My name is Akilah. I am a 33 year old black woman in the Bay Area. About six years ago, I received a short email from my mom. It said 

“Hey Akilah, Consider participating in this study. I participated so you would be part of the 3rd generation cohort. Love Mommy” 

Every spring the Safeway Foundation focuses on Cancer as one of a dozen causes it cares about. Safeway customers make generous donations at the point of sale in their local Safeway stores in Northern California. For the past 12 years the NorCal Safeway Foundation has considered requests for funding to support the vision of Zero Breast Cancer and generously contributed a total of over $146,000 to date.

When we talk about “partners” here at Zero Breast Cancer, there are so many who lend their support and service in different ways. We simply could not function without them! Now, in the 31 days since I started here, the partner I have looked to for support, insight and sincere partnership has been Anne-Marie Hartwig. Anne comes to the office a few days a week to support our bookkeeping and operations efforts, as well as be the point person for all things related to the Dipsea Hike. Her dedication to ZBC has been unwavering. And I am so grateful to see her serene and knowing expression whenever I have a question or need for context. Anne is a beloved partner to our staff as well as the entire community, but I imagine not everyone knows about the interesting and adventurous path she took to get here! 

Next up in our Meet ZBC Partners series is Barbara “Bibi” Gelfand Summer of Barbara Gelfand Summer Design. Bibi been ZBC’s main designer since 2015. Working with our style guide and color palette, she has designed a wide variety of materials for us, including all of our 13 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer collateral, donor appreciation brochures, and much more. Bibi has helped us to ensure our materials are simple but not simplistic and feel genuinely high quality and inclusive. We love that she has learned about breast cancer risk reduction from ZBC while she has taught us some of the secrets of how good design powers effective communication.

For the first interview of our new series, Get to Know ZBC Partners, we spoke with Helaine Alon, ZBC’s Communications Coordinator. Helaine started working with ZBC in October 2017. In her time with us, she has helped to overhaul the website, revitalize our social media pages, and write numerous book reviews and blog articles. We wish her well as she is moving on to new opportunities and are very grateful for the important work she has accomplished during her time with ZBC. 

In this month’s Get to Know ZBC Partners series, we interviewed Ian Walker, owner of Hurricane Images. Ian's health education expertise combined with his skills in editing videos and sound recording have been an invaluable asset to the Girls’ New Puberty campaign. He created the Youth Advisory Board videos for the Girls’ New Puberty microsite, which are also available on YouTube in English and Spanish. Then, he recorded the narration and edited the videos for our animated tips series in English, Spanish, and Chinese. We are always grateful for his support of ZBC’s mission and are excited to share his background and insights with you. 

We interviewed Jennifer Gress, owner of Snapdragon Services, next in our Get to Know ZBC Partners series. Jenn has been a ZBC partner since 2012! As the webmaster for zerobreastcancer.org, she keeps our website up, running, safe and secure. Her technical expertise and insights have also been invaluable as we’ve improved navigation and provided more focused content. Jenn is always happy to brainstorm our website goals and then help us achieve them, whether through working her magic on the backend or providing humor-filled training sessions for staff. We are incredibly grateful for what she brings to ZBC and glad to have the opportunity to share her perspective with you below.

When it comes to breast cancer, men — especially prime caregivers — are often a forgotten part of the equation.

A winner of a ZBC Honor Thy Healer: Healing Partner award, Woody Weingarten, has written a new book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," to remedy that situation. 

About the course

The Anticancer Lifestyle Program is a free online evidenced-based lifestyle transformation course that offers cancer survivors and those of us interested in prevention the tools and information we need to reduce the odds of cancer and cancer recurrence. It can also help prevent or manage other chronic illnesses, like heart disease and type II diabetes.

Several months ago, our colleagues at Breast Cancer Over Time (BCOT) asked us to help recruit for their study on the Impact of Chemical Exposure on the Human Breast. Like ZBC, BCOT focuses on preventing breast cancer in the next generation. They address the issue by championing and coordinating research into the environmental causes of breast cancer, while ZBC focuses on engaging communities in translating research into actionable steps that can reduce the risk of breast cancer. This study investigates the risks of chemicals in personal care products (PCPs), a topic ZBC actively addresses.

As complementary organizations, promoting BCOT’s study was an obvious decision. While sharing information about the study it, I also discovered that it was personally relevant to me. Read on to learn more about the study and my experience with it.