No. 1 book buyer survived breast cancer HIMself

First 'Rollercoaster' purchaser is male breast cancer survivor and a support group advocate

The very first buyer of my book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," was somewhat of a surprise.

He wasn't a caregiver for his wife. He was a breast cancer patient himself.

One of the unlucky 1 percent.

Gerry Bourguignon, a regular member of the support group that I, Woody Weingarten, have been leading almost 20 years, tells on our website — www.Marin-Man-to-Man.org — of his finding an early-stage small lump in his right breast in 2009.

Gerry Bourguignon

A biopsy showed that surgery, a modified mastectomy, was necessary to remove the tumor.

Eighteen months later, he stopped taking the post-surgical med tamoxifen — it's usually recommended for five years — because of "increasingly painful side effects [that] are generally worse for men compared to women."

But he felt okay — physically.

He needed support, however, and that's why he joined (and still attends) our group.

Gerry, a PhD and retired college prof who splits his time between homes in Pollock Pines and Mill Valley, California, is now on the board of directors of the To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation — www.tocelebratelife.org — an agency that since 1996 has granted more than $4 million to fund emergency and direct services for breast cancer patients.

Its basic mission is to raise money and give financial aid to other nonprofits that help people living with the disease.

Only 1 percent of all breast cancers occur in men — about 2,400 are diagnosed in the United States annually. That compares with nearly 250,000 women, which translates into roughly one every two minutes.

More than 2 million stateside women live with the chronic disease, and about 40,000 die of it each year.

Daunting statistics, perhaps.

But, as I note in "Rollercoaster," we all must remember that "each person is an individual, not a statistic (and that breast cancer couldn't care less about race, creed, sexual orientation or politics)."

Or, in fact, gender.

Breast cancer-free trip triggers 1,200 pictures

Photos help to re-live the joys of European jaunt that marked 20 years of being cancer-free

We were sort of forced to take tons of photos in London and Paris because our recent celebratory trip abroad was so special — it commemorated Nancy Fox's being free of breast cancer for 20 years.

That bumpy two-decade journey, not incidentally, is a trip I, Woody Weingarten, documented in my new book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer."

The photos, both I and my survivor-wife figured, would fill the gap left by our short-term memories having faded a wee bit.

So I shot about 1,200 of them. 

Now, a few weeks later, I've honed them to about 200 for our personal album. Then I decided to put a baker's dozen of them right here.

You can enlarge or download any the pictures by clicking on it.

Enjoy!

And do tell me, please, which of these European trip photos you like best of all.

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Review of Woody Weingarten's caregiving book

‘Rollercoaster’ wins ardent support, labeled 'a must-read' by key psychiatrist/oncologist 

After reading pre-publication pdf’s of "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer," Kenneth G. Lerner became a passionate, vocal advocate of the book that I, Woody Weingarten, wrote.

Dr. Kenneth G. Lerner

The key psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, asserts that:

“The author not only immerses the reader in the devastating impact of this all too common affliction and its treatment on his wife, but also in the emotional rollercoaster of his experience and of the other male partners of cancer patients in his men’s group, a not often presented narrative.”

Ken, who’s also an oncologist (he worked as a staff physician at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver, B.C., Canada), goes on to say:

“His superb writing skills lead us along the path of initial discovery, diagnosis, therapeutic and reconstructive surgery, chemotherapy and irradiation to emotional and physical rehabilitation.”

And the doctor ends his endorsement with:

“This book is a must-read for anyone affected directly or indirectly by breast cancer…[It] supplies a thoughtful, well-documented and informative discussion of the various treatment options and the supports available to patients, partners and loved ones. As a physician involved for 40 years in both the medical and emotional aspects of cancer treatment, I give ‘Rollercoaster’ my most enthusiastic recommendation.”

Thanks, Ken.

Yes! No breast cancer for two decades

Jet-lagged but happy, Nancy Fox is marking 20 years of being free of 'the Big C'

Nancy Fox poses in corset and crinoline
hoop skirt at the Victoria and Albert
Museum’s dressing room in London.

I, Woody Weingarten, author of the VitalityPress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer," and my wife, Nancy Fox, just returned to the San Francisco Bay Area from London and Paris.

We’re jet-lagged but extremely happy.

While in Europe we celebrated her 20 years of being free of 'the Big C' — and her Big Number birthday (75).

We also managed to tour and party with one of Nancy’s cousins she hadn’t seen in 44 years, her prom date (whom she’d reconnected with at their 50th high school reunion), a loquacious ex-pat writer-buddy of mine, the daughter of an old friend, and a guy and a gal pal from Northern California’s Marin County.

Woody Weingarten and Nancy Fox 

stand in front of the Eiffel Tower, 

one of those paths more traveled.

We, as might be expected by anyone who knows us at all, now and then veered from the paths more traveled. For example, we:

• Reveled in a two-hour tour of street art (graffiti, mainly).

• Traveled the serene canals of London in a 108-year-old boat that used to be pulled by horses.

• Sat in on a session of England’s House of Commons (where opposition members verbally chastise men and women they call “my distinguished colleague”), and two be-wigged court trials in Old Bailey (one for credit-card fraud, the other for rape).

• Visited one antique musical instrument museum in Paris and a second in London.

• Saw the best light show ever, when computer graphics were projected onto the Rouen Cathedral that had been recreated non-digitally so many times by impressionist painter Claude Monet.

A journey to remember. For sure.