My name is Sonja E. Draught and I was 37 years old when diagnosed with breast cancer. I have been married for 16 ½ years to a First Sergeant in the United States Army. We have three beautiful sons Damon II 15, Nicholas James 9, and Justin Alexander 2.

As a military spouse and mom, I have also pursued my career as a civilian with the United States Government. Just weeks before my diagnosis I completed my Masters Degree in Public Administration. Currently, I am a strategic planner for a U.S. Army garrison.

On my birthday February 4, 2008, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 IDC, grade 2, 1.5 cm, clean nodes and margins triple negative breast cancer. My husband and I made the personal choice to have a simple mastectomy with no reconstruction, four rounds of A/C and four rounds of Taxol. For us preserving the breast was not important.

The thought of having breast cancer never entered my mind because I was very active, worked out at the gym several times a weeks and my diet was far better than most. As with everything, I began to research and found that I had a form of breast cancer that was very aggressive. I concluded that I was going to die. I felt sorry for myself for a while then decided that I had too much to fight for and early detection through self-breast exams had given me a fighting chance to beat this. Many triple negative survivors do beat this and go on to live life to the fullest. I would ask myself, "Why can't I be one of the ones that make it?" Well, I can and so can you!

Being thousands of miles away from home, my husband, children, Army family and women on breast cancer websites are how I gathered the strength to keep going. Women I never set eyes on gave me encouragement on days I felt I couldn't go on. That solidifies how important these websites are for people.

As I began researching and speaking with other triple negative survivors I realized that minorities fare even worse than most women because of lack of education, accessibility to healthcare, quality of healthcare and lack of resources.

My goal is to speak out about breast cancer, the benefits of performing self breast exams, and free screening for those without insurance. Helping generate research & development dollars, so we can learn more and eradicate breast cancer all together. We do not have to die from this disease - regardless of color.

I am very pleased that triple negative is finally receiving press and research dollars to help save the lives of young women around the world. This disease is killing our young women, women with bright futures and young children to care for.

After having this huge obstacle placed before me, I could give up or get focused. I decided the latter and being anointed by my higher power, I have decided to share my story as encouragement for all those interested. Breast cancer will always be apart of my life. Early spring you will be able to read my story of a young triple negative breast cancer survivor in my personal story, "Pink Ribbon Avenue".

At anytime please contact me at pinkribbonavenue@yahoo.com, Sonjadraught@netscape.net or www.pinkribbonavenue.com (under construction) or Facebook - Sonja Draught because we are all sisters in the fight together.

Sincerely,

Sonja Eileen Draught

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