Article by Karen J Boyd, 2014 Little Pink Mom
Shared from Scissor Excitement Facebook Page

Want to know what our Breast Cancer Awareness charity is all about? Here is our Karen’s experience with the Little Pink House of Hope organization:
So as most of you know that are patrons of Scissor Excitement, in December of 2012 I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, and then in October of 2013 I was rediagnosed, with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, unfortunately it had spread to my bones. So needless to say it has been a rough couple years!
I have been through really intense chemo, where I lost my hair, gained 20 lbs, was exhausted, and just all around felt horrible, radiation, double mastectomy and reconstruction, physical therapy, countless tests (MRI, ct scan, cat scan, echocardiogram, bone scan, pet scan, X-rays, and one really terrible throat exam I still gag thinking about, and numerous blood draws) and I still go in at this point to have a chemo that I receive every three weeks, although I am grateful that I get to keep my hair and it doesn’t make me feel completely terrible!!
So in March of 2012 I had to stop working because the chemo was just too hard on my body, and I attempted to go back in September of 2012, I worked for a week, but I was in so much pain that I had to make a trip to the er, and that’s when they gave me the news about this terrible disease spreading to my bones.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a worker, I will stay late, come in early or on my day off to make any and all of my clients happy. I truly enjoyed my job, and love people. So these last couple years have been a struggle for me to b a stay at home mom, although it has also been wonderful being able to spend so much time with my children.
So with all of the struggles mentally, emotionally and physically that come with this terrible disease, not just on me but my entire family, it has been a roller coaster ride these past couple years. So about a year ago my sister in law (who at the time lived in North Carolina) sent me a link to Little Pink Houses of Hope. It was an application for a vacation to North Carolina for my entire family, and all I had to do was pay for plane tickets! So I filled out the application, and completely forgot about it.
Then a couple months ago I received an acceptance letter in the mail telling me I has been selected for their trip to Oak Island, NC!! I’m not gonna lie I was excited and extremely skeptical. I had no Idea what to expect.
It took me a couple weeks to decide if I was going to go, or not. I was so nervous buying the plane tickets, but I did it. Then I was so nervous when we actually got there, I couldn’t believe what I had gotten myself into (I’m also a very anxious person). After we met with the little pink volunteers, we got the keys to our beach house, I was really nervous at this point!! We drove to our beautiful house near the beach I couldn’t believe it!!! It was amazing!!
I really can’t explain how wonderful it was to be on this trip with these other amazing women( there were 8 families) and a few of the volunteers were also breast cancer survivors, or had been affected by it one way or another. It felt great to meet with other women that were my age, and had kids that were my children’s ages going through what I had been through. The volunteers were amazing, and just extremely giving and sweet people.
The actual trip itself was incredible, when we met with them that first night, we were told we wouldn’t have to worry about a thing, they would take care of everything. And they were not lying! We spent the day at the beach and they had lunch delivered to us right on the beach, we spent an evening at an aquarium they had dinner catered for us, we went deep sea fishing, paddle boarding, kayaking (which was the only activity we didn’t actually do) light house climbing, date night, dinner at a few of the amazing local restaurants, pictures on the beach, we even got to see baby turtles making there little ways to the ocean(it was incredible)….. And we didn’t pay for a thing. This organization gave us a vacation from our lives, and took care of us, pretty much catered to our every want and need. I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation, spending time with my family with no worries, or cares. It was just an all around amazing experience.
And the bond that you make with these women and families, and volunteers, is such a great thing. The people that I met on this trip were amazing, my children absolutely loved the volunteers, and they had such a blast.
So, I ask that if anyone is thinking about donating to an organization this month, I hope you donate to this wonderful cause. 95% of the money donated goes directly to these trips and the women and families that have to live the reality of this disease every day. It truly is an amazing program.