Fall
X LEARN
HOW ONE SISTER IS LIVING HER DREAM BY HELPING OTHERS CREATE A MORE WHOLE SPIRIT …... .......... 13
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sis. Anesha Ali talks to several Sisters about how breast cancer has affected their lives and the ones they love. Read below
X TWO NEW BOOKS BY A SWING FOUNDER AND FELLOWMAN OF GROOVE PHI GROOVE DISCUSS HOW WE CAN TRANSFORM OUR SHORTCOMINGS INTO WEALTH AND POWER .......................... 14
X READ THE LETTER FROM THE NEW NATIONAL PRESIDENT , SIS . SHARON CHANDLER ............................. 2
2009
The Ebony pearl THE OFFICIAL VOICE OF SWING PHI SWING SOCIAL FELLOWSHIP
Not my sister: Living and surviving through breast cancer BY SIS. ANESHA ALI HEALTH AND FITNESS EDITOR
I set out to find the stories and experiences of our Swing community as they relate to breast cancer and re‐ turned with far more than I bargained for. An overwhelming number of sisters reached out with resources for treatment, stories of survival, relief over benign tumors, and tears shed for mothers, sister‐friends, and other loved ones who didn’t survive. These are their stories…
“Support means everything to a person, espe‐ Learn how to cially twenty years ago, when there weren’t do your own Sister Anita John‐ as many resources,” she claimed. Years later breast exam son of Raleigh after her mother’s diagnosis and during a rou‐ Grad knew all too tine self exam, Johnson would discover a on Page 8. well. Recalling lump in her breast. While her cyst was be‐ the day her nign, she believes that routine self exams are mother was diag‐ key to breast health, especially for younger sisters who may not nosed with breast have access to mammograms. cancer, her voice cracks as she tells Not Me! me how she cried Sister Anita Johnson said it best: “You really have to take charge Sis. Anita Johnson and her mother vacationing a n d c r i e d . of your own body.” Breast self exams should be done three to in Ft. Worth, TX last year. Shocked, and in five days after your menstrual cycle when breast tissue is most disbelief, all she consistent. While mammograms are often available to women could say was “Not my mother.” She remembers the wig they over 40, it is suggested that women begin conducting self exams st purchased for the day her mother’s hair was gone, a reality far before their 21 birthdays. It is also important to keep an accu‐ too many women face alone.
Not My Mother…
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In Letter from the President…………………………….. ……..….2 Memo from Graduate Affairs…………………………..……….3 National News…………………………………………..….…….4 Chapter News…………………………..………………….……..7
Health and Fitness………………….…………………………..12 Faith and Spirit………………………….…...…………………13 Swing Phi Book Club……………….…………...……………..14 Back Swing………….…………………….….…………………15