March 7, 2010

  • You fought For me, now fight With me!

    My dear Family & Friends,
     
    I am sending this email out to you today as an official "survivor" of Breast Cancer.  Having completed my treatment exactly a year ago today, I am thrilled to be able to be here today, healthy, cancer-free and am finally able to join in the fight against Breast Cancer and share in the collective voice in the effort to generate more awareness.
     
    As many of you are aware, last fall, my family and I made the life-changing decision to move back to the Tri-Cities, Washington in order to be closer to our family and also to give ourselves the ability to kick-start our lives anew.  In looking forward and not back, I have cleared my regular check-ups, found a fantastic new job, and we are en route to owning our new home in just a few short days!  Time does move by and FAST!
     
    However, even with all these new life changes, I cannot trivialize the last 3 years of our lives while I went on my "journey" through breast cancer and given that, I chose to volunteer my time this year with the Amercian Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event.  Though I've never felt that I would ever be interested in volunteering or championing the cause other than on my own personal soap box, several reasons prompted me to make the decision to participate:  primarily, a newly found friend of ours was diagnosed in early January with a rare form of appendix cancer.  Due to the LACK of awareness, knoweldge and visibility of this cancer, she has struggled with both the diagnosis and the lack of information she is requiring in order to make those heart wrenching decisions on surgeries and follow-up treatment.  Hearing this made me relook at how things progressed for me during the time I was diagnosed and then all the way through treatment and I realized that without voices, donations, support, and advocacy from people like you, I too would have found myself in the same situation as her where the future was unknown with regards to what steps I needed to take in order to SAVE MY LIFE! 
     
    In addition, just a few weeks ago, I was once again, notified by a personal friend who wanted to call me directly to let me know that she had just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer - this friend was instrumental during my treatment, as she organized collections, brought food for our family, and called me every week or so just to check in.  I read a statistic earlier this month that said every 1 in 8 women you know, would be diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  For me, make that 5 out of 8 in less than 3 years...it is definitely time for me to stand up and share my story, contribute my time and effort into creating more awareness for Breast Cancer and find a cure so that less women and men need to go through what those of us who are survivors had to. 
     
    So this brings me back to this email - I need your support and I will not be shy about asking for it!  The fight for my life doesn't end after an event, I have to keep fighting every day to live so that I can be here for my family.  But if during that fight, I can benefit those with my efforts, then all the better!  I truly believe that I would not be here today if it wasn't for the volunteers that donate, support and drive all the various events to finding a cure for cancer. 
     
    Please, if you can donate, it doesn't matter how little or how much, and you can do it anonymously as well, know that all the proceeds DO go to Breast Cancer research and programs through the American Cancer Society.  Also, if you donate online, you will get a receipt that you can write off next year. :)
     
    If you want to be virtual team member, GREAT!  I would love to have you join my team, Team Battelle (still working on the actual name though) - we can list you as a team member, and I can send you a team shirt.  I am the Team Captain, as well as a committee member on the Making Strides Event - yes, it is a lot of extra time spent, but I feel it is worth every minute, if it means I can help make a difference.
     
    The event is on May 8th, the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend, at Howard Amon Park in Richland, Washington - it is a 5K walk ONLY (thank god!), and it will definitely be a time of celebration, tears and joy - though in someways, it will look like we all drowned in a bottle of Pepto (so the Pink thing I am still struggling a bit with...)
     
    Here is the link:  Making Strides - Patt Mosley/Team Battelle
     
    To close, I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you for giving me my life back.  If it wasn't for your support, love, prayers and thoughts, it would have been a rougher journey for me and I am humbled and honored to be able to have you all on my side during my battle.  So I am asking again, for you to stand by my side as we continue forward with this fight towards such a terrible disease and in finding a cure for once and for all!
     
    Your servant,
    Survivor,
    Patt Mosley
     
    Supporting the Fighters,
    Admiring the Survivors,
    Honoring the Taken,
    And never giving up HOPE!