Breast cancer has been haunting me as long as I can remember. It runs in my family and took the life of my maternal grandmother Reba and my Aunt Carolyn on my mother's side when I was a child. When I was a teenager, my mother took preventive steps to protect herself from the genetic risk that this family history implied. When she did so, she encouraged her nieces - Carolyn's daughters - to talk to their doctors about their risk. They were a few years yonger than my mom at the time, but one of them already had cancer when they began their workup. My cousin Lisa was treated and is doing fine today. In medical school, my first patient to die was a patient who presented with an enlarged liver filled with tumor that had originated from her breast. There was nothing we could do for her and she died a few nights later. I lost a 36 year old patient 2 years ago to recurrent breast cancer. I am tired of being haunted by this disease. I want to do more to help. I'll be accepting donations and sponsorship for the NW Ohio Race For The Cure in September. Thanks in advance for your support. If you want to donate, you can mail me a check (email me if you need my address) or click the Make a Donation button on the right of the page.