October is Pink Month! I hope this story inspires all you wonderful fans!

Well here we are it’s already October the 1st which means it’s Pink Month.  Time for everyone to consciously pull together and support the fight to end Breast Cancer in our lifetime.

I have been so pre-occupied, thinking about what I could say to promote our beautiful Hummingbird Bracelets to raise money for the CIBC Breast Assessment Centre.  How can I convince every boutique that carries glamjulz to carry these in their stores? How can I sell tons of them from the website? What can I do to make people realize that they all must have one!   Hmmmmmmm…..all sounds quite pushy doesn’t it? I suppose that’s my “Leo” personality coming out again.

Last night I was given a gift from a dear friend of mine who is a Breast Cancer Survivor.  We enjoyed a wonderful evening out together and then had one of those magical conversations in the car when I dropped her off.

We talked about the “C” word and discussed all of the pain and anxiety that came along with it.  Then my friend helped me to see the bigger picture.

I have always sort of taken for granted that I come from a healthy family, I have never even considered that I would ever get sick or anyone else in my family for that matter.  I am embarrassed to say that when I hear about someone having cancer I immediately look for reasons why they have it. Is it in the family? Did they smoke? Drink too much? Eat too many packaged foods? Not enough fruits and vegetables? Don’t they exercise? My list of judgements goes on and on.  My rationalization seems to be that if any of the above are true then I have found a reason and I can go back to standing behind my big shield and carry on my merry healthy way.  Ummmmmm okay?

A couple of months ago I was approached by Hamilton Health Sciences to design a pink and crystal hummingbird bracelet to help raise money for their CIBC Breast Assessment Centre. Wow! Yeah! Hey sure of course! Why wouldn’t we want to help and oooooooh all the recognition, sounds fantastic!

But what is really happening here? Am I qualified to create something like this and try to raise money? I come from the family of healthy horses….do I have enough sympathy? Empathy? Do I really understand the big picture, do I even want to know? I feel too chicken…..how can I even begin to understand what people with Breast Cancer feel like.  Why am I making this all about me???

My friend the survivor made it all clear.  Even though I was there for her when she was going through her treatment and I listened to all of her experiences it somehow still seemed so unbelievable to me.  I would visit with her and then kind of let it leave my brain.  It all just sounded so foreign. This can’t really be happening to my sweet friend.
Last night my friend openly shared with me what it felt like to look at herself and only see one breast, self-conscious in a bathing suit now, the party girl that would skinny dip at the drop of a hat.  How she was afraid she would never wake up when she was going through chemo treatments and how she had to keep a hand on her husband to help her fall asleep at night.  How she was afraid of dying before her child would remember who she was or if she had even had enough years together with her little one to truly make an impact.  She bravely went to the doctor and told him that she didn’t want to know anything! She just wanted him to fix it and she would ask questions when she was ready.  Then she says to me “You know what Monica, this life we live is just a test, there are greater things out there and we are only just scratching the surface of this life we have here on earth.  You know what a present is? It’s the present because that’s all we have and I am grateful everyday that I have it.”

Wow! My heart leaped and sank all at the same time.  It was so beautiful to hear my friend share her feelings so candidly with me.  Now I know why I have created these bracelets and why I was joined together with Hamilton Health Sciences.  It’s To make sure that every woman has the opportunity to know what is happening with her body before it’s too late, so she can make decisions and do what is needed to get back to enjoying the present.