The Reality of Breast Cancer

Hello again!

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their summer. We at Omnific are having a FANTASTIC summer. We were so excited to kick it off with our Summer Lovin’ Anthologies to benefit Save the Tatas Foundation, and it will only keep getting better with some great new releases this summer as well. Next week, on July 19th, Carol Oates will be releasing her second novel with us, Ember. (Check back here in the next few days for a sneak peek and a little Q&A with Carol Oates – or better yet, become a follower to get in on our giveaway.)

We wanted to remind you about our giveaway today. Now through August 15th, if you become a follower of our Omnific Blog, you will be entered to win a FABULOUS prize! We are going to be giving away one copy of each anthology signed by ALL the participating authors! That’s pretty amazing considering our authors live all over the world!

To drive home the importance of what Save the Tatas Foundation does, we asked some of our authors and staff to tell us about how breast cancer has touched their lives.

My mom is a breast cancer survivor.  She got this disease at a time in her life when she was trying to make a new start, and it felt like fate was trying to hold her back. I lived several states away and couldn't help her nearly as much as I wanted to.  On top of all that, her insurance made her life very difficult--as though going through cancer treatment isn't hard enough.  My mom isn't a draw-your-sword-and-charge-into-battle kind of woman.  She's more of a "Cancer--that figures. Well, fine, what do we do now?" kind of woman. So she just did it---chemo, surgery, radiation--without as much help and support as she should have had but with a sort of resigned determination that has gotten her through a million other setbacks.

I always said that if I had money, I would support other women (and their families) struggling with breast cancer.  I don't really have much money still, but I do have this little skill--I can help produce good books.  It's why I work for Omnific, and why I volunteered my time to help edit these anthologies. It's for my mom, who thankfully, is still around to spoil her grandchildren, and it's for everyone else's mom too. Any money raised by these wonderful stories goes to research and support, to save the lives of women and men stricken by this cancer--and maybe to keep others from getting it.  I may be a full-grown woman with kids of my own, but I still need my mom--and a lot of other people feel the same way. And since my mom first taught me to read romances, it seems like a perfect tribute.

Kathy Teel
Omnific Managing Editor

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My family had been blessed for many years without any instances of breast cancer. My immediate aunts, my mom, my grandmother, none of them have had it, knock on wood and praise God.  That is until a few years ago, when my great aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer.  My mom told me that by the time they found it, the cancer was so invasive that her entire upper body was riddled with pain.  My aunt has always been a smoker, so I'm not sure if that caused or contributed to the cancer, but, who can tell for sure?  My family has always been very close, and all my childhood I knew my aunt as being this tough as nails Portuguese woman. You couldn't shake her, you couldn't break her. She was hearty and seriously...you didn't want to mess with her.  But, when I saw her for the first time in ten years last summer, I couldn't even recognize her.  She was so frail and using a walker and just the antithesis of all I'd known.  Granted, she is pretty well up there in years by now, but I know that the majority of her fragility had to do with the cancer.  Her daughters had to help her into and out of her chair.  It was heart-breaking.   I have faith and wish my family and myself blessings and health, but, you never can tell when or who this disease will hit.

Jennifer DeLucy
Omnific Author

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I first became aware of breast cancer as a little girl when my grandmother, who I adored and we had lived with for several years when my parents divorced, was hospitalized. Apparently she had found a lump in her breast, and within weeks they discovered that the cancer was so advanced, it had metastasized and was ravaging her body. I was six years old and only knew that my mom was crying all the time and going to the hospital to visit my grandma every night. My grandma passed away not long after being hospitalized. Even though I was young, I was very attached to her and missed her terribly, but didn’t understand really what breast cancer was.

As I grew up, I started to understand more about breast cancer and the importance of checking for lumps. When you have a history of the disease in your family, all the precautions are in the forefront of your mind. Every year when I would go for that dreaded exam, I would hold my breath during the breast exam…waiting for the doctor to tell me that he found something that I missed. Then it happened last October (of all months, right?). I had been putting off getting my first mammogram (I was 41 with a history in my family so I should have had at least one already). Bad move on my part. My heart nearly sank when I was told that they found something on my mammogram, and I would have to have another one for clarification. Panic flooded me. What would I do if I had breast cancer? What about my kids? Of course the next appointment that I could get was almost a week later. I spent a week silently worrying about my future, my kids’ future, how my husband would be able to manage (I do a lot around here!). I only told one of my friends about it and tried not to let my husband know really how scared I was, but I was TERRIFIED! The week finally passed, and I went back for my follow up mammogram. Fortunately, what they had seen on the first mammogram was only a cyst, and I was given a clean bill of health. But, as I was walking out of the building, I saw a woman who had been in the waiting room with me; her husband had her wrapped in his arms and she was crying…getting good news had never seemed so empty. No matter how lucky I was, there would always be someone else who was going to have to fight this horrible disease.
 

Jessica McQuinn
Omnific Author


We hope that everyone enjoys the anthology stories our authors, editors, marketing, art, and layout departments have put together, but we really hope that we can help make a difference in the fight against breast cancer for all of those who have been affected by it in their lives in some way. If you have a story that you would like to share about how breast cancer has touched your life, please leave us a comment. There are so many stories, and they all deserve to be heard.

Remember to follow our blog, and come back for a great peek at our next release, Ember, by Carol Oates (who, by the way, has a wonderful, magical fairy story in our Summer Breeze Anthology…).