Hello! My name is Tracy and I'm a breast cancer warrior. I was diagnosed in 2008 at only 29 years old. I had no real family history and lived a pretty decent lifestyle health-wise (with the appropriate amount of fun & debauchery sprinkled in)...so to say that I was shocked is putting it mildly! I had recently finished weaning our one year old daughter, so I was thinking that it had to be a clogged milk duct. Cancer was not on the raidar...at all.

Unfortunately it was breast cancer. I did the normal bit of torture expected to beat this thing: bilateral mastectomy and extremely aggressive chemo. It came back just over a year later in the form nefarious node that grew to be the size of racket ball. After all of the surgery, radiation and chemo this time....I was OVER IT! Unfortunately my grandmother got diagnosed with lymphoma about this time.

She loved the breast cancer encouragement pieces that I was making for myself to help me get through and I wanted to make something for her. Finding materials to make my grandmother something to represent her fight was difficult. I didn't care for that. What I could find, I had to buy in bulk. If was a lengthy and very expensive process, but when she got to wear something to chemo that was specifically made to acknowledge her fight, it gave her a little extra something. A tiny boost. Tiny boosts mean the world when you're this sick.

Then I recurred again, this time my cancer has metastasized to the lung. More chemo. More surgery. I developed many chronic conditions as a result of my treatments and I feel very lucky to be here. Digestive issues and chronic pain, frequent scans and anxiety...all of these health issues effect me. Wearing or carrying an encouragement piece makes me feel better. EVERYONE of us should be able to find a small token of our struggle...be it cancer, invisible, chronic illness, chronic pain, spoonie life, sober living, autism, down syndrome and everything in between...ROCK YOUR CAUSE!