CANCER STRONG - CATHY STRONG - MOM STRONG Redux

As the year moves relentlessly forward, and resolutions made in the new year begin to wane, many people revisit and reflect more on their lives and the aspects and events of their lives that have impacted and defined who they are. As the founder of the World Change Coalition, I also reflect on many aspects of my life that have helped shape and define who I am. I cannot think about who I am without thinking about my mom and the strength and courage that she lived every day. This strength and courage are two of the aspects of who she was that makes her my model for living and inspired the creation of the World Change Coalition. The following blog is something I wrote some time ago but is worthy of posting again.

BOSTON STRONG – Anyone reading or hearing those words cannot help but remember the terrorist attack on the people of the City of Boston and how the citizens and First Responders rose to the occasion to find the terrorists.  That was what the Boston Strong slogan was all about in those early post-bombing days—recognition of victims' and first responders' courage as well as a unifying rallying cry.  Others have taken the Boston Strong slogan and used it to encourage strength and unity in their communities in the face a public crisis and challenge, Las Vegas Strong, El Paso Strong, and Dayton Strong, and so on.

There is another group that exemplifies the meaning of resilience, courage and purpose that underpins the essence of Boston Strong, and that is cancer survivors.  Most of us have a friend or a loved one that has faced or is facing the life altering event of a cancer diagnosis.  This resilience and courage are not something they exemplify one time, it is something that they exemplify each and every day. 

These people are CANCER STRONG!!

CANCER STRONG is the strength and courage to get up every day and take on chemo cancer treatments, treatments which kill cancer by poisoning your body just a little more than it takes to poison and kill the cancer.  CANCER STRONG is the strength to face the side-effects of bombarding your body with radiation to kill cancer cells.  For some, like my Mom, it takes the strength to take on experimental treatments and the unknown medical outcomes to try to help your fight against the disease but, just as importantly, to help others gain a positive foothold for the future to overcome the disease.

CANCER STRONG is looking at the hair in your brush that is falling from your head, knowing that you will soon be bald, not by choice.  CANCER STRONG is forcing yourself to undertake physical therapy to help build motor skills and the strength taken by the chemo and radiation treatments while being a mom to two boys and a wife.

CANCER STRONG is trying to help your loved ones and friends not worry about what you are going through and the uncertainty that the future holds.

My mom, Cathy, aptly was from Boston.  She had cancer for over two decades with numerous recurrences, surgeries, radiation, chemo, metastases, and experimental treatments. She was always positive.  That is CATHY STRONG!!!!

She was always there for her family.  She was an amazing mom.  She was a role model to her sons. She epitomized being MOM STRONG. 

She was my mom and is my hero. 

CANCER STRONG!  CATHY STRONG!  MOM STRONG!