When Lisa Woods received the news she had breast cancer, she wasn’t surprised. As the seventh woman in her family to have breast cancer, she was braced to hear the news from her doctor one day. Lisa, who’s 46 and…
Jill Heffernan imagines her bike tire going flat or a shoe coming untied mid-race. Half marathoner Julie Barth is a “bit nervous” about adding a 12-mile bike ride to her race-day routine. And Margarita Martin? She’s more excited than jittery—she’s…
Christina Nation knew she could face her battle with breast cancer. She had already endured the most difficult thing a mother or father could face—the death of a child. Certain moments in our lives are so earth-shattering, whether the news…
The possibility that she might be having a heart attack only briefly crossed Becky Griffith’s mind. She was, after all, only 40 years old. Last November, the mother of two began to feel severely fatigued and short of breath. While…
Of all the hallmarks of prenatal appointments – the weigh-ins, urine tests and blood draws – the glucose screening is among the least popular with expectant moms. Draining a cup of the super-sweet drink is a requirement at the 4-…
The day before her mastectomy, Sue Fagan, a loan document specialist at Bank of Springfield, got a call asking her to drop by work for a few hours. No problem, she thought. She was glad to answer any last-minute questions…
Deb Whitson had thought about doing the Women’s Biathlon before. But she didn’t. “I always thought I couldn’t,” she said. “I thought you had to be a top-class athlete or something.” This year, thanks to the invitation of her friend…
Kristi Kramp, like many, was a smoker. Unlike many, she had no desire to quit. “I loved smoking,” Kristi said. “Quitting was the furthest thing from my mind.” That is, until she attended the 2011 Be Aware Women’s Fair. With…
Many women who suffer from incontinence, the involuntary loss of urine, find it embarrassing to discuss with their physicians. Yet being open with their doctors can put them on the path to finding a solution. “Incontinence can vary between very…
When Vicki Simmons learned that she had Stage 2 breast cancer last October, it confirmed what she had suspected when she first discovered the lump in her breast a week before. “That was a long day,” she recalled when she…