In memory
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I needed to acknowledge the passing of Susan Niebur, otherwise known as WhyMommy. She fought breast cancer and its metastases, hard, for nearly five years, while parenting and blogging and doing science and friending with more passion and love and fierceness than many fit into much longer lives. I’ve written about her before, here and here, but I don’t think I had realized just how many lives she had touched until I read the love fest that her friends made for her on Facebook. I’ve been reading people’s comments on her page and her blog and her twitter feed, and the only consolation is that she knew how beloved on the earth she was.
If you want to support breast cancer research and you’re still pissed at Komen (and I am), you might consider giving to one of these organizations:
- Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation (IBC is what Susan had. Short version — not all breast cancer produces lumps. If you have a change in the skin texture, or a bruise that doesn’t go away, get it checked out.)
- Lucy Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Research. The majority of people who die of breast cancer in the US die of metastatic breast cancer. And yet, as Susan pointed out repeatedly, only 3 percent of breast cancer research funding goes to research on metastatic cancer. It’s worth hassling the big funders (e.g. Komen) about this, but also giving to dedicated research funds.
And go look at the moon tonight. It’s beautiful.
February 6th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Amen.