Hello!
I am happy to welcome you to our site. I am a two-time breast cancer survivor. My first diagnosis was Triple Negative, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. It was successfully treated with a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Five years later, I was diagnosed with a new primary, meaning a new cancer totally unrelated to the first, in the opposite breast. This time it was Invasive Lobular Carcinoma and hormone sensitive. I had a bilateral, skin sparing mastectomy and immediate reconstruction, nine months of chemo, radiation and all the other things that go along with breast cancer.
When I was first diagnosed in 2001, all I wanted was to find a woman to say to me, "I have been through everything you are about to go through and I made it and I am OK." Now, eight years later, I am that woman here for you. I have taken my experience and put it into this website to help you through your journey.
I created the Website and Message Forum to help you through the maze of your diagnosis, treatment, and living your life during treatment and after it is all over, because there IS life after breast cancer!
Need a friend? You'll find her on the Message Forum. It is by survivors FOR survivors...it is for YOU. A wonderful group of women are there to lend a hand and share their experiences and tips.
We are also very lucky to have Constantine Kaniklidis of Breast Cancer EvidenceWatch, as our Resident Cancer Researcher for up-to-the-minute advice and the latest information from the world of oncology.
Keep checking the website for updates. It is full of information about your diagnosis, chemo and surgical options and the latest clinical trial results.
So, make yourself comfortable, grab some time and take a look at all we have to offer you.
Our message is a simple one: Through knowledge and shared experience we can get through this together. Those of us who have walked the path you are about to embark upon will take you through each step of the way. In turn, all we ask is that when you become a veteran and this is all behind you, pass it on to another newly diagnosed woman. Pass on the message to never give in, never, ever surrender and to fight your disease with everything you have. By learning as much as you can about your disease you will become a better patient and your own best advocate. With cancer, knowledge is not only power, it is a matter of survival.
Above all, remember that there is HOPE. There are millions of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer living normal lives now. You are not a statistic. You are not a milk carton and you do not come with an expiration date. You have the power within yourself to find the best treatments, to use whatever you need to cope to get you through them and you have sisters, all across the world by your side, right here on this site.
I am not going to tell you it is walk in the park, but I will tell you that you will surprise yourself at how very strong you truly are. And if you doubt it, we will be happy to remind you.
Women survive this disease and go back to their lives. A breast cancer diagnosis is not the end. It is the beginning of a fight, a fight that you have every possibility of WINNING.
No Surrender!
Gina Maisano, Founder
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