Breast Cancer blog | Cancer Confab: connecting with other women with breast cancer

I have headed south, in part to escape the unbearable cold winter in the east coast but also to attend a conference that I’ve been secretly looking forward to for a while.

The conference is amazing – everything is so pink, and the women are basking in pink. There is an exhibition centre packed with vendors from companies who specialise in breast reconstruction, to lingerie companies that cater to the cancer crowd to others that sell some very cool looking turbans for women undergoing chemo.

There’s lots of pink bling – pins, bracelets, T-shirts, pink tattoos, pink and pearly finger nails, pink eye lashes, and pink ribbon everywhere.

I feel like I am home and yet a stranger if this makes any sense. This is my first conference, and I am what they call a new survivor. We know how many years a survivor based on the Hawaiian-themed leis we are given – white means under a year (that’s me), green is one to five years, orange is six to nine years and those who have survived 10 or more years are awarded with a hot pink lei. There are additional colours for those with high-risk cancers or caregivers.

The journey here has been somewhat lonely though. I came alone and quickly discovered that many of the other ladies had formed friendships from previous conferences or events. There is a bit of feeling like I’m the new girl in a sorority, only the sorority is the sisterhood of breast cancer.