Jenkintown resident and breast cancer survivor Kerri Conner writes a kids’ book about having cancer; has her name featured on the PECO building in Philadelphia

Most Americans have been touched in some way by breast cancer, but what one Jenkintown woman has done with her story is truly remarkable.

Kerri Conner was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer when she was 33 years old, and in a circle of fate, the diagnosis occurred on the 10-year anniversary of her mother’s previous breast cancer diagnosis.

Knowing what it took for her own mother to conquer the disease, Conner began to think of ways that she could prepare her 2-year-old daughter for the changes that were about to take place.

Pulling from experience, Conner decided to write a children’s book, which she titled “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer But She Is OK”.

“I wrote the book because when I was diagnosed, I was trying to find something educational that I could read to my daughter that would explain why I wouldn’t be able to do some of the things that I used to do with her,” Conner said.  “It was a way to explain things in a non-scary way.  I knew that I was getting ready to go through a bunch of changes because I had previously seen them when my mother was diagnosed.” 

Conner endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy, six surgeries — including a double-mastectomy — and radiation treatments.  Still, she said her inability to do the little things, like giving her daughter a bath, taking her to the park, and even giving her a hug, were the things that bothered her most.

Throughout the three-year process, Conner focused her efforts on keeping her daughter informed of what was happening, while trying to keep the situation relatively light and calm.  As a result, Conner said her daughter doesn’t view cancer as a big, bad disease, rather she views it as something as normal as the common cold.

Once in remission, Conner returned to her day-to-day life and schedule, working as a certified public accountant alongside her mother, but one day, while picking up her daughter from day care, she learned that the mother of another child enrolled in the day care center had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Shortly after that, another woman was diagnosed.

“I grew up around breast cancer, but these women and their children had no idea what to expect,” Conner said.  “They were terrified.”

It was at that moment that Conner realized the book she had written for her daughter could help many others in the same situation, and she and her husband contacted a friend who worked in the publishing industry about getting the book out there for other families in need.

Since then, her book has been successfully published, with all proceeds going to the Breast Health Initiative in Philadelphia.

“I’m trying to educate people about breast cancer, but more importantly, I’m trying to encourage children to never give up, despite what life throws their way,” Conner said.  “We’re all going to go through something, but hopefully we can teach our children to keep their chin up and to keep moving forward.”

With the success of her book came other opportunities to get her message out, including public speaking events at area elementary schools, local organizations, and Abington Memorial Hospital, where she is scheduled to speak in April.

Additionally, Conner was recently a featured author at the African-American Children’s Book Fair in Philadelphia, which led to the PECO building’s decision to display her name across the top of the tower.

Not surprisingly, she was so busy with tax season and public speaking that she never got to see the display.

“I actually didn’t get a chance to ride by and see it,” Conner said.  “It would have been nice to have a picture of it!”

Conner, now 37, said the entire experience from her mother’s illness through her present efforts to raise awareness for breast cancer have changed her life for the better.  She said her outlook has changed, and that she appreciates every day God has blessed her with.

“I’m doing really well, but I have a new normal now,” Conner said.  “I tell people all that time that if I didn’t discuss what I went through, they would never know. They would never know the journey that I’ve been on over the last few years.”

Conner’s book, “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer But She Is OK”, is available through Amazon as well as through her own website, http://www.mymommyhasbreastcancer.org/i/.

Quote: Finally, just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. – Anonymous.

My journey with cancer began not with me, but with my mother

Left to right: Me, My daughter Madison & Mom

I’m Kerri Conner. It was April of 1998. I had just graduated from Howard University and I was studying to become a CPA so I could work side by side with my mother in her accounting firm (Anita T. Conner & Associates, P.C. – Home of the Tax Divas) (www.atconnercpa.com).

This particular April was no different from any other. We were swamped doing tax returns trying to make the April 15th deadline.  As an accountant, I quickly learned that everything had to be put on hold until after the tax deadline and that life as I knew it would resume the day after.

Little did I know, was that this April 16, 1998 my life would be changed forever. It was on this day, that my family and I learned that my mother, who was only 41 years old, had an advanced stage of breast cancer.

I was 23 years old, I did not know ANYTHING about breast cancer. I did not know ANYONE who had the disease, and I had no idea what to expect. What I did know was that my family was devastated and this could not be good.

The ironic thing about my mom’s situation was that she had felt a lump in her left breast for years. She did tell the doctors about the lump and the discomfort it caused, but they all said the same thing….She was too young for it to be breast cancer. It was not until she was going in for a routine procedure that the doctor said “Let’s do a biopsy…you are here…and it can’t hurt.

By the time, the cancer was detected, my mother had a high stage three cancer, and it had begun to spread to her lymph nodes. My mother’s routine procedure turned into a total hysterectomy and a radical mastectomy.

I will never forget that day.  It was the longest surgery ever. My family took shifts coming to the hospital and sitting with me. When the doctor came out to give us a status…he took my father and I to a little room…it was here he told us to pray for a miracle. He told us the cancer had spread and it did not look good. My mother’s doctor was preparing us for the worse.

Mom’s Treatment Plan

I knew that the Lord was going to heal my mother. I watched her go through, high dose chemotherapy treatments (sometimes 10 x’s the standard dose) stem cell transplant, 80 radiation treatments, reconstruction surgery and 10 years of preventative medicine. I watched her go through set back after set back and yes, it was extremely difficult for me to watch.

I am proud to say that 13 years later…my mother is alive…my mother is well…and my mother is sharing her story, so other women will not have to go through what she went through. And I am also still working with my mother at our accounting firm as we had planned.

What Came Next

As a result of my mother’s journey, I became a breast cancer advocate. I learned that African American women get the disease less often than other ethnic groups, but are dying at greater rates. I wanted and needed to do something to promote awareness about this disease.

Hence, we started Praise Is The Cure.  A program under our non profit – the George E. Thorne Development Center (www.getdc.org) geared towards African American women – motivating, educating and encouraging them to get breast health screenings and treatments.

April 16, 2008 – My mother’s 10 year anniversary of being cancer free

I wish I could end my story right here, but I can’t….As my mother was recovering over all these years and as we were spreading the word and educating our community…God had other plans in mind.

In 2008, April 16th to be exact, 10 years to the day that my mother was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, I too was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. I was 33 years old and I had a two year old daughter. My family and friends were devastated. My mother blamed herself for my disease. Little does my mother know…is that I credit her for my survival. I thank God every day for allowing me to watch my mother go through what she did. It was her faith, her determination, and her strength…that showed me that I to could do this.

Like my mother’s cancer, my cancer was spreading fast. I had a round of high dose chemo, a double mastectomy, another round of high dose chemo, radiation treatments, and just when I thought I was finished, the doctors found another lump, so I did two more years of chemo, reconstruction surgery, and five years of preventative meds. When I looked back over this time period, I realized I had 6 surgeries in a 2 year time period….. But to God be the Glory….I am Still Standing.

One year after my diagnoses, two more young African American mothers at my daughter’s day care were diagnosed with breast cancer. It was then, that I knew what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to share my story with these women and their families. He wanted me to encourage an inspire them to NEVER give up despite what life threw their way. So I wrote the children’s book… “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is Ok!” (www.mymommyhasbreastcancer.com). My goal is to raise money for breast cancer awareness while encouraging our women to fight. All the proceeds from the book go to the Praise Is The Cure (www.praiseisthecure.org)  initiative so we can continue to encourage and inspire families to take action.

1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her life time. A woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes in the US. This means that by the time you are done reading this, there will be 3 women that have been diagnosed. And if they are African American they are at greater risk of dying than any other ethnic groups.

Don’t think because you are young you can’t get the disease.

If it could happen to me, it could definitely happen to you.

If it does, will you be ready to take the journey? If I can do it, so can you. This blog will offer you support, hope and information on living with a cancer diagnosis of any sort, plus tips and interviews on ways to survive, during what is a difficult process. I encourage you to share your stories, tips and ideas as well.

Written by Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.comThursday, 27 October 2011 12:11

When Kerri Conner’s mother developed breast cancer, the disease was a taboo subject.

“I was 19, 20. We didn’t talk about it at all,” Conner said. “When she lost her hair, we acted like we didn’t even notice it.”

What Conner did learn, however, was that there was a family trait for breast cancer, and she started having mammograms at age 29. Most women don’t start until age 40.

Her foresight saved her life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33.

Conner didn’t want her daughter – who was just two at the time – to have the bewildering experience of seeing her mother’s looks change without some sort of acknowledgement. So the CPA turned first-time author wrote “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is OK!” a children’s book designed to explain breast cancer, the fatigue and the hair loss that come with treatment in terms a young child can understand. The book also is intended to reassure children who see their mothers in pain or fatigued as they undergo treatment that it is all part of the recovery process. Read full article at Black America Web

“My main focus is just to inform and support the families,” Conner said.

It worked for Conner’s daughter, Madison.

“She looks at cancer the way other people look at a cold,” Conner said. “We’ve done a lot of books signings in Philadelphia (where Conner lives), and they call it the Maddie Movement.”

Conner said that when she was diagnosed, “there were no books out there that would tell (Maddie) what I was going through in a way that wouldn’t scare her and with images that looked like her.”

Going through the surgery, chemo and reconstructive surgery was not an easy process.

“By the time my cancer was detected, it was Stage Three, and I had been having mammograms since I was 29,” faithfully. The only mammogram she ever missed was the year she was pregnant with Madison.

Because of her strong family history, Conner started chemotherapy, had a double-mastectomy, then more chemo and, later, reconstructive surgery.

She underwent six surgeries in three years. And while she has been cancer-free for the past two years, she said she still has a lot of tenderness and bouts of fatigue.

But Conner says she has learned to put things in perspective, stress less over the little things and be grateful for the good things in her life. Seeing her own mother recover from breast cancer, for example, “has been a blessing to me,” she said.

Her guiding philosophy now, she says, is “Would I be happy if this were my last day? I do believe God spared my life for a reason. And that was to share my story.”

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and although more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year, many parents are challenged with sharing the experience with their kids. Keri Conner, a breast cancer survivor, wrote the children’s bookMy Mommy has Breast Cancer, But She is OK, after her own experience with the disease. She tells us more about her experience and the book.

[Listen to the Show] [Learn More]

Scholar, Author, Cultural Critic & Media Personality

Michael Eric Dyson

Hailed as one of the nation’s most inspiring African Americans, Michael Eric Dyson — a a two-time NAACP Image Award winner and named byEbony magazine as one of the 100 most influential black Americans — has been credited with revitalizing the role of the public intellectual with the fervor of an ordained Baptist minister.

Infusing intellectual endeavors with popular culture, Dyson focuses on topics of interest to the public. He eloquently melds scholarly insight with the phenomena of contemporary culture, emphasizing their interconnectedness and force in shaping our society.

His seventeen books provide some of the most significant commentary on modern social and intellectual thought, interwoven with a combination of cultural criticism, race theory, religion, philosophical reflection, and gender studies. Works such as Making Malcolm; I May Not Get There With You;Holler If You Hear Me; Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye; Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?; and more recently, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, deeply probe social themes and cultural politics. His latest book is the New York Times bestseller April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America. And in May, Dyson will publish Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson

http://dysonshow.org/

By Daniel Rubin Inquirer Columnist

I have a confession to make…

I recently attended the Happy & Healthy Mom Fair which was a fantastic day – I met lots of wonderful people, made some really exciting connections, got a makeover, got a massage, enjoyed a free VIP swag bag, AND I met a sleep consultant who has already been to my house to help out with the insane sleep issues going on (great job to Karla of BellyButtonBotique andBefore During and After Doula Services for organizing such a super mommy event!).

Read full article

While at the Happy & Healthy Mom Fair, I think I visited almost every single table to see who was offering what services but there was one table I could not bring myself to visit. It was a table called “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer” and there was a sweet little girl and a nice seeming guy sitting at the table and honestly, I blocked it. I wimped out and could not bring myself to go over there. Right now cancer hits a little too close to home for me. Yes, you think that would mean that I could actually benefit from going over and talking to some folks and hearing their story and what they were all about – but I couldn’t. My mind and my body just would not allow me to “go there” – physically or mentally and I completely avoided the sweet little girl and the smiling guy sitting at that table. Stay with me here because I’m not just confessing this for no reason. There *is* a point, I promise!

Anyway, a few days after the fair was over I got to thinking about how I totally skipped that table and how bad I felt about it. That I was too much of a wimp to go listen to their story and hear what they are going through no matter who much I didn’t want to think about it myself. So I vowed I would look them up later and reach out. But guess what?? Amazingly enough, I was contacted by them out of the blue and asked if I wanted more information. YES! I DID want more information!! So I got to hear the story after all and learn about The Maddie Movement and now I’d like to share it with you.

The Maddie Movement is an educational awareness program, inspiring young children and their families to never give up despite what life throws their way. Inspired by her own journey with breast cancer, Kerri Marie Conner (an Abington native) has written a children’s book from the point of view of her daughter Madison. The book is called My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is Okay. Like the butterfly, Maddie’s mother takes a journey of transformation that gets her through her breast cancer to be an even stronger and healthy mommy to Madison. The book is a sweet and inspiring story that is uplifting and sure to help children and adults alike deal with the immense challenges and life changes of cancer. What I liked most about the story is that in the end, Maddie helps comfort another child who is scared because her mommy has breast cancer. Maddie assures her it will be ok and comforts her friend wit the story of the journey of the butterfly.

I missed my chance to meet Maddie in person at the Happy & Healthy Mom Fair recently. But, thankfully the month of October is dedicated to spreading awareness about The Maddie Movement, including book signing and activities for the entire family. So I still have a chance to meet her and so do you! Here is the line-up of Maddie Movement October events in the Philadelphia area:

10/9/10 - Color Book Gallery, Multicultural Bookstore
6353 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia
12:00pm-2:00pm

10/10/10 - Lolli Lolli
713 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
10:30am-12:30pm

10/13/10 - Free Library, Richmond Branch
2987 Almond Street, Philadelphia
6:00pm-8:00pm

10/22/10 - Sweet and Sassy - Signature Event!!
The Shoppes at English Village
1460 Bethlehem Pike, North Wales

The Sweet and Sassy event is the Signature Event which will include a Pretty in Pink Fashion Show. All little girls will have the opportunity to have their nails painted pink, get refreshments, make crafts and enjoy story time. All while raising money and awareness for breast health awareness and recovery programs. $20 for the first child. $15 for each additional child.
** Space is limited. Please register atwww.mymommyhasbreastcancer.com.

And finally, I have a copy of My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is OK!to giveaway thanks to the good folks at The Maddie Movement. To win this free copy of the book, leave a comment below by next Tuesday Oct. 12th at midnight. The winner will be chosen using random.org and announced next Wed. Oct. 13th. Increase your chances to win by following us on facebook and/or twitter. If you already follow, just leave additional comments below that you already follow us. And if you tweet about the contest using the hashtag #phillyfun4kids, you get another chance to win. Make sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you win. Good luck!!

Many many thanks to The Maddie Movement folks for reaching out to me!! I’m honored to help spread the good word about your book and inspirational message.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – An Elkins Park mom has written a book that has sparked a movement to help children understand what’s happening when their parents are going through crises.

Kerry Conner is the author of “My Mommy has Breast Cancer, but She is OK,” a book she wrote while she was undergoing her own battle with the disease:

Read full article

“I could see that my daughter, even though she was only two, she was noticing what I was going through. She didn’t understand but she did know that Mommy was going through something and there was nothing out there really that would allow me to explain this process to her.”

The book has sparked the Maddie Movement, based on the book’s young heroine Madison, who follows her mother’s progress from diagnosis to recovery.

The movement is a basic education program for kids two through ten designed to give them the tools of basic understanding about breast cancer.

There are a number of events around the city this month.

For more information, go to mymommyhasbreastcancer.com.

Listen to extended interview:

Maddie Movment

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Kerri Conner and her family at the Happy and Healthy Moms Fair at the Please Touch Museum. With our booths next to each other I listened to her speak about her inspiring story battling breast cancer and how she’s using her experience to make a difference.

Conner wrote “My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is Ok” with the purpose of inspiring young mothers with breast cancer, as well as their young children, to continue the fight. Readers join the main character Maddie and her mother as they embark on the journey from diagnosis to recovery.

See full article

The ‘Maddie Movement’ focuses on giving children a basic understanding of the disease (in a fun environment), and showing them that, as the book title implies, while mommy may have breast cancer, she is going to be okay. The campaign, like the book, seeks to empower young people, from ages 2 to 12 and give them the tools of basic understanding.

For the month of October, Conner is kicking off the ‘Maddie Movement’, consisting of a variety events for breast cancer patients and survivors, and the children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in their lives.

So join in the ‘Maddie Movement’, put on your pink and come out to one or all of these free upcoming events!

10/9, noon-2pm: The Color Book Gallery, 6353 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19144. A Saturday afternoon that includes a reading of the book, activities and games for the family, and refreshments!

10/10, 10:30am-noon: Lolli Lolli Boutique, 713 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA , 19106. The perfect ‘Mommy and Me’ Sunday spent listening to a reading the book, over pastries and juice

10/21, 6pm-8pm: The Richmond Library, 2987 Almond Street Philadelphia, PA 19134-4955.  An early evening spent with Conner reading the book, and the community discussing the road those with Breast Cancer must travel

10/22, 4:45pm-6:30pm: Sweet and Sassy, 1460 Bethlehem Pike #270, North Wales, PA 19454. A fun Friday for pink pedicures, pink-frosted cupcakes , and readings of the book by local high school students who’s mothers have (or had) breast cancer.

These events and more can be found on the Events Calendar.

For more information on Kerrie Conner, her book and the ‘Maddie Movement’ please visithttp://www.mymommyhasbreastcancer.com/

 View PDF In Scoop Magazine

Author Hosts Events To Turn Kids Into Champions Against Breast Cancer
Kerri Conner, author of the book, My Mommy Has Breast Cancer, But She Is Ok as well as the founder of the Maddie Movement will be hosting several events during October to teach children ages 2-12 a basic understanding of the disease. The events include one on Oct. 1 from 7-9pm in Booktender’s Secret Garden in Doylestown. It will feaure a book reading, crafts and various activities. Another fun event includes a ‘Mommy & Me’ book reading (including pastries and snacks) at the Lolli Lolli Boutique in Philadelphia on Oct. 10 from 10:30am – noon.

See full website