How Breast Cancer has Affected my Family

If you haven’t noticed by now, every October we’re very hands on and full throttle when it comes to Breast Cancer Awareness. Well, there’s a back story to it all, and it begins with my Great Grandmother Mary.

Mary was an absolute gem of a woman. She was kind, caring, intelligent, beautiful and had a great amount of wit too. At the age of 74, she passed away due to Ovarian Cancer. 

Before she passed, she was ill for quite some time. My Zaida (Yiddish for Grandfather), her son-in-law, was a top OBGYN in the US and Canada. He noticed the cancer was spreading and decided to operate on her though many of his colleagues thought he was crazy. He went in and gave her a hysterectomy, a surgery that, at the time, was almost a death sentence. Because of that miracle surgery, my Great Grandmother lived another several years.

When her daughter, my Bubbie (which is the Yiddish term for Grandma), was 48, she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. After rounds and rounds of chemo therapy, she finally became cancer free.

We thought she was cancer free, and she was for about 25 years, before it came back again in a more mild form. She had to undergo more radiation and a mastectomy. But she came out strong, and since then she’s been cancer free once again.

My Bubbie carries a specific gene mutation called BRCA1 which is the gene that predisposes you to Breast Cancer. Unlike the average person, one with BRCA1 gene is up to 6x more likely to get Breast Cancer. This gene is easily passed to children.

Fortunately for my immediate family, my mother was the only one of my Bubbie’s children who does not carry the BRCA1 gene. However, her sister and her brother both do. 

When my Aunt found out that she had a high likelihood of getting Breast Cancer, she had a preventative double mastectomy and a hysterectomy all in her mid 30s, still caring for her beautiful three daughters whom, at the time, were all under the age of 10. She’s a warrior.

My Uncle, Dr. Ian Taras, now a very established Gynecologist, who practiced alongside his father, as well has the BRCA1 gene and he has been very observant of his children to make sure they do not develop these cancers.

He is an inspiration in the Breast Cancer Awareness community: from driving around the “BreastCar” a pink Tesla which was showcased to promote awareness, to becoming the number one team to raise awareness (over ABC, Disney, and others) in the Revlon Run Walk and the Dr. Susan Love Research foundation, amongst others. 

Breast Cancer affects 1 in every 833 men, and 1 in every 8 women. As someone, who has links to this diseases, a huge message I’d like to continually share with the world is, we are were, we support you and we are doing our part to help eradicate this disease. 

Those affected by Breast Cancer are WARRIORS. We are here to fight with you.

So every October, expect to see a fundraiser by our winery to help FIGHT breast cancer. 

This month, we present our Pink Power Bundle. A group of three of our rosés bundled at a discounted rate. 10% of all proceeds are being donated to the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

If you’d like to purchase a Pink Power Bundle, you can do so here.

If you’d like to donate to the Foundation directly, your an do so here.

Please continue to help us fight, and to help us get rid of this disease for good!

Cheers,

Amanda