How Nurse Margaret M. Forker Is Honoring Breast Cancer Survivors

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we asked Patch readers to share their breast cancer journeys on Patch. This is Nurse Margaret M. Forker's letter to her mother and all other breast cancer survivors:

I always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up because my mother was a teacher, and I was a student in the school she taught at. I saw her every day at home and school except on the days she was sick and she could not teach.

When I was 8, my 7-year-old sister and I went to visit her at the hospital where she seemed to be spending more and more time away from us. When the nurse brought her down to the lobby in a wheelchair to see us, we all started to cry because we were so happy to see each other. The nurse was crying, too. The nurse knew what my sister and I did not: My mother was dying of metastatic breast cancer at the age of 40.

I was not sure what a nurse was, but as the visit went on, that one seemed very nice and funny. She made us laugh, she had a cool flashlight, and she showed us how to use her stethoscope to listen to our mother’s loving heart. Many years later I decided on nursing as a career and now I work in a radiation oncology clinic as part of a wonderful team providing treatment, support, smiles, and hugs to a wide variety of patients on their cancer journey.

Much progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer through funding and research, and there is always more to do. I walked Sunday, October 7, 2018 as part of the DMG Rad Onc ‘Beam On’ Hope team in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in memory of my mother, Hannah, in honor of our DMG and all breast cancer survivors, and in honor of all the nurses and care providers who are there for support.

Please help me continue the fight to find a cure with a donation to me or to the DMG Rad Onc ‘Beam On’ Hope team. Thank you!

—Margaret M. Forker RN, BSN

See more stories from other breast cancer survivors, fighters and supporters, here.

To learn more about breast cancer or how you can help, please visit The National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Image Credit: Margaret M. Forker