For Naomi Pickersgill, living with metastatic breast cancer and being confronted with her own mortality has been a “roller coaster of emotions.”

If you are receiving radiation, you’ll know that there are often side effects that range from mildly annoying to severely debilitating. The self-care plan outlined by your medical team can help reduce the redness, pain, and irritation that come with radiation dermatitis.

CBCN is excited to announce that we’ve been awarded an international SPARC grant, Seeding Progress and Resources for the Cancer Community: Metastatic Breast Cancer Challenge, to develop a mBC Financial Resources Navigation Tool.

Increasingly the not-for-profit advocacy world has been clouded with criticism of industry funding. Many critics believe that any organization that receives funding from the pharmaceutical industry is automatically biased, but this ignores the great pains that health charities often go through to remain unbiased, ethical and credible. And it certainly does not reflect the patient-centric approach that CBCN takes.

Many women are living longer with ABC.  Finding ways to cope with cancer’s various stresses becomes critical to leading satisfying longer lives. 

Adriana Capozzi of Bradford, Ontario, was diagnosed in October 2014 with HER2-positive, Stage III breast cancer.  She received four months of chemotherapy and one year of Herceptin, along with a bilateral mastectomy and 25 rounds of radiation.

The Canadian Metastatic Breast Cancer Priority Setting Partnership is a group of physicians, patients, and patient family members with the goal of identifying priorities in research by the people most affected by the disease. 

I have never been a fan of roller coasters, too much up and down, made me feel sick.  Ironically, my life seems to have become a gigantic roller coaster ride! 

For Shelley Scott of Winnipeg, a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis in November 2016 had a silver lining.

“It helped me appreciate the moments of my life rather than worrying about what might be, which is kind of a gift,” she says.

She tells the story of two coworkers she knew who planned a big trip for the time when they both were retired.  They never made the trip because one of them died.

In August 2016, Erin Richard of Sydney, Nova Scotia was diagnosed with triple negative metastatic breast cancer.  She was only 39 years old.