Today’s post comes from Grazia De Michele and Cinzia Greco, Breast Cancer Consortium partners.
Grazia De Michele, PhD is an Italian-born researcher and historian currently living in the United Kingdom. In May 2011 Grazia started the Italian blog Le Amazzoni Furiose (The Furious Amazons) to raise awareness among Italian women about the need to change the conversation on breast cancer and promote research into the systemic issues contributing to the epidemic. She also contributes regularly to the twitter hashtag #BCSM – breast cancer social media, and is Breast Cancer Consortium’s social media contact.
Cinzia Greco, Phd Candidate, has degrees in Italian literature and Anthropology from the Universities of Salento and the University of Bologna in Italy, and in Gender studies from École des hautes études en sciences sociales in France. Cinzia’s interests focus on the interplay of body, gender and medicine. She is currently conducting her doctoral research, “Breast Reconstruction in Oncology and in Cosmetic Surgery: A Comparative Sociological Analysis,” with a scholarship from the Cancéropôle Île-de-France.
Cinzia Greco and Grazia De Michele
Dear Friends,
As much as we can’t believe it, October is already fast approaching along with the usual trivializing and upbeat representations of breast cancer promoted by Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As it does, we keep working to change the breast cancer paradigm. We are excited to be, once again, guest editors of a BCC Quarterly Special Issue, slated for publication in two months.
Last year, we published the Special Issue – Demystifying Breast Cancer — on October 13th to honor Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. The collection shared the too often silenced, dissonant voices of those, mostly women, who face the disease and its aftermath every day. Contributions came from the United States to Belgium, Israel, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
This year, the BCCQ will publish another Special Issue, “By Your Side: Being a Caregiver for Someone with Breast Cancer.” This issue will focus on the experiences of those whose lives have been changed when their loved ones were diagnosed with breast cancer. In spite of the burdens they carry and the suffering they go through as part of their roles as caregivers, their narratives, like those of caregivers in general, are seldom acknowledged or taken into account.
If you would like to submit your caregiver story for consideration in the speical issue, please send a brief summary (< 250 words) to byyoursidebcc@gmail.com by August 31, 2015. [Deadline has been extended from July 31, 2015.] We can currently accommodate stories submitted in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. You may also submit a photo story or video.
Thank you for reading, and for your continued support of this work. Please or “tweet” this issue or forward the BCCQ to colleagues and friends who would be interested.
Sincerely,
Grazia De Michele, PhD and Cinzia Greco PhD Candidate
(BCCQ Special Editors)
*** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***
Join over 400 scientists, clinicians, policy makers and consumer advocates at the 2015 Preventing Overdiagnosis conference in Bethesda, Maryland USA September 1st-3rd. It is committed to winding back the harms of too much medicine.
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