Oct. 24, 2019, Vol.17, Issue 4
We’re cruising through October, which you already know is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with events going on all around the country — celebrating survivors, increasing awareness about early detection, and spreading the word about new treatment developments.
About 1 in 8 women born today in the United States will get breast cancer at some point. The good news is that most women can survive breast cancer if it’s found and treated early. A mammogram – the screening test for breast cancer – can help find breast cancer early, when it’s easier to treat.
Our featured speaker today, Tracy DeGraaf, is the poster child for getting a yearly mammogram. She’s also a stand-up comedian. That combination makes for powerful combination in a keynote speaker for a breast cancer event.
Cancer Happens, Laugh Anyway!
Want to see your mammogram numbers go up? Tracy DeGraaf doesn’t shame women into getting their mammograms; she humors them.
Tracy has been getting her mammogram annually since age 40. When she was in her 20’s, she lost her Mom to bone cancer at the age of 51, creating a hole in her life that never filled up.
“I became proactive about cancer screening because I lost someone dear to me so early in my own life,” she said. “Even though there’s no screening for bone cancer, I realized the inherent importance of screenings that are available.”
“I never in a million years expected to be the one out of eight, at age 50, to hear the words, ‘You have cancer.’
“On the other hand, it was caught at stage 1. There was no lymph node involvement. I had a lumpectomy, 3 weeks of daily radiation, and I didn’t have to have chemotherapy.
“If you’re going to be the one out of eight, it really does make a difference to catch it early, and that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about mammograms,” she said.
She’s quick to point out that it wasn’t a walk in the park by any means. It was scary, but once they had the diagnosis and a plan in place, all her focus and energy went into getting well.
“That’s what I find very ironic,” she says. “The #1 excuse I hear from women about putting off getting their mammogram, is they ‘don’t have time,’ — because they’re so busy taking care of everyone else. Believe me, if cancer shows up, you will make the time to handle cancer. It will become your #1 priority. You matter. You don’t want to leave a hole in your family’s life if you’re not there.”
The #2 excuse Tracy hears from women for not getting their yearly mammogram, is because they “don’t want to know.”
“I’ve heard this excuse from highly intelligent, successful women who have insurance that covers it,” she said. “That’s the dumbest thing in the world. Ignorance is not bliss, it’s stupidity, and it’s dangerous.”
While the message about the importance of getting mammograms is serious, Tracy delivers it enveloped with comedy as she takes her audiences through the seasons of a woman’s life from getting married and having kids to gaining weight and growing a beard. “Life Happens, Laugh Anyway,” is also a show she does without referencing cancer.
Hilarious Survival Stories from a Mother of Five
Tracy came into the comedy business through the back door. She had put her dreams of being a writer on hold after getting married and having five boys in quick succession — you can imagine that kept her VERY busy. At the age of 40, she looked at a picture of her mother at age 40, and said to herself, “If you’re going to be a writer, you better get busy.”
The funny thing about those five boys is that they gave her tons of very funny material for a very funny book, Laugh Anyway Mom: Hilarious Survival Stories from a Mother of Five Who Has Learned How to Keep the Joy in Motherhood and How You Can Too.
Her publishing coach told her that her book was so funny, she should be a stand-up comedian, and so she took a class at Second City in Chicago, and did open mics and free gigs for 5 years. “When you first start out, you’re just looking for stage time,” she said. “You have to practice in front of a live audience to get the reaction. There’s no other way.”
She wrote and developed her one-woman show and had started presenting it mostly at churches, when cancer caused her to take an intermission. As soon as she was healthy again, she was passionate about promoting the importance of mammograms in her show, adjusting it from “Life Happens, Laugh Anyway,” to “Cancer Happens, Laugh Anyway.”
The results have been impressive. Clients have reported huge increases in mammogram appointments after Tracy’s show, especially when they’ve had the nurse navigation team onsite. Tracy encourages the women to get up out of their chairs and get signed up — “You will still be able to hear me,” she says.
Offering a free copy of her book when they make their appointment has also been an effective incentive. And her pitch is not limited to mammograms. She also happily promotes other cancer screenings.
Excuses, excuses, we all have excuses for doing the things we know we should do. When Tracy puts the subject in the context of life wrapped up in humor, women hear her and take action. To bring her bright spirit and powerful message to your community, give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email barbara@speakwellbeing.com
Forest Bathing
On Monday my husband emailed me an article that originally appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail in September by a distinguished scientist named Diana Beresford-Kroeger entitled “Trees Hold the Answers to Many of Life’s Problems.” In it she suggests walking among trees as a path (pardon the pun) to health.
“Forest bathing,” as she terms it, “an ancient technique used by many cultures, especially the Japanese, isn’t some wellness fad. It actually fine-tunes the health of the entire body: As you walk through the trees, you immerse yourself in an air bath of natural forest biochemicals released as a fine aerosol mist. Even a 20-minute walk can have benefits as long as you slow down, take your time and breathe deeply so that the volatile organic compounds carried by those aerosols reach into the lower regions of the lungs where the deep tissue will absorb nature’s medicines. For the full medicinal effect, take your walk in a mature forest, the older the better. Ancient forests are the best, of course.”
The message resonated with me. The day before we had spent a few hours walking with our dog under towering maple trees interspersed with even taller Douglas fir in a local nature park, scuffling leaves and watching Bindy, the beagle, sniff under fallen logs and rotting stumps. We did breathe deeply, as a matter of fact. The feeling of refreshment that I still felt on Monday seemed to be living proof of Beresford-Kroeger’s assertion. I could still feel the sense of refreshment and the afterglow from the aerosol mist – although I might not have phrased it that way.
So I will leave you with that message and my hearty recommendation that when I write “for your well being,” I have something like that in mind for you. And if you can’t find a forest to bathe your soul in, at least you may find some of the benefits just by walking among the trees in your local park – or, as we do on weekdays, our local office park.
Until next time, take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.
Yours truly,
Barbara
For Your Well Being is published with the intention of bringing you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!
The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, nurses, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they connect with their audiences while bringing them life-changing information, smiles of recognition and ultimately a sense of well being and hope.
Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me great joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.
