Quiet Angel Publishing Blog

Well, when I first started to write this blog I was thinking I had dropped the ball on keeping everyone up to date on me and the book.  But the more I thought about it, it is more like bouncing the ball then dropping it!  I have been so busy speaking, traveling, working on some exciting news and keeping up with everything else that I think it is more precise to say that I have been bouncing the ball from place to place and not really dropping it.  Which although I am very blessed to stay busy and doing what I like with the book and my company, I will try and promise not to have such a lengthy delay in the future.

I will start with Florida and the incredible FORCE Conference that I was asked to attend and had the honor of speaking at, a truly amazing adventure!

At the end of June, I had the honor of flying to Orlando, Florida to speak at the 2011 FORCE Conference.  FORCE stands for Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered and
address’ the issue of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers as well as the BRCA  Gene.  Here is the FORCE mission statement:

For just a bit more information on the BRCA Gene here is a excerpt from the FORCE
website:

For even more information please go directly to the website at ww.FacingOurRisk.org or speak with your Doctor if you have any other concerns.

So now that you have a some information on what FORCE stands for and how they help to contribute to the knowledge of breast and ovarian cancers let me tell you about my journey in Florida.  The conference was amazing!  I have never been to such a well organized, well thought out and well put together conference.  Thanks to Sue Friedman the founder of FORCE for taking charge and helping so many men and women with this gene and these cancers.   In my time and my journey with cancer I have spoken to several groups; support groups, survivors, patients and supporters but this group was different.  This group was not only survivors, but men and women, Moms and Dads, husbands and wives and friends who carried the gene, the BRCA gene who were there to find out information on how to help themselves, their families, their loved ones and others.  I spoke to women who were there to make a decision on preventative surgeries meaning planning a mastectomy or hysterectomy in order to prevent having the gene and the prognoses of the gene giving them this disease that had already effected their families.  What a huge decision.  There is a difference when you are faced with the disease and have no choice in the outcome and surgeries, but to be young and trying to face the possibility that cancer will strike and taking preventative measures is hugely different and effects every aspect of your life.  For example having children, changing your bodies, living your life with the changes to name a few.  My hat is off, my heart is open and I stand in honor of these brave men and women making such tough decisions for their futures.  With this background, I want to share that I was there as the comic relief so to speak.  The break away session that they could come to in order to finds a little humor, a little inspiration and a break for the amazing information they received at this event! My session was entitled “Mental Makeovers & Savvy Insights” and I touched on how strong we really are in our lives from the very beginning and how we sometimes forget that when the next big challenge comes along and I had an amazing group of women in attendance.  For an hour and a half, we laughed, we cried and we shared!  I
thought I was there to help them but really they helped me.  They made me see that we all need to remember, need to realized that we are so blessed for the breaths we take each day and how we can find strength, courage, camaraderie and humor in even the darkest situations.

I came away from this weekend not only with a new me, a renewed strength and a renewed belief that if I can share my story and if just one person comes away with something that helped I have done my job, I have played it forward, I can sleep well.  And I made some wonderful new friends! Life is good!