I Have a Voice
This week’s blog comes from our friend and a member of a SHARE’s weekly MBC support group, Sandy Moss. Sandy is a retired attorney, a poet and a writer. She is also a survivor of 3 different cancers and is now living with MBC. “Survivor” is a perfect word to describe Sandy. At 19 she was told she may never get her voice back, but her voice did return and she used it on behalf of domestic violence victims, abused children, infants born with AIDS, and homeless teens. These days she is using her voice to encourage others with metastatic breast cancer through her writings and active participation in SHARE’s support groups.
Poems and story by Sandra Moss.
Edited by Victoria Goldberg
From the Podcast Vault: The Our MBC Life Book Club
Written by Rod Ritchie
In this month’s edition of 'The Vault', we’ve decided to revisit three excellent episodes with author interviews which we thought listeners might have missed. Adiba Barney talks about her early and late-stage breast cancer, Dr. Pauline Boss talks with the late Lisa Laudico, and members of the LGBTQ2S+ Community living with breast cancer speak with Dr. Evan Taylor.
Leptomeningeal Disease Diagnosis - Words of Encouragement
Written by Victoria Goldberg
WHAT do you say to a friend who just received this diagnosis of leptomeningeal disease (LMD)? You may want to say that as survival rates from other cancers improve, more people are having to cope with this complication, but fortunately, recent advances in cancer therapies promise more options for effective treatment. Make sure that your friend understands that much of what they may hear and read is already outdated.
Martha Carson is Thriving Together with MBC
Written by Nancy Roylance
Here’s what Martha Carlson, a senior producer on the Our MBC Life podcast and a member of LBBC has to say about what the LBBC MBC conference has meant to her since her MBC diagnosis in 2015.
Congratulations Kate Vieira Pfitzer!
Written by Nancy Roylance
The OMBCL team congratulates Kate Vieira Pfitzer, who has been named Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program at Share Cancer Support.
From the Podcast Vault: Remembering Our Women
Written by Rod Ritchie
The Our MBC Life Podcast has delved deep into what living with MBC is like and, for that reason, has become a prime resource for the community. This month we are celebrating Women’s History Month by remembering four women who, in their own way, embodied SHARE’s philosophy that “no one should have to face cancer alone”.
Recapping Season 5
Written by Rod Ritchie
The Our MBC Life Podcast has delved deep into what living with MBC is like and, for that reason, has become a prime resource for the community. We’ve tackled many topics and this month we are inviting you to visit, or revisit, our favorite episodes from Season 5
Season 6 Is Coming!
Written by Nancy Roylance
It’s February and that means the OMBCL team is hard at work: exploring new ideas, interviewing expert guests, and producing episodes. We’d like to give you a sneak preview of what we’re hoping will be our best season ever!
Laughter as Medicine: Breast Cancer and Humor
Written by Rod Ritchie
Our last episode of the year, ‘Laughter as Medicine’, explores this seemingly incongruous connection.
This companion piece was written by Rod Ritchie for the monthly “Our MBC Life Podcast Matters” newsletter,
In Memory of Lisa Laudico
Written by Nancy Roylance in September 2022
Lisa Laudico, who created and spearheaded the Our MBC Life podcast series, died on August 6, 2022 from MBC. Our hearts are broken. This. is our tribute to her memory
Our MBC Bookshelf
Here you can find all of our interviews with authors & readers who have found comfort and strength in books.
We are Surviving
This blog comes from our friend and ally Dr. Laura Carfang. Have you heard of the national non-profit, Survivingbreastcancer.org?. What started off as a personal blog page of a young breast cancer survivor, has grown into a virtual community providing education, support, and resources to those diagnosed with breast cancer from day one and beyond. They even have their own podcast “Breast Cancer Conversations”. The founder of surviving cancer.org talks about how it all began.
Written by Dr. Laura Carfang
I am NOT Cancer
Today we have a special feature, two poems by a friend of this podcast Sandra Moss who is living with MBC.
“Sandy’s voice in these two poems demonstrates the premise that we all have something to say - and Sandy has generously agreed to share her work with us here..”
Poems by Sandra Moss. Foreword written by Ilene Kaminsky whose blog Cancer Bus is a must-read for poetry lovers
Edited by Victoria Goldberg
Barbara Bigelow: One Tough Unicorn
An addendum to The Searching for Unicorns Pod. Just like Judy Perkins, Barbara Bigelow is a clinical trial success story. As she once put it. "I don’t know of anyone like me, I have had the longest durable response to immunotherapy at Dana Farber. I feel like I’m an anomaly.” In this thuly special blog Barbara tells her own remarkable story.
Written by Barbara Bigelow. Barbara’s quote curtesy of Katherine O’Brien from the article “Metastatic Breast Cancer and the Apparent Triumph of Immunotherapy: Thoughts from a Patient.”
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update from 3 Black Docs
Dr. Karen Winkfield, Dr. Zanetta Lamar, and Dr. Tiffany Avery (3 Black Docs from the podcast with the same name) were among the first guests on our podcast. In this blog read Dr Avery’s response to our questions about the change in healthcare disparities and the issues still facing the underserved communities with the backdrop of the raging pandemic.
Transcribed by Victoria Goldberg
“We will not go back to normal.”
Written by Lisa Laudico
As the inaugural season of Our MBC Life comes to a close, the pod’s mastermind, its creative director and senior producer Lisa Laudico sums up the season, talks about the team at Our MBC Life, how “it all came to be,” and what made her feel less alone and helpless during a very bleak year.
Audio Remembrance Quilt
This is a very special blog and my call to action.
Written by Victoria Goldberg
Finding Joy While Living with MBC
This week’s blog comes from our listener and SHARE’s MBC Helpline Volunteer, Dar Finkelstein. Dar discusses her search for Joy in the middle of a life filled with doctors, shots, pills and scans and offers some simple practices she has put in place to keep her focus on the feeling of Joy. Dar is a professional clown and runs not just one, but two Facebook groups devoted to this very subject: Making Our Best MBC Life and Choose to Live With Joy. She knows of what she speaks.
Written by Dar Finkelstein
Skipping Down Fifth Avenue
Our first guest blogger is SHARE’s MBC volunteer and a dear friend, Alison Greenberg. According to Cancer.Net, 6% of those living with MBC, were initially diagnosed at Stage IV. In August of 2013 Alison became one of them. In this funny and poignant post she talks about the shock of receiving a Stage IV diagnosis and comes up with a clever and original way to describe her fears.
Written by Alison Greenberg
Hi. This is me. (And other tales of vulnerability)
This week’s blog comes from Our MBC Life creator and host Lisa Laudico. For this special post Lisa has chosen to step out of her comfort zone, “lean in and get more vulnerable”. She opens up about her personal and family cancer history, the harrowing time after the de novo diagnosis 3 years ago, her struggles to accept that metastatic cancer had not been her fault and find the right balance in taking care of her family while figuring out how she could “make a difference with this devastating illness.”
Written by Lisa Laudico