Working for a Good Cause

I know that we are one week into November and Breast Cancer Awareness Month is over, but I had to post one last article that will inspire you to do something for a good cause.

I have known Courtney Coleman for quite some time now, we cheered together in high school and all that jazz, but her story has inspired me to do more for Breast Cancer Awareness. Courtney lost her mother to breast cancer over two years ago and she has decided to go on a year long journey for a cause in honor of her mother, Mrs. Susan Coleman. Check out her journey at http://courtneylynncoleman.blogspot.com/ and check out her story below!

I am kind of behind but October was a great month for me. Many wonderful opportunities to help with this awful disease that takes away loved ones from us each and every day. Many of you may or may not know me. I am Courtney Coleman from Corinth, Mississippi and I am currently working on my Master’s in Technology Education at Mississippi State University. I have two younger sisters, Christina, a track runner for MSU and Catherine, a junior at Corinth High School who has a passion for tennis. I lost my mother a little over two years ago to breast cancer.

My mother was first diagnosed 1996. I was a fourth grader and the news of my mom having cancer was something that I will never forget. It was like my world had come crashing down. My mom however, was such a strong and wonderful person and told the three of us that she had been dealt these cards and we were going to deal with it. My mother was such a caring person; she had a passion for helping children. Employed at that time by Fulton City Schools, she was a junior high counselor. Giving everything she had to others was just my mother’s personality. Everybody under the sun came before her and the news of the disease was no change to this.

My mother soon went into remission and this was great news to our family. For five years my family continued to live and thank God each and every day my mother was alive and well. That soon changed one November afternoon. My mother had a check up in Birmingham, Alabama. Sitting at school and getting the phone call and hearing the cancer was back was a new challenge for the family. This time it had come back as a different cancer and would require a more aggressive treatment as it was a stronger form of breast cancer. My mother went through a major operation and went to remission by the time I started college. This was great news as I was starting a new adventure in life and could leave my mom knowing she was alive and healthy.

Three years later the horrible phone call came again and this time it was the worst. By the time my mother found the cancer the third time it had already spread to her lungs and lymph nodes. Our family was in for a major ride. My mother soon began treatment however; the cancer was spreading and spreading fast. Within a short year my mother was gone. Gone to leave the family to pick up the pieces, gone to a better place, gone to have no suffering or endure the horrible battle she had spent 13 years fighting. Those that know my mother know that she wanted each and every person to live a full and complete life, to carry on, and to help and appreciate things that others do for us. That is the impact my mother had on others and I try to live each and every day for her!