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No major headline or call to stop the presses.  Excuse my language, but it really does SUCK.  But what sucks even more is to sit idly by and do nothing about cancer.

A generation has passed since cancer sucked the life out of my world. January 7, 1993. To borrow from The Temptations: “that day I’ll always remember, yes I will. ‘Cause that was the day my mama died.” Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my mom and dad. One morning my daddy took me to Sunday school, went home and had a massive heart attack while preparing for church. That night he was gone. My mom died eight years after her breast cancer diagnosis.  Some days it seems like forever ago. Others, just like yesterday, I think about her “motherisms,” wonder how they would react to things happening in the world today, but more often than not, I just miss them, especially my mom.

But as much as cancer sucks, what sucks even more is to do nothing to stop this awful disease—especially the cancer that so strongly affects my family.

I know that whenever that day comes to meet my mom and dad on the other side of the Pearly Gates (and yes, despite what you may hear on the air, I will make it there), there will be questions. My mother will surely have questions and observations about the way I have lived my life. Why haven’t I gotten married yet? After all, my mom had a permanent seat on the

“Marry-Go-Round.” But one question she won’t have to ask is, what have you done to fight breast cancer?

I love my association with Komen for the Cure as a Circle of Promise Ambassador.  It’s my responsibility, one of my purposes in life to  participate in fundraising walks, sponsor fundraising runs, share my story, talk, listen and talk some more to women and men of color.  As a rule, we don’t get cancer more often, but often it is more virulent. Check out the studies and cases of women affected by Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

If you want to make a difference, there are two things you can do today.

The first is, if you have not already, TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH and BE BREAST SELF AWARE.

Secondly, if you want to help Susan G. Komen continue the work they are doing, you can donate to help fund research for Triple Negative Breast Cancer or other national programs for education and outreach for African Americans. Check out the link here.

My fervent prayer is that one day I’ll be a minority as the child of a breast cancer patient/survivor. That a son or daughter won’t sit in a doctor’s office, as I once did, hearing biopsy results, with the words screaming in my head, “MY MOTHER HAS BREAST CANCER! MY MOM HAS CANCER! MY MOM….!” One day, the dates we’ll always remember won’t be the day your mama died, from breast cancer.