Interview with Pamilla DeLeon-Lewis, “Empowering Women with Breast Cancer,” on Oct. 27, 1PM Pacific

Interview with Pamilla DeLeon-Lewis, “Empowering Women with Breast Cancer,” on Oct. 27, 1PM Pacific – blogtalkradio.com/kindethics

This will be an amazing interview with an amazing woman. She is one of my heroes.

http://www.pamilladeleon-lewis.com

Pamilla is the CEO/Founder of the Caribbean American Breast Cancer Organization (CabcoUSA) and she wears several hats. This quintessential woman is the daughter of the late great award winning calypso legend, Rafael deLeon aka The Roaring Lion. She is a breast cancer survivor and an award winning poet and author, and the ‘Woman of the Year 2006;’ she is on the Board of Advisors at SUNY Downstate Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, and is dedicating her efforts to empower the Caribbean and African American Community in its fight against cancer.Through her confrontational poetry, her songwriting, her motivational speaking, and through media she boldly challenges the enemy, by literally laughing at cancer daily. Chuckling Choonks is a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher affiliated with Dr. Madan Kataria’s School of Laughter Yoga and a Certified Coach Practitioner.
This breast cancer activist is also a Brooklyn Team Leader of the Legislative Ambassador for the American Cancer Society.

She has two books available. Her recent book, “Side Effects – The Untold Story,” is available on Amazon. For more information go to www.pamilladeleonlewis.com. Her award winning Book of the Year- 2005 is a Life-affirming triumph over breast cancer chronicled ” Smiling Thru the Tears: A Breast Cancer Survivor Odyssey” By Pamela deLeon-Lewis

ISBN: 1413770703 PublishAmerica Smiling

Thru the Tears is a collection of over 100 poems documenting Pamela deLeon-Lewis’ journey through, and eventual triumph over, breast cancer. If the cover, which shows a smiling and radiantly healthy-looking young woman is any indication, she’s doing well. Indeed, one is startled to learn, through these poems, that deLeon-Lewis is in her 50s, and a grandmother. The cycle begins with intimations of wrongness as the poet attributes the beginning of her cancer to her father’s death and the stress of 9/1 1 which sent her career as a consultant into disarray. She even dreams of being told she has cancer. Yet, when the news comes in real life, it’s a shocker. She writes in “Dream Becomes Reality”: “I knew there was something wrong; Daily the signs were getting so strong.” The resulting poems confirm and reaffirm her absolute faith in God. Some of them read like prayers or Psalms. A series of wonderfully angry poems shout her defiance in the face of life-threatening illness, as in the lines of “I’ll Stand Tall”: “But I refuse to stoop to you. You can’t conquer me at all.” She refers to the cancer itself as DeMon, a play, one guesses, on “demon” and “The Man,” the oppressor, the thing that’s out to do her in. There are homages to friends, to the “Chemo Squad” and the “Radiation Squad.” Yet while she lauds the help of her squads, she doesn’t spare the reader the agony of her treatment: “I had sores in my mouth; I couldn’t eat. Pains in my legs, my feet, and my hands; I had pains in my eyes, pains in my head. So much pain it was blowing my mind,” (from “I Remember … Part I.”)

There are poems of gratitude for the medical team that helped her, her daughters, her grandchildren, her aunties, her mother, her dead father, her neighbor, her younger daughter’s babysitter, the folks in a cancer support chatroom, Oprah Winfrey (“Ms. Oprah Winfrey is positively the world’s greatest incentive for me”) and even a stranger who smiles at her on the street, and poems. There are poems that remind the reader that the aftermath of even a successful battle against breast cancer is hard. She still has pain, she can’t lift her right arm, and the treatment even damaged her brain. Some poems contemplate what it’s like to have one’s right breast amputated (she used to refer to her breast as “lost”). When we learn that the doctors have found a calcification in her left breast, the suspense is comparable to anything in a murder mystery novel. Our relief when we find out that all is well is thorough. The book ends with a poem by her grandson, Jahlani Andrew Roberts: “I am happy to say she is now Cancer Free!!! Now she has time to hang with me.” Smiling Thru Tears is a triumphant, life-affirming book.

The Cancer Support Community-Miami will be hosting a breast cancer lecture 7/14/10 6pm EST

Viki will be hosting a breast cancer lecture at The Cancer Support Community in Greater Miami on July 14, 2010 from 6-8pm EST.

The Cancer Support Community-Greater Miami (formerly known as The Wellness Community-Greater Miami) is part of a national organization that has been providing free services to adult cancer patients and their loved ones for 28 years. The first Wellness Community opened in Santa Monica California in 1982. In July 2009, The Wellness Community-National and Gilda’s Club Worldwide joined forces to become the Cancer Support Community.
Today, the Cancer Support Community provides the highest quality emotional and social support through a network of nearly 50 local affiliates, more than 100 satellite locations and online. To find a community-based center in your area, visit www.cancersupportcommunity.org. the Cancer Support Community can help.

It’s a place where both patients and family members will find support, education and hope. Support groups address emotional issues for patients and families. Educational workshops get important questions answered in a non-clinical setting. Stress management programs enhance health and well being. Every program is offered free of charge. All are lead by professionals licensed in their fields of expertise.

The comfortable, homelike environment at the Cancer Support Community makes sharing and mutual support easy.

They do not offer medical treatments, alternative treatments, or hospice care. Their services are offered as a compliment to conventional treatment, although anyone undergoing any kind of care is welcome. People come at diagnosis, during or at the end of treatment, at recurrence or several years out of treatment. They all come to learn they are not alone in their fight–whether for physical, emotional or spiritual recovery. Together, they regain a sense of control over their lives and ultimately discover that hope is a valuable tool irrespective of the stage of disease.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Great Community Resources Available

I just walked in the Susan G. Komen “Walk for a Cure” with the KFI 640 team. I was amazed at how many organizations were there to help people who are dealing with a medical crisis. If you are dealing with any healthcare situation, not just breast cancer, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are so many groups who want to help you. These are just a few of the many groups I will be adding to my resource page. If there are support groups and resources in your area for any disease, grief issue or caregiver issue, please forward the information to me and I will post it. I thought I would just mention a few that were at today’s event.

For those struggling with finding mastectomy lingerie, I walked with the ladies from DiMurini. What a great group of people. They all wore pink wigs in honor of all those who have struggled with breast cancer. Check out their healing and helpful products at www.dimurini.com

PALS for Health – They provide interpretation services for those who are interacting with their healthcare providers. I met Tina and she was so passionate about helping people be understood. www.palsforhealth.org This is subject is something that is close to my heart. So many people get misdiagnosed or receive inappropriate treatments because of basic language barriers. This is one area that can be solved so easily by getting interpreters into the offices of doctors. If you are the patient’s family member and you are doing the translations, you may be harming your loved one. Unless you are a medical expert, you may not know how to translate the medical terms and information. Ask for a medical interpreter to be provided for your loved one.

Project Angel Food – They deliver food, which has been personalized to the particular health needs of the patient, to the homes of those affected by life-threatening illnesses. www.projectangelfood.org

The Women of Color Breast Cancer Survivor’s Support Project. – They provide emotional support and crisis intervention for women of color in the Inglewood, California area. I met Angie and she was great to talk with about this empowering and compassionate program. www.woc4me.org

The Wellness Community – They provide cancer support, education and hope. They also have bereavement groups for when you are struggling with your grief. I have many friends who have used their services. I didn’t know that they are all over the United States but now that I know, there may be one in your town. www.thewellnesscommunity.org

Again, please let me know who has helped you in your area and I can pass it on to those who are in need.