Pamela Britton...a special message

Okay, I'll be honest. The original draft of this blog was a morbidly sad account of my father's death. How it affected my writing. How, to this day, I draw on the pain I suffered as I slowly watched him die of cancer.

Blech.

I deleted it. I hate sad stories. That's probably why I write romance novels for a living. Besides, these days cancer doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be sad. It can be cured, especially if we're talking breast cancer here.

I'll be honest. I'd never had a mammogram when I first joined Think Pink. I'd volunteered my services after my father died having made the commitment to do whatever I could to help fight his awful disease. He didn't have breast cancer, although men can get it, but I figured one cancer was as good as another to try and sucker punch. So I joined. Unfortunately, I made the mistaking of mentioning my lack of a mammogram to one of Think Pink's founders, Melody Christenson. We were at her work--a place that does medical imaging--and so you can imagine what happened next. She trotted me over to the receptions desk and said, "Get Pam an appointment today." I remember mentally screaming, "Noooooo." I didn't want my breasts squished, especially on such short notice. I needed time to psych myself into the deal. But I didn't think it was right tell one of Think Pink's founders that I was too scared to do the very thing that Think Pink is all about: early detection. So I swallowed my fear and did it. And you know what?

It wasn't that bad.

It wasn't that bad at all. In fact, I feel like silly baby for thinking it would hurt. I didn't.

So I chose for this blog to be a positive account of my first breast screening. And a reminder to all of you to CHECK YOUR BREASTS. And, failing that, to get a yearly screening. Cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence. Especially breast cancer. In fact, it now has a 97% cure rate if detected early.

Get out there, girls! Get your ta-tas mashed. It just might save your life.

*leave a comment for your chance to win a signed book from Pam*