One of the Joys

With fundraising, there are many joys. For example raising awareness, coming up with new ideas and my favorite hearing stories from survivors. When I come upon a survivor that is more than willing to donate and say, "Thank you, so much for doing this. I am a survivor!". I gives me chills and puts this whole thing in perspective again. Sometimes I can get caught up in the events I have going on, I look forward to hearing someones story of survival it seems to make time stand still. Whether or not it was them, their mother, sister, etc. When someone you know or love is affected by something so life changing, it also makes you a survivor.
 Amanda and I were fortunate to have met a survivor at our last gift wrapping event. We were getting ready to pack up and she had a few things and I said we'd be glad to hold out a minute longer and help her out. So as we were wrapping her gifts, she began to tell us how she was diagnosed in 2004 and is a survivor. She had asked if anyone we knew had been affected by this disease. So I had told her that my mom was diagnosed and Amanda, had mention her aunt was also a survivor.
 She was telling us how she had a lumpectomy (which is what my mom had) however their margins were big enough and they didn't get it all. So she had opted to have a mastectomy. She said she didn't want to do more and more, treatments and surgeries.
 This survivor had said, not having her breast wasn't an sexual issue. She said it's just hard because that you look at your body all your life and you know it's not there any more.
 However this woman was smiling and grateful to have her gifts wrapped that she had just bought for her grand kids. Not realizing that telling us her story was more appreciated and will go further than her donation.

  Having forever left her mark on my "Pink" heart and will stay with me always.