With every war, there is an Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. In the breast cancer war, everything begins with your loved one’s Medical Army. The battle against breast cancer begins, and ends, with medicine.

Doctors make the initial diagnosis. Doctors perform the breast surgery. Doctors devise the chemotherapy regimen. Doctors do the radiation. Without doctors, the cancer battle would be over before it ever began. Good doctors fight breast cancer well. Better doctors fight cancer better. The best doctors fight cancer best.

The better all her doctors work together, as a team, the better her chance for survival. The end result of this approach is the creation of a comprehensive treatment plan that is coordinated among the practice groups.
Whatever decisions are made regarding the overall medical regimen, her medical team is on the front lines of the fight. That’s all fine and good, you say, but how does she go about assembling that crack medical army?

Well, it all starts with the selection of her breast cancer surgeon.

“The Corps’’ is that group of persons who constitute her support team, usually her closest family and friends. It also consists of a team who will be there for you. Depending on her relationship with others at work, it can also include coworkers and, yes, bosses. Whoever is a member of the Corps must be willing and committed to being her support team.

The people in the Corps must be positive, proactive, protective, loving, great listeners, keepers of secrets, and on call, available at a moment’s notice. They must also be calming, caring, and concerned. They must know when it is time to step out of the way and when to step into a situation. They need to recognize the time to take orders from her and when not. The Corps is all about helping.

Members will clean the house, take the kids to school, drive her to her doctors’ appointments—in short, do everything and anything that needs to be done. They will always have her best interests in mind. If she is up for talking, fine, they are there to listen. If she wants time to herself, they don’t take it personal.

Breast cancer calls  for full-scale war. It’s game on, every morning, every night, round the clock, every day, every week, every month, every year, for years to come. The battleground is her body, mind, and spirit, as well as your mind and spirit. The enemy is cancer, an overly aggressive, tireless foe committed to one mission and one mission only: to kill her.

There’s nothing greater at stake in her life—or yours.

That’s why her Armed Forces—her doctors, family and friends, spiritual guides, psychological advisers, and you—must be the strongest medical, emotional, mental, and spiritual team ever assembled to achieve the ultimate goal: stopping her breast cancer for life.