Fight Like a Girl Blog Hop

Wow, it's been a week of the Not Just October giveaway and link up and we are generating quite some buzz! I love your support!!

My mom has just about reached her halfway point in treatment! I would really appreciate your thoughts this week. Her red blood cell count keeps going down, and if it continues she will need a blood transfusion. Eep!

 Now for the fun part - the giveaway and the blog hop!! For the "link up" entry option below, please go to last week's Not Just October post. I love reading all of these posts! :)

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Welcome to the first annual "Fight Like a Girl" Blog hop
Brought to you by

Blogging, Freebies & Giveaways

&

Up All Night Blogging

We are a community of bloggers that love throwing giveaways and bringing you amazing prizes! Each blogger on the list below has a minimum value of $10 but most giveaways exceed that limit! Be sure to "hop" along to each blog and enter to win some amazing prizes there is no limit to how many prizes you can win! please don't forget sharing is caring! Let your friends in on the fun!

Thank you for stopping by and Good luck!

Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

Not Just October Breast Cancer Giveaway + Link Up

This blog post is part of the Fight Like a Girl Blog Hop! Please find the rest of the blogs here. 

As many of you know, my mom was diagnosed with Stage II Breast Cancer this past summer. Once she was diagnosed, she quickly began going through all of the procedures - surgery and then chemo. This next week marks her halfway point!!

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My warrior queen momma rockin her head scarf! Can't you just see her beautiful soul radiating from that face? #warriorqueen #mommylove #ilovemymom #breastcancer #cancersucks #fightlikeagirl #fightlikeawarriorqueen #strongwoman

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I am so incredibly proud of my momma for her strength through all of this. She has always been such an inspiration for me. I wanted today's post to be about my journey with Breast Cancer, but I feel that it is not my time to share that story. Today, I would like to speak on Breast Cancer and other's journeys. I want to give the spotlight to others to share their experiences and raise awareness.

Most importantly, I want to introduce you to a new non-profit, Not Just October, and its founder Lavar. I found Lavar on Instagram, when he liked one of my pictures of my mom. I instantly knew that I wanted to partner with him and help him along his journey! I'll let Lavar tell you a little more about Not Just October.

Could you give us some background information on Not Just October?

- Not Just October was an idea I had in August of 2014, I always had a passion for Breast Cancer Awareness and I felt like it was time to jump into the fight! We will be spreading awareness nationwide though events and merchandise, also we will be attempting to help families financially who run into issues due to Breast Cancer. Our fundraising efforts will also be used to fund research working towards a cure for Breast Cancer.

What motivated you to start the non profit?

- I know that there are already organizations devoted to Breast Cancer, but I feel that my creative outside of the box way of thinking would really benefit the fight.

How long were you active in the breast cancer awareness movement before you began your non profit?

- My mother passed away from Breast Cancer in 2009, I have been doing walks and attending other events ever since.

What are the goals of your non profit?

- My ultimate goal is to have an important role in finding a cure for Breast Cancer.  As for my organization my goal is to be a globally known organization which is doing good throughout several communities and spreading awareness all year, Not Just October.  I am young and in touch with pop culture so I aim to spread awareness in different demographics then other organizations.

How has breast cancer affected your life?

-I witnessed my Mother fight Breast Cancer and win! After her mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation her Cancer went into remission. Unfortunately a year later my mothers Cancer came back more aggressively and ultimately spread to her brain which lead to her passing away. I was not as informed on the disease as I should have been, which has led me to spread awareness and educate people all over the world so that people don't have to go through what I went through. 

What inspired your ideas for the chance bands?

- When a person passes away, they are mourned by friends and family for a short amount of time and unfortunately the memories sometimes fade away, my bands give us the opportunity to remember the strength of the person who battled Cancer and spread it across the world. Survivors and family members of women who passed away donate fabric which we sew to the band and Mail around the world. Their strength lives on! Each band comes with a small card that has some facts about the person who's fabric was donated. I am very excited about these bands! 

Speaking of these bands, we are giving away one of these bands to raise awareness and help Not Just October grow their social media presence! Bonus - the winner will receive a $50 gift card to Target and a $10 gift card to Starbucks! Enter below, and feel free to link up your Breast Cancer Awareness posts during the rest of the month! Winner will be picked on November 1st!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

Warrior Queen Things

My oh my!

Yesterday was a day filled with Warrior Queen things in my inbox. I love when that happens. I noticed them all while I was at work and had to keep telling myself to write about it today!!

First, I wanted to share Angelina Jolie's article about her double mastectomy. I think it is beautiful that she shared the story and what she has done for her family by sacrificing in this way. I've read that we shouldn't be applauding her for this courage, but that we should be applauding the courage of women who suffer silently. Why can't we applaud both of them?

Angelina Jolie made an educated opinion - which she highlights the need to educate lower and middle class women about preventive measures - and instead of keeping it private - something she does have the right to do - she decided to use her celebrity for good. 

The second email I received yesterday that I want to share is a new crowdfunding site for women. 




From the website:

Because equality for girls and women makes a better planet for everyone.
To some people — it’s about rights. To others — it’s about smart economics. Either way — we cannot see progress in our world without addressing gender equality.
There are so many organizations already doing brilliant work for girls and women. They have the expertise, the cultural understanding, and they’ve scoped solutions for big changes.They just need funding.

Let's start a team? :)

Raewyn

P.S. Bonus Warrior Queen thing. This guy who made this video. #FitchTheHomeless

Women's Healthcare

The latest vlog on Women's healthcare and birth control!

SAVE THE VAGINAS!

October is breast cancer awareness month and everywhere people are declaring SAVE THE TATAS and I <3 Boobies! How fantastic! Breast cancer awareness has become so mainstreamed that we pronounce our love of boobies daily (especially boys...those dirty dirty men).

I applaud everyone for this. HUZZAH HUZZAH! Ladies, mammograms and self-breast exams are SO important. The founders of the I <3 Boobies movement did something amazing and took this taboo subject and made it conversation safe - better yet they made it IMPORTANT for conversations.

And now, I feel like, in addition, we should move to the next taboo, yet cancer inflicted subject. That's right ladies, your cervix.

Now we can mainstream this with "I <3 Vajayjay" bracelets but that's probably going to stay a little too taboo. Can you imagine Meg Whitman or Sarah Palin with one of those bracelets on? But maybe we can come up with an approach that's less "vulgar" by their standards. Because, they have cervixes, too. This is not a problem that we should just sweep under the rugs because it means we (gasp) have to talk about sexual safety and health.

HPV is NOT funny. Nor is cervical cancer. 

So how, you may ask, can we save ourselves from it?

Yes, it is very important to get the HPV vaccine - I got mine in 2007. But HPV is not the only thing that causes cervical cancer and, like all vaccines, it is not 100% effective.

LADIES WE NEED TO PROTECT OURSELVES AGAINST STDs! (i prefer d over i, it just sounds better. an STi is a car to me...)

We all need to work on this; myself included. Condoms. Get them. They're cheap but if you don;t want to buy them make the boys buy them. Go to Planned Parenthood and get some. Ask a friend. Ask me. There is nothing more important than protecting ourselves.

Let me tell you about a little scare I had two years ago, without any fault of my own.

From 20-21 I was sure I had cervical cancer. Never mind the fact that I had gotten the HPV vaccine over 2 years before and took precautions to protect myself. My gyno scared me.  

Let me background with the fact that your immune system does not fully develop until you are 21. On women, this affects cervical health.

So in summer 2009 I went to the gyno for my annual check up. And was devastated to find out a few weeks later that my cells were abnormal and pre-cancerous. From that point on I was told I would have to return to the doctors every 3 months for a painful procedure called a colposcopy. Gyno's do this to catch cervical cancer early so you can fight it by removing the cancerous cells. This enables women to be pregnant and carry a fetus full term.
As fate would have it, shortly after my 21st I found out my abnormal cells disappeared with my updated immune system. And that I was fine. I did not have HPV. I did not have cervical cancer. The thing is, I'm not alone. I know several other women like me who went through this scary process. 

So because of this I promote health and safety for my cervix. I go to Planned Parenthood often.

I LOVE MY VAJAYJAY!! 

Do you love yours?