Honoring Beth Davis…
This really is a great way to get the whole family involved in Breast Cancer Awareness month, and I got to talk to her about my amazing friend Shari, her amazing mom Judy, and how people have such creative ways of fundraising! Go to My Judy The Foodie or http://www.bakeithappen.net to learn more about Bake It Happen and get baking!The experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer has been a horrific one in so many ways, wrought with loss, fear, body mutilating surgeries, and exhausting treatments. However, one of the few bright spots is that it has resulted in my path crossing with some pretty extraordinary individuals. One of them is Andy Gleeman. Andy’s wife, Beth Davis, died from metastatic breast cancer 2 years ago. Like so many others, she was originally diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, thought she was “cured” after a 5 year survival, and then the cancer metastasized. With so little research money going into treatment for this stage, the one that kills you – and so few treatment options, even though Beth lived longer than expected, she ultimately died from metastatic breast cancer. Beth was a healthy, vibrant, educated women, who was originally diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. However, the early stage detection, healthy lifestyle, aggressive treatment, and resources still could not save Beth’s life. Once breast cancer metastasizes, there is NO CURE. It is time to start talking about, and putting more funding into, metastatic breast cancer. It. Is. The. Stage. That. Kills. Period. Beth’s husband Andy graciously shares their story with us here:
“Beth was mom to Drew and Emma. She was the light of their young lives, and they, hers. She was their best friend, moral compass and she loved them to death. And she was my wife and the love of my life. Beth lost her very long, very courageous battle with breast cancer on May 31, 2014.
Diagnosed at Stage 1A in 1999 when she found her own lump, she did everything right; everything the “experts” told her she should do: lumpectomy, radiation, sentinel node biopsies. And all was well. Five years later, all was well. She was cured. She was a survivor.
Sadly… tragically, two years after that, her cancer came back. And her world, our world, turned completely upside down. It had metastasized to her pericardium and the lining of her lung.
Game over.
With no warning or expectations, our belief that the fatal bullet had been dodged and that she would indeed live a full, healthy life was shattered. Our expectations that she would indeed live to see her young children graduate, marry and that she would one day hold her grandchildren…suddenly gone.
The same “experts” shook their heads sadly and said, “Two to five years. I’m so sorry.”
Once again, they were wrong.
Our Beth lived beautifully and bravely for eight more years. We put our lives into high gear, travelling the world and reveling in every moment with each other and our children and our friends. At the same time, Beth immersed herself in doing for others. While there were very few sources of true comfort within our new “reality”, giving to and doing for others was one. She became even more involved, immersed herself more deeply into educating the women of the Mercy Learning Center. Not only did she teach them, she led the Board of Directors for several years, through phases of growth and development which today are bearing their fruit in terms of current and future stability and growth. And she immersed herself even more in the Norma Pfriem Breast Care Center – where she received her treatment. Over so many years, she did so much. There, too, she served as the Chairman of the President’s Council, lending her quietly strong wisdom and endless amounts of her then-precious time to the Center and its clients. She worked tirelessly to organize numerous fund raising events over the years. She got great satisfaction from talking to women with breast cancer, comforting them and guiding them. She created and ran the Beth Davis Rose of Hope Tennis Tournament for ten years. It continues thriving today, and the thirteenth annual Tournament has brought the total funding raised to over $130,000 dollars. This money and much more is spent at the Center on its many patients who are underinsured and uninsured. To date, though, there had been no distinction or emphasis placed on raising awareness of, and spending money specifically in support of, Stage IV, metastatic breast cancer. And now, that is about to change.
I have no regrets with regard to this journey that Beth took. Actually, yes… one regret. I regret that metastatic breast cancer had not, and still has not received the awareness, the attention and the research funding that all of the earlier, non-lethal stages of breast cancer have received to date. Metastatic breast cancer is the only stage that kills women. Too many women. Again, that is about to change.
The Cancer Couch Foundation is focused on funding research for metastatic breast cancer to accelerate treatment for this stage of the disease. The foundation is volunteer run and privately funded, dedicated to staying “lean and mean” and funding hand-picked, cutting edge projects at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It is this “lean and mean” philosophy that is enabling the foundation to give a half a million dollars to metastatic research projects in just it’s first 6 months of inception! They also want to give something back to honor those with metastatic breast cancer and thank the communities who have welcomed them in – including their own.
The “Beth Davis Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients,” created in partnership with the Norma Pfriem Breast Care Center in Fairfield, CT by Executive Director Dr. Donna Twist, with collaboration and generous funding from The Cancer Couch Foundation, is forging a path to help metastatic breast cancer patients in financial need within the Norma Pfriem Center.
The Cancer Couch Foundation is giving a portion of the proceeds raised at community events to funds like this all over the country, in honor of metastatic breast cancer patients in their own communities. To date, there is the Susan Rahn Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients at her treatment center, Pluta Cancer Center in Rochester, NY and a fund for Beth Calabotta is being put in place through the Blessing Foundation in Illinois.
To donate directly to these these funds, follow the instructions on the donate button of this website!
“Beth was mom to Drew and Emma. She was the light of their young lives, and they, hers. She was their best friend, moral compass and she loved them to death. And she was my wife and the love of my life. Beth lost her very long, very courageous battle with breast cancer on May 31, 2014.
Diagnosed at Stage 1A in 1999 when she found her own lump, she did everything right; everything the “experts” told her she should do: lumpectomy, radiation, sentinel node biopsies. And all was well. Five years later, all was well. She was cured. She was a survivor.
Sadly… tragically, two years after that, her cancer came back. And her world, our world, turned completely upside down. It had metastasized to her pericardium and the lining of her lung.
Game over.
With no warning or expectations, our belief that the fatal bullet had been dodged and that she would indeed live a full, healthy life was shattered. Our expectations that she would indeed live to see her young children graduate, marry and that she would one day hold her grandchildren…suddenly gone.
The same “experts” shook their heads sadly and said, “Two to five years. I’m so sorry.”
Once again, they were wrong.
Our Beth lived beautifully and bravely for eight more years. We put our lives into high gear, travelling the world and reveling in every moment with each other and our children and our friends. At the same time, Beth immersed herself in doing for others. While there were very few sources of true comfort within our new “reality”, giving to and doing for others was one. She became even more involved, immersed herself more deeply into educating the women of the Mercy Learning Center. Not only did she teach them, she led the Board of Directors for several years, through phases of growth and development which today are bearing their fruit in terms of current and future stability and growth. And she immersed herself even more in the Norma Pfriem Breast Care Center – where she received her treatment. Over so many years, she did so much. There, too, she served as the Chairman of the President’s Council, lending her quietly strong wisdom and endless amounts of her then-precious time to the Center and its clients. She worked tirelessly to organize numerous fund raising events over the years. She got great satisfaction from talking to women with breast cancer, comforting them and guiding them. She created and ran the Beth Davis Rose of Hope Tennis Tournament for ten years. It continues thriving today, and the thirteenth annual Tournament has brought the total funding raised to over $130,000 dollars. This money and much more is spent at the Center on its many patients who are underinsured and uninsured. To date, though, there had been no distinction or emphasis placed on raising awareness of, and spending money specifically in support of, Stage IV, metastatic breast cancer. And now, that is about to change.
I have no regrets with regard to this journey that Beth took. Actually, yes… one regret. I regret that metastatic breast cancer had not, and still has not received the awareness, the attention and the research funding that all of the earlier, non-lethal stages of breast cancer have received to date. Metastatic breast cancer is the only stage that kills women. Too many women. Again, that is about to change.
The Cancer Couch Foundation is focused on funding research for metastatic breast cancer to accelerate treatment for this stage of the disease. The foundation is volunteer run and privately funded, dedicated to staying “lean and mean” and funding hand-picked, cutting edge projects at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It is this “lean and mean” philosophy that is enabling the foundation to give a half a million dollars to metastatic research projects in just it’s first 6 months of inception! They also want to give something back to honor those with metastatic breast cancer and thank the communities who have welcomed them in – including their own.
The “Beth Davis Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients,” created in partnership with the Norma Pfriem Breast Care Center in Fairfield, CT by Executive Director Dr. Donna Twist, with collaboration and generous funding from The Cancer Couch Foundation, is forging a path to help metastatic breast cancer patients in financial need within the Norma Pfriem Center.
The Cancer Couch Foundation is giving a portion of the proceeds raised at community events to funds like this all over the country, in honor of metastatic breast cancer patients in their own communities. To date, there is the Susan Rahn Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients at her treatment center, Pluta Cancer Center in Rochester, NY and a fund for Beth Calabotta is being put in place through the Blessing Foundation in Illinois.
To donate directly to these these funds, follow the instructions on the donate button of this website!