Valentine’s Day is a time to truly celebrate love. At The Maurer Foundation we couldn’t think of better person to share his dedication of love than Author J.S. Russo:

In Sickness And In Health: A Memoir Of Love is a true story involving two people that fate brought together. It describes my life with my wife, Susan before she became afflicted with cancer and during the ordeal. It shows how we handled a dreadful diagnosis and how the bond between us became even closer throughout our cancer journey. It reveals how as a team, we fought this disease head -on without flinching; fighting and clawing right back at it. It is a triumph of human spirit, and an inspiring story of courage, compassion and love between two people who asked for nothing more in life than to have each other in it. Above all, this is not a story of loss but of gain. This is not a story of sadness but a story filled with undiminished hope…

In the chapter entitled, “Our Wedding”, I describe the wedding night: “That evening after the wedding, Sue and I lay prone on the bed while we were scooping up all of the wedding checks, flipping them up in the air as if we had hit the lottery. That was a little difficult to do with the three pressure cookers we received as gifts! The best gift, however, was that we had each other, and we looked to the future with great hope and promise. We felt that when two people cared and loved each other as much as we did, nothing could stop us. To us, our wedding vows meant forever….All we saw was that we were starting a brand new phase of our lives called “marriage,” and we were going to live it to the fullest. And why not? Things couldn’t have looked any better in 1976. And live it, we did.”

To find out more about Joe and his beautiful story please click here

Click on the link below…this is an article that was on AOL the other day.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/06/my-left-breast-put-fancy-tsa-scanner-to-the-test/?icid=main|main|dl3|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F02%2F06%2Fmy-left-breast-put-fancy-tsa-scanner-to-the-test%2F

Sometimes the most interesting part about educating people is hearing their stories.  Today I was at a high school on Long Island, NY, and a student came up to me after class.  In our breast health program, we talk about how previous breast cancer history is a risk factor for breast cancer.  This student told me her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer twice, and now she is in the hospital again, not for breast cancer, but because she fell.  She’s been there for three weeks, and doctors are trying to figure out what’s wrong with her.  A student at another high school told me she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and I recently spoke at a school where the health teacher just had a mastectomy, and was dealing with the emotional stress and pain of that.

People confide in us about their personal stories, mostly related to breast cancer, and sometimes not.  But all these people’s stories make us feel we are really reaching people with our message.

Stress has a clear impact on our bodies. When we are scared or tense, our hearts race and our breathing becomes shallow. When our lives are particularly stressful, many of us experience headaches, digestive problems, insomnia, and a host of other discomforts. Some believe chronic stress can make us more prone to anxiety and depression.   Duh, I’m sure you aren’t reading anything you didn’t already know.   

The relevant point…. Give yourself some TLC, see your doctor as needed, know your body (give yourself a monthly breast exam) and make it a point to make yourself  first once in awhile!   How do you destress?  For me, reading one of my favorite magazines wholeliving.com  or going to a yoga class (it’s not as hard as you might think) yoga.com Next to add to my list a Zumba class!   Be well, Kathy