There is “nothing pink” about breast cancer

One woman’s mis­sion to increase aware­ness and make a dif­fer­ence

by Erin Pow­ell

Octo­ber is Nation­al Breast Can­cer Aware­ness Month, and for one York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­ber, it’s also a time that once marked the begin­ning of a long, ardu­ous jour­ney.

At age 31, Kel­ly Kash­mer was diag­nosed with stage 2 triple neg­a­tive breast can­cer, set­ting her on a dif­fi­cult path that includ­ed 10 months of chemother­a­py and 11 surg­eries.

“It was dif­fi­cult; there was a lot of loss for me, my friends and my fam­i­ly,” recalls Kash­mer, who was diag­nosed in the month of Octo­ber.

From that moment for­ward, Kash­mer was moti­vat­ed to do every­thing in her pow­er to help oth­ers going through the same expe­ri­ence, or who were at risk. She found­ed Noth­ing­Pink, a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to increase aware­ness of hered­i­tary breast and ovar­i­an can­cers and pro­vide per­son­al­ized sup­port for indi­vid­u­als at high risk.

“My cor­re­la­tion with the col­or pink was every­thing pos­i­tive,” says Kash­mer, now the organization’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. “It meant my girls, sun­shine, cup­cakes and smiles. For me and my expe­ri­ence with my diag­no­sis, there was noth­ing pink about breast can­cer.”

Joined by a team of pas­sion­ate women, Kash­mer has brought the pos­i­tive impact of Noth­ing­Pink to the lives of women in need of sup­port and guid­ance on their own jour­neys with breast and ovar­i­an can­cer.

Kashmer’s orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides a local peer sup­port pro­gram, which sup­plies infor­ma­tion and shared sto­ries of oth­ers who can under­stand the unique­ly dif­fi­cult expe­ri­ence of can­cer. Whether an indi­vid­ual is at high risk, is BRCA pos­i­tive or cur­rent­ly has can­cer, they can find the help they need with Noth­ing­Pink. Should a woman require surgery, Noth­ing­Pink is also there to sup­ply care pack­ages with all the mate­ri­als one might need post- surgery. Addi­tion­al­ly, Kashmer’s group strives to pro­vide finan­cial assis­tance for those fac­ing a vari­ety of BRCA gene muta­tions, breast and/or ovar­i­an can­cer diag­no­sis-relat­ed dif­fi­cul­ties, regard­less of insur­ance sta­tus.

This Breast Can­cer Aware­ness Month, join us in help­ing bring aware­ness to the risks of hered­i­tary breast and ovar­i­an can­cer. Kash­mer reminds us, “It is impor­tant to get the con­ver­sa­tion start­ed. Get the pre­ven­ta­tive scans and talk about your fam­i­ly his­to­ry. It can end up sav­ing your life.”

Vis­it the Noth­ing Pink web­site to find out how to get sup­port or how you can get involved.