Spring 2020 Newsletter - Zero Breast Cancer

Zero Breast Cancer Has A Lot Going On!

From the ED's Desk

Dear Reader,

Hello from ZBC!

Welcome to our newsletter! This has been a time of unprecedented adjustments to our daily lives for the entire planet. And the entire planet is figuring out how to adjust to our collective new reality. We here at Zero Breast Cancer are adjusting to working from home by collaborating daily on Zoom. We are coming up with new ways to reach out to our constituents and maintain the projects we have been working on since before the Shelter in Place order.

As for what we are working on, we are still committed to having our Dipsea Hike no matter what. It may not resemble years’ past, but it will be a lot of fun for all who participate! We have great ideas that would change the format and yet still maintain the message and community. More on that soon! Plus, we have the speaker series that I am developing will get rolling soon! More to follow on that in the days to come!

I hope you have the opportunity now to reflect on how you, your children, your partners, and your greater community look at risk reduction and health promotion. Lianna has been working on ways caregivers and parents can encourage healthy behaviors in young girls. To that end, we have created a fun coloring activity book that is available for download. More on the activity book and the link are below.

Because so many people are still adjusting to life after a breast cancer diagnosis , we continue to address how to improve the length and quality of life in survivorship. Catherine collaborated with research partners and survivors on a blog post about the very real condition of “Chemo Brain” that I believe you will find illuminating and reassuring.

Please take care of yourselves and each other. The only way we can get to the other side of the pandemic is by following the CDC guidelines (at the very minimum!) that will protect us from putting our community in greater danger. We truly will get through this together.

Very best,

Genevieve Gandal
Executive Director

P.S. ZBC is growing its number of monthly donors significantly and you can become one too! If you read these newsletters regularly, please consider a monthly gift of $25 or $50 (any amount helps) to help sustain the work of translating, disseminating and communicating evidence-based information about breast cancer risk reduction. It's quick and easy and you can now pay by PayPal too. Just click on this secure link and get started. Thank you!

Girls' New Puberty...So Much To Do!!!!

We’re expanding our pre-puberty materials, which have been directed at parents/caregivers, to include activities for young girls that promote lifelong health and wellness. To read more about the Healthy Activity Booklet, follow this link where you can also download and print it to share with your girls!

Chemo Brain: It Is Real, And We Should Talk About It

Have you heard the term Chemo Brain? Until the last decade, women who had been treated for breast cancer were often ignored when they reported memory and thinking changes. Now we know that cancer and cancer treatment can cause such problems and research is progressing on how to help people who have Chemo Brain, also known as Cancer-related Cognitive Impairment (CRCI). We can take heart that most of us will recover our brain function and that there are things we can do to deal with memory/thinking problems.

It is real & you are not alone.

Perhaps the most important thing for some of us is to know that real, physical changes have taken place and that others have gone and are going through the same thing. Karen, who was diagnosed at 39 years old when she had 3 children under age 9, shared her story of memory problems that started a couple of months after chemotherapy.

Read more about Karen’s story and what research shows we can do in our blog, abstracted from our article in the Pathways Study Winter 2020 newsletter. This blog is also available in Spanish.

Say Hello To Our Wonderful Advocate And Volunteer!

Meet Cristine Albert! She is one of our champions and works tirelessly on our behalf for the Dipsea Hike and more! Working with Cristine has been such a pleasure because she is so very enthusiastic and reliable, and very very witty to boot! I had been looking forward to the opportunity for us all to learn a bit more about her in this newsletter...