Healthy Skin & Healthy Living Event Benefits Breast Cancer Awareness

Pink cocktails, red wine and white cake played second fiddle to health, philanthropy, and sisterhood on Sunday evening, when more than two dozen women united to benefit breast cancer awareness while discussing ways to help women improve their lives in meaningful ways.

The first annual Healthy Skin & Healthy Living event featured micro-presentations from skin and lifestyle experts, including become Field Business Director and Advisor Jennifer Goodrich, who spearheaded the event with the help of several other become advisors in the area.

is an approachable and affordable line of cosmeceutical skincare products. In line with the company’s goals of promoting beauty inside and out and of empowering women with confidence, Goodrich and her become sisters organized the event to help women tackle skin and health issues in their daily lives as well as in extreme health conditions, like breast cancer.

Goodrich pointed out that neither the become products nor breast cancer discriminate based on age—become can help change a woman’s skin regardless of age, just as breast cancer can change a woman’s life no matter how young or old she is. Unfortunately, she said, not everyone realizes these truths.

In particular, breast cancer is too often assumed to be a disease that affects women only later in life. This, however, is not necessarily the case. And knows that all too well.

Eleven years ago, at age 36, Kehm was diagnosed with breast cancer. But it wasn’t easy for her to get her diagnosis.

She told us that she had a difficult time getting her doctor to listen to her complaints. What’s more, Kehm said she was not eligible for mammograms under her insurance provider at the time, because she was younger than 40.

Kehm didn’t give up though. She knew something was wrong with her body and she pushed and pushed until her doctors discovered the cancer that was attacking her.

Once diagnosed, Kehm’s battle continued. In addition to the physical impairments and sickness consequent of her disease and its treatment, Kehm was faced with a situation in which she didn’t have a large number of allies. What support groups and resources she was referred to consisted mostly of older ladies with whom she could not discuss many of her practical concerns as a young woman and mother of small children.

It was this shortfall in support that Kehm decided to address after her triumph over breast cancer.

Kehm co-founded the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation (YWBCAF), a grassroots organization to create and promote awareness that women younger than 40 can get breast cancer.

The YWBCAF is open to helping women of all ages, but its primary focus is on providing cancer support and education to women younger than 45. It helps young women find patient navigation services pertinent to their age group, to address concerns such as fertility, reconstruction and child services.

One of the many important services the YWBCAF provides is support groups. A day and evening group meets monthly at various locations in the Galleria in the South Hills. Kehm said that the nonclinical atmosphere of the meeting places is crucial and is conducive to women feeling comfortable.

YWBCAF volunteer Sharon Bogert described the meetings as a great opportunity for women to obtain and share much-needed information and personal experiences. Bogert is a three-year breast cancer survivor who said she, like other survivors who participate in the groups, is proud to be able to pass information and support along to other women who need and want it.

The YWBCAF reaches out to the South Hills community both to educate and to harvest funding. Upcoming fundraising efforts include Go Pink with Panera Bread. Bagels shaped like the familiar ribbon will be sold at 29 greater-Pittsburgh Panera Bread locations throughout the month of October.

One-hundred percent of proceeds from the sale of Pink Ribbon Bagels on Oct. 4 will benefit the YWBCAF, as will a portion of proceeds from such bagel sales during the remainder of the month.

On Oct. 23, TLC’s Cake Boss Buddy Valastro will perform a two-hour interactive theater show at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum in Oakland, which will benefit the YWBCAF and other cancer support organizations.

Sunday’s event at the Houlihan’s in the Galleria was another chance for Kehm to educate on the prevalence of breast cancer in the demographic of young women. She reported that approximately 15 percent of breast cancer cases occur in women younger than 45, though such cases typically aren’t diagnosed until a late-stage.

To prevent the disease from progressing to a fatal or irreparable point, Kehm urged the women at the event to conduct monthly breast exams and visit their gynecologists annually, to respond immediately to any changes or concerns, and to not take “no” for an answer if met with clinical opposition to a mammogram or other diagnostic procedure.

This is a message, Kehm said, that needs to be spread.

Also on hand to discuss women’s health concerns were Upper St. Clair resident and wellness coach Kathy Gillen and fitness professional Sue Jones.

Gillen owns and operates Wellness Roadtrip, a wellness coaching business based on the premise that healthy living is an adventure and, at times, a trying journey.

Gillen got into wellness coaching after her fourth child was diagnosed with a metabolic mitochondrial disease whereby she was unable to convert food into energy. Gillen’s daughter was given a grim prognosis: a two-year life expectancy wrought with sickness and hospitalization.

Determined to save her child, Gillen put her daughter on a special diet consisting only of whole foods and completely void of refined sugar. Though her daughter, now 10, is infantile in because of the developmental stage at which the disease struck, she has a strong immune system and continues to stay healthy under this regiment.

Gillen used her own personal struggles as a launch pad for her professional career—a campaign on the importance of closely monitoring the foods we put in our bodies. She provides one-on-one coaching to children and families and offers group classes for children and adults at institutions such as the Bethel Library. 

Sugar, Gillen said, is the most notorious villain when it comes to poor nutrition and disease. Its digestion causes the human body to temporarily shut down vital processes, leading to a variety of problems in the body which can influence, cause or worsen a myriad of diseases or disorders, she explained.

Gillen noted that the human body starts out with 75 trillion cells, which comprise 76 organs. Jones, a become advisor, went on to discuss another vital system into which some of those residual cells aggregate: the lymphatic system.

Jones is a Peters Township resident who offers donation-based aerobics classes at the and and deals fee-based private training lessons.

She likened the functions of the lymphatic system to those of a doctor, a garbage man and a mailman, as it respectively aids the immune system, removes waste from the body and delivers plasma to nourish healthy cells.

According to Jones, exercise stimulates the lymphatic system to do its work, as does massage. And, Jones jibed, just as become skincare products lighten, brighten and tighten the face, exercise does the same to the body.

Goodrich closed out the event with a presentation of new become products and holiday sets, allowing those in attendance to sample the products and purchase them at a discounted price.

Three full sets of the new products were donated for raffle by become founder and President Stephanie White. Licensed and certified masseuse Jacquie Algaier donated a 30-minute wellness massage to the raffle. Proceeds from the raffle went to the YWBCAF.

Each gal at the event received a goodie-bag filled with pink-themed items, including pink stuffs donated by Erin Perez of Thirty-One. Door prizes like become and Thirty-One accessories were also doled out.

For more information on the YWBCAF, upcoming events and ways you can help out, visit www.youngwomensbreastcancerfoundation.com or friend The Young Womens Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation on Facebook.

And don’t forget to check out become for stellar skincare solutions. Contact advisors Jennifer Goodrich, Lyn Dempsey, Sue Jones or Andrea DeMarco to see how become can help you achieve beauty inside and out.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on Peters Patch.