Catherine Gigante-Brown

8. Educate, don’t fixate.

"Remember, this isn’t just happening to you, it’s happening to moms everywhere. It’s not your fault — "

A new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on mammograms ensures more women will die of breast cancer.

Once upon a time, it was easier to keep track of gender. Today, not so much — the lines are blurred. For many, gender’s not so much about questioning your own identity as it is about questioning the very nature of identity.

BCBs are loud and proud and refuse to go down easy. And quietly. We have things to say. We have things to teach. We still have life to live. And damn it, we are and we will. With one breast. With no breasts. With reconstruction surgery.

If the odds of getting cancer are like Powerball, why couldn't I be a scratch-off millionaire?

Upset you lost your keys? Try losing your breast. Pissed off about missing that train? Try missing your son’s 8th grade graduation because of a horrific infection from fluid buildup in the previously-mentioned missing breast. See what I mean? It kind of puts life into perspective.

Re-imagining the cervix, preserving the earth, facing breast cancer a whole new way…Annie Sprinkle’s wisdom abounds. “Life is a performance art piece,” she said...

"I was afraid this thing was going to do me in. But I took a deep breath and decided very early on that I would face cancer on my own terms."

Makeup and I have always had a love/hate relationship: I love it; it hates me.