Thank You, Rachel and Susan

Yesterday morning, two women who were active in the on-line breast cancer community died.

Rachel Cheetham Moro (1970 – 2012) was a critical thinker who vigorously supported BCAction and the NBCC’s 2020 deadline. She was a generous and thoughtful on-line friend to many women in the metastatic and more general BC community, where she used the handle @ccchronicles. Her blog provided a running, witty commentary on breast cancer news and trends. Interspersed, she detailed occasional and lately, more frequent visits to the hospital, a Florida vacation, and reflections on her earlier years. In a recent post, she included this wonderful high school photo.

Dr. Susan Niebur was a mother in her late 30s, an astrophysicist and blogger who generously shared her experiences at her Toddler Planet blog and elsewhere, including on Twitter as @whymommy. She dealt with inflammatory breast cancer starting in April, 2007. In recent months she wrote less frequently, but  positively somehow, while taking radiation treatments for painful bone mets, going in and out of the hospital and, most recently, receiving hospice care at home.

Each of these women inspired many people I know. They were brave and open, and helped others to understand what it’s like to face progressive, metastatic disease. Their words didn’t only affect people with breast cancer, but influenced also their loved ones, and individuals who face all sorts of limiting illness.

Thank you, both, for what you’ve taught me about life.

ES

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