The Ripple Effect – Owning my Disability Story and Advocating for Justice
I was honored to be a speaker at the Breast Implant Illness Summit 2024 sharing my story of healing and hope to empower other women, their medical teams, and their families.
I’m often told that I’m not ‘disabled’ because I’m not incapable, incompetent, or any other in-. No, I’m not any of those, but I do have Breast Implant Illness – a chronic illness that I was forced to hide for far too long due to the stigma and bias. Another engineering faculty challenged me to own my disability story to support our students, faculty, and colleagues with disabilities. Thank you, Kelly T!!
Disability runs across all other identities and is the only minority group that anyone can join, at any time, through illness, injury, accident or aging. “We are your friends. We are your family. We are your colleagues. We are you, potentially one day.” -Jamie Shields at Disabled by Society (link opens in new tab)
I am a frequent presenter on disability inclusion, the challenges of disclosure, and equitable access to STEM and Medicine. I only recently decided to share the backstory on my own long journey with BII following my mastectomy and reconstruction with Allergan recalled macro-textured saline tissue expanders and implants. My doctors and I asked all of the right questions in 1999, but didn’t receive truthful answers even though the manufacturer knew over a decade earlier about Breast Implant Associated Cancers.
I hope that sharing my story empowers women to seek the support they need, because we are not alone, and OUR STORIES MATTER. I looked pretty pale and tired during this interview, because I was! We tried to reschedule because I had a migraine, as well, but opted to wing it and be real!
Jennifer Cook – Director of BIA-ALCL Advocacy at Breast Implant Safety Alliance
Jennifer shared her story at the Breast Implant Illness Summit 2024, as well. Jennifer is the Director of BIA-ALCL Advocacy at the Breast Implant Safety Alliance (BISA) (link opens in new tab). My doctor asked for a copy of Jennifer’s and my interviews to share with colleagues as the human face of BII and BIA-xxx cancers. Summit host Sarah Phillipe gave permission to host our videos here, as well, because, to quote BISA, Knowledge is Beautiful and Not Our Daughters.
