It's October - Breast Cancer Awareness month.  It got off to a great start here in Denver, with what will likely be the largest Race for the Cure in the country.   I ran it this weekend with my 9-year-old daughter and two other mother-daughter pairs.  Now that is an amazing experience, to share that with your daughter.  We had a great time.  It's hard not to tear up when you see the sea of pink - all the people who want to put an end to tragedies from breast cancer.  I think almost everyone knows someone who has had breast cancer.  It touches everyone.

I have a lot of very important people in my life who have had breast cancer.  Some don’t like to talk about it - they have hopefully been cured and want to put it behind them.

I worked with an OB/GYN doctor at Kaiser who after years of infertility treatment adopted two wonderful children from Kazakhstan.  She was then diagnosed with breast cancer and unfortunately succumbed to the disease.  It seemed very quick.  She was one of the most kind and generous people.  There was nothing she would not do to help one of her patients.  Her family no doubt misses her terribly and we miss her at Kaiser.  We remember you, Laurel.

A long time ago (12 years ago), we were interviewing for nannies for our then first and only precious baby.  We initially had a friend of the family watching her, but she then had a baby of her own, and we had to start looking for someone new.  Basically, we had to take a stranger and make her into a family member - that's what a nanny is, after all.  So when Alicia, then 24 years old, showed up at our door for an interview, with a nose ring and tattoos, well, I will confess to being judgmental.  No way.  But then she flashed this amazing smile, beautiful and engaging, and I saw the real Alicia for the first time.

Alicia worked for us for 2 1/2 years, and she had a way with kids, that's for sure.  And she was so smart - I tried to encourage her to go to med school, she would have made a great doctor. 

We eventually parted ways, though kept in touch.  Alicia moved back East with her military boyfriend and got pregnant.  She got married and it all seemed to be working out for her.  As it turns out, I was also pregnant with my third child at the same time as Alicia, and even better, we were going on a family trip back East that summer and I would get to meet Alicia’s husband and baby.

She drove out to the coast to meet us and hang out for the day.  Alicia was all grown up.  Somewhere along the way she lost the nose ring.  We sat on the couch breast-feeding our babies together.  At the end of the day we said good-bye, knowing we would probably not see each other again for a long time, if ever.

About a month later the e-mail came.  BAMMMMM, like a rock to the head.  Alicia had found a lump one day, while nursing. It did not go away, like a clogged milk duct would, so she promptly went in for evaluation.  Cancer.  Alicia was 32 years old.  It was big, too.  Alicia wisely opted for a double mastectomy.  Cancer was found in the other breast as well.  She went through all the appropriate treatments.

Let me fast forward to present day.  Alicia went on to have two more children who are beautiful, like her, but also bear a freakishly strong resemblance to their Dad.  She is an active Facebook user - smart and witty.  She comments on the beautiful days and looks for support on the days the kids are rough and happy hour is just taking too long to get there.  She is a stay-at-home mom raising her beautiful kids.  That is the way these stories need to end.

It's Breast Cancer Awareness month.  If you are over 40 and haven’t had a mammogram, talk with your provider about getting one.  If you are over 50, please get a mammogram once a year.  Mammograms can find cancers that you cannot yet feel, and so are more easily treatable. If you a feel a lump and don’t want to face it, come in, and let us take care of you.

Here’s to Happy Endings.