When Rose Rehert Kushner and I were four and five years old in Baltimore, Maryland, we were neighbors and friends. Many years later, I read her book and articles concerning breast cancer, not realizing that I would also become entangled in the cancer of the breast. In 1989, I felt a lump in my left breast. and to my dismay discovered that the cancer had been misdiagosed two years previously. The mammogram had been misread. Despite errors, noncern, and arrogance displayed by my physicians and HMO, I finally came under the care and capability of a veteran accomplished breast surgeon.

Following chemo and radiation treatments, I "found" myself -- not my old self, of course. I volunteered to speak before high school students, utilize publicity, and generally assist in Hadassah's "Check It Out" successful breast cancer awareness program. My manuscript -- part verse, part prose -- "Down Mammary Lane or I'd Rather Have My Ears Pierced" has not yet been published, but I have quoted from it before audiences.

Yes, in the long run, Rose Kushner and I shared more than child's play.

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