Your Pink Dish! Stories

Every Pink Dish! Story is a meaningful tribute to those whose lives have been touched and changed by breast cancer – and a powerful example of how sharing experiences can increase awareness and save lives.

We hope you’ll take a moment to read our Pink Dish! stories and those shared below.

If you have an experience you’d like to share, please add a Pink Dish! story as well. For every Pink Dish! Story we receive, Let’s Dish! will donate $5.00 to the Pink Dish! Campaign.

If you’d like to share a story with us, but would not like it posted on this website, please email your story to pinkdish@letsdish.net

Holy Cow! Thank goodness I got my "Let's Dish" email reminder! I have a mastectomy scheduled for Friday, Oct 21, and I have an empty freezer! I need to come and dish ASAP. Briefly...I'm 62 years old and at the end of March, I had my annual physical and mammogram. I was told that all is well. However, 4 months later at the end of July...I found "the lump". No family history of breast cancer. I have since found out that sometimes a mammo can't see through the dense breast tissue to recognize "the lump". ASK if you have dense breast tissue. If you do, INSIST on a sonogram versus, or in addition to, a mammogram. My husband, family and friends have rallied around and surrounded me with love and the strength to face whatever lies ahead. Am I scared....OH YEAH!! Can I do this and win? OH YEAH!!! But I think I'll do better after the surgery if I "Dish" first! Wish me luck!!

—Linda Downer (Ashburn)

Dishes in Ashburn

Our neighborhood had a Pink Lemonade Stand to raise money for a neighbor and friend with breast cancer. Her is a video from our local tv station.

http://www.twelve.tv/news/newsitem.aspx?newsid=324&newsitemid=16736

—R Robinson (Maple Grove, MN)

Dishes in Maple Grove, MN

I first heard about Let's Dish from my sister Molly, when she spoke of her close friend Elizabeth, who was then battling breast cancer for the second time. During her treatments, Elizabeth served Let's Dish meals as part of a campaign to provide as normal a life as possible for her three children. Elizabeth dished throughout her fight with cancer as often as she felt well enough (and her husband Mike dished when she was too ill). Molly would tell me how, most remarkably, Elizabeth would sometimes bring meals to OTHER friends who were ill or recovering from surgery, on her way home from dishing sessions. Such amazing generosity and selflessness! Thus, in my mind Let's Dish and the fight against breast cancer have always been linked. When Mike and the children lost Elizabeth to this horrible disease, I brought them a meal, and we became friends. Mike continues to dish as a way of handling meals as a single dad. He also walks in Elizabeth's gracious footsteps and shares his meals with my and other families. As a direct result, I began dishing with my teenage daughter, who loves Let's Dish so much that now she works there! I attribute her (OUR!) joy, and the great meals our family eats, to the unselfish love of these friends, demonstrated when they themselves were enduring the most difficult trials. Thank you, Let's Dish, for helping so many families, and God bless Elizabeth and Mike.

—Paula Burzio (Annandale)

Dishes in Alexandria

I love this campaign! I am a breast cancer survivor and after my first surgery my best friend, Fran, filled our freezer with Let's Dish food. What a blessing not to have to worry about what my husband and kids would eat. She never even asked, she just did it! If your lucky enough to have a friend like Fran, your lucky enough !

—Pam Hinkle (Shenandoah Junction, WV)

I turned 40 in June 2009 and was told to schedule my first mammogram. I put it off until I noticed a lump in my left breast in Nov 2009. After lots of tests, biopsies, etc. it was determined on Dec 24, 2009 that I did, in fact, have breast cancer. I am married with two children (age 7 and 5) and the hardest thing to do was explain breast cancer to them. Luckily, a friend found a great article from the American Cancer Society that explained it in age-related terms--the article was incredibly helpful! I started chemotherapy in January 2010. I had five months of chemotherapy and lost my hair. I have to say that I did not mind losing the hair on my legs and under my arms--it was a relief not to have to shave! I had a bilateral mastectomy in June 2010 and it was a pretty tough recovery. Then I had 25 radiation treatments in August and September. I have been incredibly blessed with amazing family and friends who really helped me and my family during this past year. I know it sounds funny to say that I feel lucky, but I do. I am lucky to be alive and I am lucky to have the family and friends that I have. I am definitely a changed person and appreciate the little things so much more. The things I missed the most when I was going through chemo were the little things like helping my kids get ready for bed, reading to them, taking them to school, taking them to parties and on field trips. I'm not done yet--I still have reconstruction to go through--but I am thrilled to be alive and looking forward to being around for a long time,especially to see my kids grow up.

—Terri Farley

Dishes in Ashburn, VA

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on July 30th, 2009. At the time I was 35 years old, I turned 36 on August 3rd, and until then healthy. I am married and have a 4 year old daughter.
Being diagnosed was just the start of the rollar coaster that some days rolls so fast I'm dizzy and other days moves so slow I want to jump off. After two surgeries all of the cancer has been removed and I start chemotherapy in mid October.
I'm hopeful that after a year of treaments, I will be cancer free and have a long healthy life ahead of me.

—Donna Canuel (Catonsville)

Dishes in Baltimore

I left your store tonight and my friend told me about your campaign and how appropriate because tomorrow I go for a double mastectomy-I'm 39 years old two little children, I'm a t eacher and I have breast cancer- it is so hard to say realize how life is going to change. Everyone talks about Hope I'm not feeling so hopefull. But it was nice to have my let's dish ready to go for my family while I can recoup. thanks

—Mary Patterson (Alexandria)

Dishes in Alexandria

In the summer of 2007 my mother, Rita Windish, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 72 years old, but very physically fit, up until that point. She was even a competitor in swimming and race walking in the Senior Olympics, regionally and nationally. When our family heard she would have to go through chemo, we all figured it would be a challenging fall, but that she would be fine by Christmas. I entered her in the Pink Dish Campaign as a recipient of meals, because my dad cannot cook at all!
After my mom's second chemo treatment, she had to go to the ER because she was having difficulty breathing, and unfortunately, she never came home. She had an unusual reaction to her chemotherapy and her body organs shut down one after another. In a week, she was gone and we were all in shock. My dad was so upset and unable to cope, that he did not go home, but stayed with my family for 4 months.
Soon after my mother's death, I received an email from Let's Dish, saying that my mom had "won" the free meals through Pink Dish. I responded back to tell them this was no longer necessary, but they kindly offered the meals to my family., With 4 children and my dad living here and being in a "fog" for a long time, these meals were an incredible help to me and my family. Thank you to all of you for your help and support in an incredibly difficult time in our lives.

—Carolyn Hiskey (Annapolis)

Dishes in Columbia