Share your stories of gratitude for your caregiver(s)!

First of all, I thank God for keeping me alive.

My care giver was my father during my treatment. My stepmum couldn't go with me to India where I had my treatment as she was having a high risk pregnancy at the time. And since I had lost my mum to cancer, my dad had to be my care giver. He had his moments of fear, but he never made me see those moments. My dad is my hero. I watched him stand by my side, worry while I was in the theater, sit by my side during my chemo sessions, take me to the washroom, cook for me, force me to try to eat, give me my drugs, pray me to sleep, pray with me. He gave his all to me. When I think back to all the trouble he had to go through being my care giver, I usually have tears in my eyes. He was super amazing. Today, I thank him specially for the love and the care and the encouragement.

My entire family members were amazing as well. Especially as my elder sister too was having her own cancer treatment at the same time with me. She was my support system. Sisters in the fight. We rock! We conquered.

Mercy my dear friend. You shocked me amongst all of my friends. You checked on me every day for the period of my treatment. You knew my treatment schedule as much as I knew it, my chemo days, my test days, my immune booster days, my every moment. You are the definition of true friendship. Love you girl.

To every other fighter, don't relent in the fight. We are all conquerors. Champions. Fighters. Survivors. Don't give up. Don't loose hope. Together we can!

My sincere gratitude and love for my caregiver's support moves me to tears.

When I was diagnosed only by a mammogram, (366 days from my previous clear mammogram), and several different biopsies, my tears were overflowing, a nervous wreck, with fear of the unknown and a thousand questions, but my caregiver "stepped up to the plate" and he was my ROCK.

He knew when I was in pain, anxious, scared, and on the verge of tears.

This caregiver drove me to every doctor's appointment and every surgery and waited for me to be ready to go home. He picked up all my prescriptions, and made sure I took them at the appropriate time. He shopped & cooked for me.

I have known my caregiver for for 48+ years, and he has also been my husband of 48+ years. I love him.

Di

He also save my life this year, when I was very sick with what I thought was the flu. If he had not INSISTED in taking me to urgent care, I would probably would be dead.

(Urgent care had me transferred to a hospital by ambulance, tested me, CT scanned, critical care and I was again transferred to a larger hospital by ambulance, with a critical care team waiting for my arrival and was there 11 days with Severe Sepsis ( kidneys, heart, lungs, liver were failing or shut down) and C-diff.

there is no way I can repay the support of my family, my wife, Luisa, has taken me to appointments, helped out, and even changed out surgical packing (eeeyu) during an infection. my son Dan stayed with me in the hospital overnight even when he had to work all day. both kids learned the lymph rub and proper lymph wrap to help out also. one of the biggest things keeping me going in the dark days just after surgery, when I found out it was stage4 and looked that up on the internet, was when my daughter announced she was pregnant. our first grandchild. I took the family out to supper at a nice restaurant last weekend and thanked them again.

This month marks the two-year anniversary of my first breast cancer diagnosis and just one year since the cancer spread beyond my breasts and to my bones. With four children — ages 3, 5, 7 and 11 — I can't begin to describe how it felt to be told that my cancer is incurable.

Metastatic breast cancer is stage IV breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Someone with this cancer dies every 13 minutes in the U.S.

Support Breast cancer research aid breastcancerresearchaid.org.uk

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to an end, I ask that you not forget about the 155,000 men and women in America living with metastatic breast cancer and fighting for their lives each day. While 20 percent to 30 percent of people initially diagnosed with early stage breast cancer will develop metastatic breast cancer, the funding to support research specific to this cancer is greatly disproportionate to the number affected. Only 7 percent of the $15 billion of funding for breast cancer research is specifically allocated to finding a cure for metastatic breast cancer.