After crying in a Toronto Starbucks on the anniversary of my year of homelessness, I flew to New York City where in between meetings, I found myself shedding a few more tears over my laptop in a busy NYC restaurant. (Yes, people stared and no, I couldn’t help myself).

Tears of wonder for the inspiring stories of the #Delhi2013 hopefuls and tears of joy at the ALL CAPS – YES I’M IN – excitement of the 12 survivors who will be joining us for our first Fresh Chapter Adventure in February 2013.

Soon, I will be sharing those 12 stories with you, but today, I had to share how honoured I am to be featured on the YSC website, as part of a special “31 Faces, 31 Days,” campaign launched in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For each of October’s 31 days, Young Survival Coalition (YSC) will highlight the story of a young woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

YSC’s tagline for the 31 Days/Faces Campaign says it all:

“Breast cancer is not pink and it’s not pretty.”

As many of you know October is breast cancer awareness month. For 31 days the breast cancer community and the world at large, place a specific effort on bringing attention to this disease that over 250,000 women every year are diagnosed with. Of those women, approximately 13,000 of them will be under the age of 40. Many of them will be facing challenges like finishing their education, financial burdens and possibly excessive time off of work, dealing with dating or early married life, talking with partners about how they are feeling in their new bodies or helping young children cope with why mommy is sick.

Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 these were issues I never thought I would have to face. I was young, strong and I certainly didn’t have breast cancer. A lot of you reading this already know my story. You may know I have dealt with several of these issues. Today, I hope that all of you will help me get my story out to raise awareness that young women can and do get breast cancer.

One of the reasons I am choosing to tell my story so publicly is to educate other young women, health care providers and doctors, that breast cancer is also a young woman’s disease. Here’s the link:

Terri’s Story | 31 Faces

Is there anything else you can do besides read my story?

Yes! You can show your support for me and for all young women with breast cancer:

• Visit the YSC Facebook page and leave a message of support
• Share my story on your own social media pages to ensure no young woman facing breast cancer ever feels alone!
• Scroll down to the bottom right side of my story and look for the End Breast Cancer Petition. (Help ensure young women are represented in NBCC’s Petition to the President. Please sign the petition below today to ensure the voice of every young woman diagnosed with breast cancer is heard by the President.)

Thank you YSC for the work you continue to do to support young women, just like me, across North America!

*Picture courtesy of Joel Chamaschuk