SHARING THE LOVE, DAY 14

DAY 14 of the #HAWMC challenge gives me a chance to thank a few of my fellow Health Activists. I participated in last year's #HAWMC and writing every day under a specific topic can feel, well, forced. And challenging. This is my shout out to a few of my fellow breast cancer bloggers who are taking part in the WEGO challenge, despite the commitment (and writers block!) that a daily prompt can bring.

I chose to highlight snippets from each blogger's Day #10 challenge; that's the day we shared our favorite images of ourselves, and I think it provides you, the reader, with a sense of who these ladies are and why I think they're terrific! (Just click on the links below to read their fabulous posts in full.)...

© JBBC

...PROPS to Marie (who writes Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer from Ireland) for sharing this special photo of herself. "This is one of my favorites from last year when I won the best health and wellness blog award in Blog Awards Ireland 2012. That smile that is on my face is the first real smile I had been able to share following the death of my mother. Throughout that terrible time, Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer was my support and sanctuary and my readers a constant source of encouragement, friendship and understanding."

© Time to Consider the Lilies

PROPS to Yvonne (who writes Time to Consider the Lilies from Arizona) for posting this poignant photo of herself with her tweenaged daughter. "When she was a baby, I was one of those mothers who picked her up the moment she began to cry at night. My mother encouraged me to do so, telling me there would be plenty of times as an adult when my daughter would have to cry alone. So far, there is only one time when I have not been there to hold her when she just needed her mother. As I lay in the ICU following a mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction surgery, my hands empty, she cried herself to sleep.”

© The Pink Underbelly

PROPS to Nancy (who writes The Pink Underbelly from Texas) for choosing this adorable photo with her two children. Nancy explains that it was "taken on my 36th birthday, before cancer so rudely interrupted my life... knowing myself the way I do, I can see an undercurrent of 'hurry up and take the damn picture' ... but I love, love, love the proud look on [my son's] face as he wraps his arms around the two ladies in his life. My favorite girl has her usual impish look about her."

© Audrey Birt

PROPS to Audrey (who writes Audrey Birt's Breast Cancer Blog from Scotland) for selecting a photo of herself that wasn't easy. "I'm the one in the family that takes photos," Audrey explains. "There's something for me about capturing precious times. Never being absolutely sure they are certain in the future... To be really honest I'm not that keen to have my photo taken, I stiffen, close my eyes, smile awkwardly and then press delete. [This photo] feels very personal, a real sense of who I am, so much of my experience, the light and the shade somewhere in the smile."