“The Book of Life”

“The Book of Life”

According to tradition, in the ten days between Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the Hebrew calendar, meant for atonement and repentance, each person’s fate is written and sealed into the book of life. Shortly after the high holy days, the month-long “holiday” that has become known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month will take place in October. During which the money raised to fund breast cancer research (and hopefully, eventually, a cure) can also help to write and seal the fate of all of us living with breast cancer, and make our books of life significantly longer and healthier.

I would love to literally be able to seal my book, as it is currently written, because right now I am the “healthiest” I have been since I received my metastatic breast cancer de novo diagnosis. I found out my fate in May 2014, just 6 days after my 33rd birthday. After just about three and a half years, multiple lines of treatments, and progression of the cancer into my brain, all of my disease sites are responding well.

While October is dedicated to breast cancer “awareness”, unfortunately many of us are “aware” of it every minute, every hour, every day. However, as of right now, according to my book of life (also known as my pet-scans and MRIs), I can be a little less “aware” for a while. So the Hebrew year 5778 might truly be a Shanah Tovah.

Rebecca Scheinkman is a 36 years old Metastatic Breast Cancer Patient living in Manhattan. She is a member of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance and a top fundraiser for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. You can follow along with her on Instagram and Facebook at @BecsBreastEfforts.

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