By Julia Chiappetta
You may have wondered, as I had, what happens when you write a check or make a credit card donation to a cancer organization in order to participate in an event or run/walk.
I have polled many friends and colleagues, and the majority have felt strongly that most of their donations would wind their way back into their own community, to be there to help friends, relatives and even themselves should they become ill and need immediate support. Sadly, this is not the case.
Knowing this, my heart is focused on finding ways to Change the Trend and make that the new normal. As a community of caring people, with our many gifts and talents, we generously give and band together during a crisis. Can we also come together and find ways to meet the day-to-day challenges that are present with a cancer diagnosis or any other deadly disease for that matter? Perhaps it might look like this:
First Phase
Determine financial and social needs and find ways to bring stability back to a family or individual.
Second Phase
Provide easy to understand, cutting-edge education in various languages or by illustration to promote diet and lifestyle counseling/changes to attain real healing and improved outcomes.
Third Phase
Follow up on first and second phases.
A few years back, I was invited to The White House to meet with First Lady Laura Bush’s staff to engage in discussions on global education for women’s health. Heart disease and breast cancer were the hot topics of the day. We discussed how to find better ways to educate women, especially those in third world countries who were not allowed to talk about their bodies, who could not see a doctor without permission from their husbands and many who could just not read. I was humbled to be considered a worthy participant in this discussion and eager to seek ways to help. At the time I had published my book, Breast Cancer: The Notebook, and my hope was to translate my user friendly formatted, reference guide into many languages as a small part of this global initiative. Sadly, due to administration changes, the project did not go forward. Around that same time, I was contacted by Corinne Ellsworth, the founder of Worldwide Breast Cancer, https://worldwidebreastcancer.org, an online source and charity that uses the power of design to educate about breast cancer. She uses the #knowyourlemons campaign, a new standard for breast cancer education. The image of the campaign is a carton of 12 lemons, depicting the 12 symptoms of breast cancer. She is brilliant and has reached 166 million with this simple, yet strong message. We agree that while we are trying to “find a cure”, we should be educating more and, for me, that is coupled with meeting immediate financial needs.
Corrine puts it this way, “Maybe while we are funding a cure, we should also fund education for what we need to know right now. Here. Today. Until that cure comes. Why isn’t this a part of “awareness” month?” I could not agree more. So I ask, why aren’t we doing more to meet educational and financial needs and make that a part of the many campaigns that flood the media?
And so, I say….
Let’s Start a New Movement
Let’s Invest in People
Let’s Find Gumption to Reroute Resources
Let’s Be on a Rampage for Health & Healing
Embracing those with cancer and other diseases, meeting them where they are right now in their disease while providing the critical educational and financial support, is a true act of love. The many people I meet and try to comfort are broken, unsure, hurting, scared and crying out for help right now.
Let’s lift our eyes beyond ourselves and find a new vision.
As always, please enjoy a yummy, organic green drink, maybe pay a bill for someone you know is struggling, actually write a card and mail it to a friend, seek out acts of kindness and love your body, because it relies on you for good nutrition, fitness and positive energy.
Julia Chiappetta is the author of “Breast Cancer: The Notebook” (Gemini Media, 2006) and is also the owner of Julia Chiappetta Consulting. She lives in Cos Cob. More information and past columns can be found at JuliaChiappetta.com
