2011 wasn’t a Happy New Year for Terry Bognanno, who was diagnosed with Stage III Breast Cancer. But with support from her husband, Joseph; her daughter, Meredith Smith, who works as Director of State and Local Government Relations at RIT; and the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, she has “hope.”
“Hope is one of the greatest gifts we can be given and because of BCCR I have a responsibility as a breast cancer survivor to share my journey,” Terry says.
When Meredith learned of her mother’s illness, she contacted the Breast Cancer Coalition, a donor-designated agency of United Way, and “talked and cried at length about what we were all going through.”
“It’s like an out-of-body experience when someone you love tells you they have cancer,” Meredith recalls. “You’ve got to have somebody to partner with to get through it because mental attitude is just as much a part of the recovery. BCCR gave us the knowledge, resources and support—and yes, they gave us hope.”
LIVE UNITED…2012
