Cathy’s story is one that could be considered beyond uplifting or inspirational –it is an out-right miracle! If you log on to her spouses website (Morris E. Goodman) at themiracleman.org you will see that before she received the blessing of Healing in her own life –she herself was the spectacular miracle in Morris’ life after he recovered from a plane crash that left no hope for restoring his beaten and broken body from the paralysis and internal injuries that accident left him with. She and Morris were married on November 10th 1990 and little did they know at that time that Morris’ story of positive and forward thinking would some day be re-awakened and prove invaluable in Cathy’s life as well.

In today’s world, is it that occurrences of breast cancer are growing much more than it was years ago, or it is just that breast cancer is getting more visibility in the press and medical journals? It appears that the answer is a little bit of both. The population is increasing and therefore the actual number of cases is more, although the actual percentage of people diagnosed with breast cancer is not significantly different (although it is higher) than in years past.

What can we do after walking and raising awareness for Breast Cancer? Promote exercise everywhere you go and with everyone you meet, especially among Breast Cancer survivors. Did you know even Breast Cancer survivors benefit from exercise?

October was Breast Cancer awareness month and Physical Therapy awareness month. What better way to celebrate and raise awareness by continuing to give the gift of fitness to survivors by working with one group of professionals best trained to work with them, physical therapists, and by encouraging everyone you love to make fitness a regular part of their daily lives.

If you learn to recognize what the breast cancer symptoms are, you empower yourself to find out what’s going on with your body. You might find out it’s not cancer. You’ve lessened the burden of worry because you recognized a possible symptom, and bravely forged ahead to get diagnosed.

If you do you have cancer, you have a much better chance reaching the goal of recovery and long-term survival than if you’d put it off.

If you can learn to identify symptoms you can often help friends and family by giving the extremely valuable gift of early detection and diagnosis.

America received a shocking piece of news in March 2007. John Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She spoke calmly, with inner strength, about how she had asked her husband to continue his presidential campaign, and how she wanted to campaign by his side. She did not want to be best known by her illness; she wanted, in fact, needed, to carry on as normally as she could.

Breast cancer is one of the dreaded women illnesses that has affected millions of women all over the world. All women should be concerned with breast cancer because it is a risk they have to live with. The greater they know about the risk, the more they will be able to fight back.

Most women discover breast cancer too late because of the lack of regular breast check ups or mammography. Some women think they could not get breast cancer while most would rather ignore the thought thinking it would all go away and they would not get it if they do not think of the illness.

The breast cancer survival rate for Stage 4 breast cancer is much lower than for breast cancer detected at earlier stages.

Stage 4 breast cancer, or advanced breast cancer, has metastasized to other tissue including bone tissue, lung tissue, or the liver. When breast cancer has overwhelmed the body’s natural defenses and spread this far by the time the cancer is first diagnosed, the 5-year survival rate drops to 16%-20% in the United States (American Cancer Society).

Up to 5% of white women in the U.S., and up to 9% of black women have advanced breast cancer spread to distant tissue at the time of first diagnosis (SEER). This difference is usually attributed to poverty and lack of health insurance.

As Sidney Poiter said on the Oprah Winfrey show in March 2007, “I was left with the responsibility to effectuate my own survival.” As adults, we’re all accountable for our own survival. Yet as decent human beings, we need to ensure each other’s survival by learning what is not always easily discovered, but necessary to know. This is especially true when one is newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

By raising our awareness, we can literally keep death at bay by spreading knowledge, wisdom and courage. It takes either personal experience, or a special dedication to a vision of a better future for girls and women, in order to make a deep, ongoing commitment to breast cancer awareness.