Pink Alliance hosted its 20th annual Surviving and Thriving Breast Cancer Awareness luncheon on Wednesday, Oct. 4. With nearly 800 guests in attendance, the event celebrates the ongoing advancements in breast cancer research while serving as a fundraiser for the local nonprofit organization to support their mission of providing financial support for breast cancer patients in need.
This year’s keynote speaker, Kelly Corrigan, is a four-time New York Times bestselling author nicknamed “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” by The Huffington Post. She is also the host of the PBS interview show “Tell Me More” and the podcast “Kelly Corrigan Wonders.” As a breast cancer survivor herself, Kelly spoke about her own journey after diagnosis and read experts from her memoir, The Middle Place.
“Today 800 women have shown up in their best pink outfits to celebrate the progress in breast cancer care and treatment, and also sort of commit for the long haul to be there to make things easier and smoother for the next person who gets diagnosed,” Kelly says. “I hope that people who feel terrified of something like this leave [the luncheon] more comfortable. Treatment is so much better and more effective than it was even 10 years ago, and there are a lot of people who are ready to show up with meals or a knit hat or with a ride to radiation. Whatever it may be, they should know that there’s going to be an army of women who are ready to care for them.”
Accepting help can benefit not only those suffering from breast cancer but also those around them who feel like they are doing their part to help, Kelly says.
“The community around breast cancer is so interesting because everybody thinks that they don’t want to share it initially because they think they’re burdening people,” Kelly says. “But my strong sense after talking about this and working with different organizations over 20 years is that you are doing a huge favor to the community by letting them help you.”
“You’ve brought something scary into the room,” she says. “You’ve brought in mortality. It allows there to be this sort of silver lining to illness and crisis.”
For those many people on the outside, the people with loved ones who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, Kelly highlighted the importance of their role as an encouraging friend or loving family member.
“There are so many ways to support, and hopefully, most people have more than one person supporting them, which means your role may be to bring lightness or a break from the deep, challenging conversations about wellness and mortality,” Kelly says. “I don’t think people should be afraid to participate in a way that’s natural and authentic to the relationship; you just need to know the person and their preferences. There can be health changes over the course of treatment as well, so be intentional about tracking what they want and when they want it.”
Breast cancer is not the death sentence that it used to be, but people need to self-exam and have exams no matter their family history, Kelly says.
“You should start getting your breast exams at different ages depending on your family history, but everyone needs to know how to do a self-breast exam,” she says. “I was 36 when I was diagnosed with my seven-centimeter tumor, and I had never had an exam in my life because not one person in my family has had it, which is part of why I’d never given [the lump] a moment's thought. Another reason is it was too daunting to face, but it’s not that daunting anymore; more and more people survive breast cancer every year.”
Kelly uses her story to give hope to those who are in any stage of the breast cancer survival process.
“I was very sick, and I got better,” Kelly says. “I’ve been better for almost 20 years, whereas, maybe a generation ago, a stage three cancer patient would not have survived. I did, and more and more stage three patients are surviving.”
Although Kelly survived stage three breast cancer, she says if she had caught it earlier, she could have completely avoided a high-stage illness.
“Your goal should be to catch it early,” Kelly says. “And the only way to catch it early is to know how to give yourself an exam and go get exams.”
For more information about breast cancer, self-examinations and more, visit breastcancer.org
