As the young woman gazes sadly at the iridescent glass egg on the pedestal, she remembers her beloved mother's courageous battle with breast cancer, who died a horribly painful death while she was in college and who never got to witness her granddaughter's birth. She thinks about the grandmother she never met, who was struck down by the same dread disease at 34 years of age. She is now beset with worry that she, too, might one day find a suspicious lump in her breast. What about her own daughter, who's blithely crawling about at her feet -- is she cursed as well? One thing is for certain, and that is, great advances have been made in the war against breast cancer, with more and more women not only surviving the disease, but THRIVING years after the initial diagnosis and treatment. Breast cancer is in many cases no longer a death sentence, especially if caught early -- so it's vitally important to schedule regular mammograms. This is personal for me. I am one of those pink ribbon warriors, and not only am I a survivor, but I'm a THRIVER! In October 2021 (October happens to be my birth month) I found a lump in my right breast and had it looked at by my primary care physician, who promptly scheduled me for a mammogram and a biopsy. The biopsy was positive for Stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma, which is one of the most common types of BC (there are more than 15 different types of the disease). I underwent a lumpectomy on April 12, 2022 and 19 rounds of radiation, with clear margins from the lymph nodes that were removed. My mammogram this past May: NEGATIVE. In the meantime, I am on a hormone blocker for five years to prevent the cancer from ever returning, with about four more years to go. LIFE IS GOOD! For all of you fellow women artists, please do yourselves a favor and schedule your mammogram NOW. It could mean the difference between life and death. The centerpiece of this image, the floating heart inside a glass egg surrounded by pink ribbons, is a very old, and I mean OLD freebie predating Daz Studio from Daz3d and which I was able to update using Vince Bagna's superb Poser shaders. Please click on the image to see the details, and thank you for stopping by!