WASHINGTON — Shortly after Thursday’s show, me, and the rest of the crew here at Get Up DC will be joining the Still Standing Virtual Meet-Up, a celebration of breast cancer survivors and thrivers. Starting with the first season of this show, it’s been our honor to take part in this yearly event, and it’s something that I look forward to.
Sponsored by Adventist HealthCare, Thursday's panel features speakers who have persevered in their battles with the disease like WUSA9’s own Kristen Berset-Harris, herself a two-time breast cancer thriver. Also featured, author Vanessa Antrum, who will be discussing her book chronicling her breast cancer survival story.
Medical professionals will also be joining to share much-needed information on early detection, treatments, aftercare, and the systems of support that are in place.
Right now, there are currently more than 3.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. Other than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form in American women, with an average risk of 13% of development in a lifetime. This means 1 in 8 women will fall victim to it.
While rates of development are close to even among the different ethnic groups, much like we’ve seen through the emergence of COVID-19, breast cancer hits marginalized communities particularly hard. And just like with COVID-19, there are a number factors that play into this, like environment, nutrition, a lack of time for self-care due to the pressures of daily existence, and a lack of access to basic healthcare services. That can in missed checkups and the loss of personal knowledge that comes with them.
This is why it’s so important that we celebrate and thank survivors who come forward to tell their stories and the dedicated doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals who use their personal time to raise awareness about prevention and treatment.
If you want to help, you can donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, or you can get involved with them. Create a fundraiser of your own. Through their research, we may one day beat this thing. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of that?