Under wraps

Dear readers, it’s fair to say blog posts have been hard to come by lately for me. What with the unexpected death of my dear friend Rach in February I find myself immersed in grief and selfishly only doing things for myself. Gardening and creativity.

But, some days, for all your experience, all your wisdom, and for all your just knowing things the way only women do, you walk into a situation where you cannot be other than belittled and patronised. Just like I did last week. I  wished and wished I could have shared this experience with Rach, I can just imagine her response. And, equally, I can also hear her saying, ‘You have to blog about this Sarah, you just have to!’ I know she would say that.

Here’s what happened.

The other week I received a phone message out of the blue from a film producer who’s making a documentary about ‘the dangers of breast screening’ – his words. He’s someone who I know in Liverpool and very occasionally, like every few years, will bump into him, but we’re only on that level of knowing each other. I’m intrigued by his message

Has Komen ‘lost the brand’?

Don’t worry, you’re not really on Komen’s website

A tongue in cheek guest post here from Ronnie, a born satirist. The thinking being that satire might be able to get to the heart of a serious matter, in a way that more straightforward social critiques sometimes don’t. 

“First, a word of explanation may be necessary for our readers not based in the United States. ‘Komen’ in this post is ‘Susan G. Komen for the Cure’ - the most widely known, largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States, but one that has been criticized for its use of donor funds, as well as its choice of sponsor affiliations and its role in commercial cause marketing. In early 2012 Komen took a controversial decision to cut its funding of Planned Parenthood, a decision widely seen as politically biased and revealing Komen’s close association with the Republican Party. The decision was reversed within a few days, but the damage to Komen’s reputation is considered by many to be serious, permanent and possibly final.

Over here in Liverpool, I’d heard of Komen, of course. But my interest was particularly piqued when a British newspaper, The Guardian, started reporting in detail on the Planned Parenthood issue, quoting our friend Gayle Sulik, talking about pink culture organisations in general, and Komen and its recent difficulties in particular:

‘Komen is the largest and is held up as the gold standard. But it is just part of it,’ she said. ‘There’s the conflict of interest, with regard to the companies associated with pharma and diagnostic tools, who stand to benefit from treatment. Then ‘pinkwash’, where products might be carcinogenic, to unhealthy products like M&Ms. I’ve even heard of Pub Crawls for the Cure. It’s part of the general culture.’

Gayle Sulik, sociologist and author of ‘Pink Ribbon Blues’, said pinkwashing is only the beginning of how ‘breast cancer culture’ undermines women’s health. Sulik, a researcher at the University at Albany Department of Women’s Studies said that the culture has caused a split in advocacy groups between those focussed on awareness and education, like Komen, and others.

‘Komen is under investigation by the public. So far I don’t see the public being very forgiving. There is so much product placement, so many huge events,’ said Sulik. ‘It will be interesting to see what happens next.’

So then, on with our tale. Let’s see what might have happened next…

So not right

February 2012. Flying to New Jersey to say goodbye to Rach.

On the way home from New Jersey I find myself in a window seat next to two British women on the plane. They were sitting in front of me on the way over and I remember them, they are happy, laughing, enjoying themselves. The inevitable ‘what did you do?’ conversation ensues. They’ve done ‘everything’ in New York, having travelled over to see Barry Manilow in concert (does he still play I wonder to myself, although the women tell me he wasn’t well and the concert was cancelled.) So when it’s my turn I just say I went to a funeral. ‘Oh,’ they say. ‘My friend died,’ I say. ‘Of breast cancer,’ I say. They look at me. ‘How old was she?’ they ask. ‘Forty-one,’ I say. ‘Oh,’ they say. ‘It fucking pisses me off good style,’ I say. I don’t mean to swear but I’m so angry. And all this last week I’ve been having very short conversations which punctuate very long silences which consist of few words, ‘This fucking sucks.’ Because it does.

I look out the window. The runway, we’re moving out now. ‘American?’ they ask. ‘No,’ I say, ‘Australian British.’ ‘How old?’ they say, again. ‘Forty-one,’ I say. ‘Yes, we know a girl‘, they say, ’27,’ they say, ‘with a daughter. Yes, she left a daughter behind.’

Oh, I think, so that’s worse than Rach is it?

I can hear music

A Sky of Honey, in times of trouble

Ronnie here, with some music. Because we need it now.

When I find myself in times of trouble, music always comes to me.

When I can’t even bear the sounds of silence, I need music. Not any old music, though. Very particular music.

On the day Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer almost five years ago, we could hardly speak for shock and fear. But neither could we stand the raw sounds of our own tears and trepidation to be the only sounds in the room. So we listened to Kate Bush, over and over and over. Not the whole of her work. Or even the whole of her ‘Aerial’ album. Just the long continuous suite on one CD of it called ‘A sky of honey’. The joyous journey of a day, on our least joyous of days. And Kate didn’t make it all better. How could anyone? But we both uttered one word for what she did that day. One word that we’ve used on all the other days so tough we’ve had to send for her again. ‘Balm’.

What is this ‘balm’? How does it feel?

Oh Rach

The Skyping begins. Rachel interviewing Sarah for her Can Do Women blog, January 2011

Still Ronnie, standing in while Sarah is New Jersey.

Is it still too soon? I want to write Rachel something lovely. Something as good as anything I’ve ever written. (Something as beautiful as her friend Chemobabe’s eulogy, or as world-changingly essential as Gayle’s) She deserves at least that. But I can’t, yet. I need to take the fact and my feelings about her death to the park, to the cathedral, to the river – to my sacred places. I need to tell them about her. And my sense of loss. Until I’ve done that I won’t find the words, my words, for my friend Rachel.

So, for now, here is a very short poem.