In a time when HOPE means so many different things to so many different people here’s what it means to me. My name is Lindsay Dean and I am the Executive Director for the North Louisiana affiliate of Susan G Komen. I’m a wife and a mother of three boys. At the age of 21 I experienced the first real loss of my young life as my college boyfriend only 22 himself was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. After a 10-month battle which all happened very quickly he passed away in August 2004. That single experience made me who I am today. More determined than ever to re-create hope, hope that I very much needed to believe existed, I got my Master’s degree in human services administration. From there I went straight to work for the American Cancer Society in Shreveport and a few years later an amazing opportunity presented itself to streamline my efforts into eradicating one specific type of cancer; breast. For the last five almost 6 years I have gotten to lay my head on the pillow each night feeling truly thankful that I get to do what I do meet who I meet and hopefully making some Smidgen of a Difference in the lives of women and their families in the same community in which I grew up.
Back to hope; every day at Susan G Komen I meet women facing every stage of the disease from very early diagnosis of breast cancer to a woman battling breast cancer for a third time in just a few years. I am simply amazed at what faith, family, and friends, I can do to instill hope every level of a cancer diagnosis. When I see hope I see a 28-year-old mother facing infertility, facing financial problems facing things no 28-year-old should ever have to be facing yet still smiling participating in Komen activities and trying to help others. When I see hope I see a 50-year breast cancer survivor who walks with a cane and can barely hear me talk coming to the office every chance she gets to volunteer even if it’s 150° outside. When I see hope it’s 200 friends and family members who come together to walk in honor of a teacher that they teach with and love every day. When I see hope it’s a single breast cancer survivor who starts a local breast cancer support group to be an inspiration to others. When I see hope I see a lady so inspired to help people with financial issues during breast cancer treatment that she creates her own financial assistance organization – the only one serving breast cancer patients in northwest Louisiana. Even in the darkest times hope is all around. If these ladies can find hope in the darkest of hours we should all be able to find hope in our lives. Hope in our lives hope for our country hope for our children and hope for the eradication of breast cancer.
If you don’t know the story of Susan G Komen., I encourage you to take a moment to read it. It’s a beautiful story of hope and love and it will inspire you to be a better person. If you have the opportunity and the time you get out here. It may not be with Susan G or with you that our organization and so many others could not do what we do without our volunteers. Perhaps you could be someone’s hope.