From Kayelle:

For three days I’m sharing stories by various authors about
how they or a family member faced cancer. Reading their posts is inspiring and
touching. The importance of friends and family, and having a support system is
vital. From what I’ve read, the key to success includes being able to ask for
help — and then being willing to accept it. It’s a lesson I’ve had in my own
life during various times. I don’t accept help well. It’s something I fight
with all the time. I’d like to think “I’ve got this” — but sometimes
I don’t have as good a grip as I thought I did. I have a friend who’s dealing
with cancer right now. My business partner’s brother just died from cancer. It affects
all of us. Reading these helps me understand better. I hope I’m even half as
good a friend as those you’ll read about in this series.

I’m presenting these as an opportunity for the authors to
share their real life stories, as well as their fictional ones. Links to follow
the authors and to purchase their books are provided.

Today’s authors are Terry Irene Blain and Christine MacKenzie. Jump to the end for info on how you can help purchase mammogram equipment.

—

I had surgery for breast cancer in June of 2013, followed by
chemo and radiation and currently on a hormone therapy. All this is part of the
clinical trial to see if chemo is really necessary for the type of cancer I had.
This is the positive as this maybe help not only my daughters-in-law but my granddaughter.

The chemo really wiped me out, but fortunately my husband was
there to take care help me out as all the energy just left me. The doctor always
commented on my positive attitude. How could I not have a positive attitude when
I had the support of my husband, our kids are grown and on their own. I saw so many
others who were worse off than I; how could I complain? Women who still were trying
to work, or had small children. Or on their second go round of chemo. I felt lucky.

I wasn’t able to do much writing while on chemo as I had absolutely
no energy. When chemo finished and during radiation I started to do more. Finally
able to go grocery shopping instead of sending my husband with a list. Also started
to get back to the computer and do some writing. Going to my RWA Chapter meeting
and talking to other authors was uplifting. Friends are great at helping you out.

It’s taken me about a year to feel like I’m back to normal. To
top it off, my annual mammogram was good. So I’m now an official survivor. The only
negative? I’ve never liked the color pink. But you can’t have everything.

Terry Irene Blain

Looking for thrills, practical Sarah signs up to be a schoolteacher
on a western movie set and gets more than she’s looking for with cowboy
stuntman Kit Stewart, adventure with a capital A.

Her Cowboy

He was tall and whipcord lean, just like a hero out of the
old movies that were her favorites. His grey hat was pushed back on his head,
revealing again that curly dark blond hair. Today he wore no chaps, but that
didn’t stop her from instinctually checking out his backside. Nothing like
Levi’s and boots to make a man look manly.

Boroughs Publishing http://boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/sarahs-cowboy

Terry Irene Blain was lucky enough to grow up in a
large Midwestern family with a rich oral tradition. As a child she heard
stories of ancestors’ adventures with Indians, wildlife, weather and frontier
life in general, so she naturally gravitated to the study of history and
completed a BA and MA then taught the subject at the college level. Married to
a sailor, now retired, she’s had the chance to live in various parts of the
country as well as travel to foreign places such as Hong Kong, Australia,
England and Scotland.

Escape to the West with a romantic adventure

Website: http://www.terryireneblain.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TerryIreneBlain

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TerryBlainAuthor

—

“Thank you so much, Kayelle,
for having me on your blog today to highlight such a worthwhile cause.

When a woman hears the words ‘You
have Breast Cancer’. The first thing that hits her is how immensely powerful
the word, Cancer, actually is. Dealing with the shock, and then immediately
telling my mother, my daughters, was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my
life. Then we’re caught up in the whirlwind of surgical appointments, the surgery
itself, the outcome of tests, and it sometimes feels as if we’re trapped on a
roller coaster and can’t jump off.

Three years and a mastectomy
later, and I’m truly blessed to be cancer free. People ask me how I remained so
upbeat and positive. My response is that I didn’t have a choice! But the real
answer is that cancer did me the biggest favor of my life. My secret dream was
‘One Day’ to be a writer, a romance writer. However, in spite of winning
competitions, receiving positive feedback, the fear of not being good enough
always held me back.

The day I was diagnosed with
breast cancer was the day I lost the fear of failure. And I also realized that
‘One Day’ may never come unless I grabbed every opportunity that came along.
Eight books later, with eleven more in the pipeline, I’ve never been happier.

And this is where I come to the
two young women who inspired me to write, The Fall of Jacob Del Garda. Two
years ago, I was sitting in my breast surgeon’s waiting room. Sitting next to
me were twins, girls aged twenty-three, blonde and gorgeous. They were laughing
and joking with each other, and I assumed they were there offering support to a
mother or even a grandmother. It didn’t occur to me that breast cancer would be
an issue for them. So we got chatting, and it became clear that one of the
girls had undergone a double mastectomy six months before, and she’d just been
diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. The positive way she was dealing with
such a blow, truly inspired me. Then her sister told me how she, too, was about
to undergo a bilateral double mastectomy after genetic testing revealed that
the twins carried the BRCA1/2 gene mutation. But surely they were too young?
After a long chat with my surgeon, I realized that diagnosing breast cancer in
women under thirty-five using traditional mammogram technologies was extremely
difficult due to the tissue density of young breasts. What was needed were the
new digital mammograms manufactured by Siemens. Our local hospital was in the
process of raising money for a new mammogram suite. I remember promising my
doctor I would write a story about twins who were dealing with BRCA1/2 genetic
mutation. And that the proceeds of the book would go towards the cause.

And so The Fall of Jacob Del
Garda is out now. All author royalties from Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Nook,
GooglePlus, Smashwords, received during the month of October will be donated to
the appeal.

And on an update on the twins –
they’re both well and married to two wonderful men. How’s that for A Happy Ever
After! I couldn’t write a better ending myself.

–Christine.

Website http://ccmackenzie.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/CCMacKenzie1

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CCMzie

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HERE To Receive News of CC’s Latest Releases

The Fall of Jacob Del Garda

Twin sisters – twice the trouble

Twelve months after disappearing from Jacob’s life, the woman
who broke his heart, supermodel Gabriella Dolman, is back. But things have changed.
Now Gabriella is a photographer – still fabulously beautiful – but no longer glamorous,
and no longer looking for love. Though Gabriella claims she just wants to move on
without him, Jacob’s pretty certain that her reaction to their red-hot kisses implies
otherwise.

Tobin Gillespie believes in taking a stand, and he never turns
his back on a challenge. So when his work as a PR guru brings research scientist
Sophie Dolman back into his life, her obnoxious behavior and lethal put downs aren’t
enough to put him off – quite the reverse. And the more they clash, the more determined
he is to break down the wall around her heart and claim it for his own.

World-wide October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. All author
royalties earned by The Fall of Jacob Del Garda for the month of October will be
donated to an appeal for a digital mammogram that detects changes in breast tissue
for women aged 20-40. Please share.

World-wide October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. All author
royalties earned by The Fall of Jacob Del Garda for the month of October will be
donated to an appeal for a digital mammogram that detects changes in breast tissue
for women aged 20-40. Please share.

iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-fall-of-jacob-del-garda/id908743174?mt=1

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Jacob-Garda-Ludlow-Story-ebook/dp/B00MOURPUM

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/CC_MacKenzie_The_Fall_of_Jacob_Del_Garda?id=H09EBAAAQBAJ

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/466402

Kobo http://smarturl.it/jjacobkobo