In With The New...
Whether you watched Ryan and Jenny, Anderson and Kathy, or tuned in to Pitbull’s party…whether you lined up shots or slept right through it --- wherever you are right now it’s 2017 baby and we’re thrilled you stopped by to read our first post of the year!
Keeping in the spirit of “Auld Sang Lyne” and times gone by ... we’d like to toast 2016 and thank everyone who participated in our inaugural calendar. We learned so much from your strength and stories of survival. We are stoked to launch a new year with you and share of our latest calendar featuring a whole new line up of strength and survival just waiting to inspire us all.
If you attended our Pink Carpet Gala back in October, you may have met our first fierce survivor of the new year, Tish Sherwood, who represents January.
Tish was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40 but she wasn’t going to let cancer shake things up too much or stick around very long.
“I told the surgeon that I didn’t have time for cancer so we would need to fix me in three weeks between my girls’ trip to Miami, and my son Elvis’ communion. I refused to let cancer interrupt my life.”
We can say many things to describe Tish but a nice sum up would be – don’t mess with her! Not even cancer can boss her around or attempt to dim her light.
“I would be fearless, I would be funny, I would be strong, I would be shameless, and most of all I would be positive.”
Preach!
And fearless, funny, strong, shameless and positive she was. But even before breast cancer entered the scene, Tish was already all that and more with a divorce, move and new job under her belt, never missing a step or even slowing her pace. Tish was used to change and facing challenges head on. She’s pretty much one tough woman.
As she put it, she was going to handle this just like any other thing she had to do, “cancer my way – positive.”
“I tried to find the humor in everything. Right down to comparing my kerchief head and glassy eyes to my whisky drunk Ukrainian grandmother, Baba.” It was Tish’s cmix (Ukrainian for laughter - we see you Tish!) that kept her positive and those around her.
“Surrounded by friends and family we made every day a celebration. We’d shop for wigs, chat about my handsome plastic surgeon and rename my meds ‘chemo cocktails.’”
Tish never stopped laughing or challenging herself – not even after becoming cancer free. She celebrated her first cancer anniversary by completing a Spartan obstacle course and to mark two years cancer free, she participated in the NYC Marathon.
“Mind over matter. I remained strong mentally, physically, and continued to focus on fitness.”
We know everyone can’t forge ahead with such humor and gumption in the face of something as scary as breast cancer, and we don’t expect you to. We only hope hearing Tish’s story and her personal approach provides insight into someone else’s journey and way of coping. We all have our own ways of dealing with diagnosis and the battle ahead, so whatever you need to do for yourself to deal with your diagnosis; we support you and cheer you on. The best thing about this Eye Of The Survivor family is just that - we’re a family - so at the very least, no one needs to battle anything alone :)
Tish, we missed your last birthday back in November so Happy Birthday to you!
And we wish everyone the happiest New Year and thank you all for stopping by. We’ll catch up again later this month, but in the meantime, if you haven’t picked up our new calendar yet click here to get one now.
Cheers!
