Every Woman Visionary: Privileged to be Surrounded by New Beginnings

Jean Campbell

Auka stands in front of the classroom, a petite, shy woman in her late 30’s. She is visibly nervous as she shares with her classmates about life in her village in Africa. She speaks about her female circumcision at eight years of age, about her journey to the U.S., and the new beginning she continues to make happen for herself and her three daughters.

Twenty hours a week, as a teacher in a school of health sciences, I am privileged to witness women, like Auka overcome the constraints of their earlier years to give themselves new beginnings. Each day, they balance the responsibilities of work, school, and parenthood to reinvent themselves and build new lives. They are tired all the time. Money is scarce, childcare is a constant concern, and they live in dread of having to take off for any reason. Lost time equals make-up sessions, more money for childcare, and more time before they graduate and get the jobs that will be life-changing.

I marvel at their determination to succeed and their courage. Not all make it through the nine-month program. While some drop out for reasons that are easy to understand, such as family issues that make attending class and studying almost impossible, still others, dealing with similar problems, hang in and make it through to reinvent themselves as medical assistants, phlebotomists, and other health care professionals.

During the rest of my week, I am privileged to witness women with similar courage and drive, but coming from a very different place, make their new beginnings a reality as breast cancer survivors.

Terry, a five year survivor of Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC), a rare form of breast cancer, lives her new beginning as founding director of an IBC foundation that supports research and services by raising funds, running online support groups that draw participants nation-wide, and being available to comfort families who continue to lose young women to this very aggressive breast cancer.

Following my second breast cancer in 2009, I started a blog, No Boobs About It (NBAI), focusing on the concerns and needs of women newly diagnosed, in treatment, or recently transitioning from active treatment to life in survivorship. For nearly two years, I’ve posted research findings, shared information about resources in communities across the U.S., as well as offered practical suggestions on getting through treatment, and the stories of women and men who made a new beginning happen in survivorship.

Blog content comes from conversations I had with thousands of women I met in New York City’s hospitals during my years as director of the American Cancer Society’s NYC Patient Navigator Program, as well as the conversations I continue to have with women in active treatment, and my own personal experiences with breast cancer.

Late last year, No Boobs About It (NBAI) became a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization. In addition to continuing to carry posts, the site will soon offer internet-facilitated services for those newly diagnosed, in treatment, or making the transition from active treatment to survivorship.

Women in treatment, who don’t feel up to participating in a community support group, can speak with others in the same situations in small, Skype-supported groups online. A library of videos, by experts in the fields of breast oncology, treatment centers providing state of the art care, and community-based services nation-wide will be accessible via the NBAI site.

The first program for those transitioning from treatment to survivorship, “Pink Time Outs” is already available. “Pink Time Outs” is about getting away from all things breast cancer. The short, funded, getaway experiences are intended to help survivors think of something else other than the fears and concerns that have become their constant companions since their diagnosis. The getaways are meant to be gateways to new beginnings in survivorship.

Why a new beginning? For most of us, there is no going back to life the way it was prior to breast cancer. Too much has happened.  Too much has changed about us. We are not the same people. Our priorities have changed. We feel an urgency to do more, to get to the things we have been putting off, and make them happen.

Many of us need a helping hand in making a new beginning in survivorship a reality. For this reason, NBAI will offer New Beginnings workshops starting in April 2013. Workshops will be hosted by long-term survivors who will share what it took to make their new beginnings possible.

It is my privilege, every day, to witness women making their new beginnings a reality.

So, what do my students and my fellow survivors have in common? They know that every beginning starts with permission… our permission to begin again.

*****

Jean Campbell is founder and Executive Director of No Boobs About It, Inc., a breast cancer charity. She is a two-time breast cancer survivor and the former Director of the American Cancer Society’s NYC Patient Navigator Program.

During the past 35 years, she founded five nonprofit organizations. During her tenure as executive director of several not-for-profit organizations, she designed and developed over 100 educational, health care and social services programs for youth and adults and raised over $100 million in grants to support these initiatives. 

Jean is proud to be in the 2013 edition of The Spirited Woman Directory: A Collection of Stories & Resources for an Inspired Life!, which is bringing together women from around the world in a massive collaborative effort. Featured in the magazine-style digital Directory celebrating the “every woman” visionary, are women who are inspiring and changing the world, one Spirited Woman step at a time.