Angela’s Journey: Top Lawyer to Breast Cancer Survivor and Founder of Family Dog Rescue and many things.
This woman is a Rock Star in my book.
By Stefanie Atkinson Schwartz
In an instant, Angela’s identity transformed from successful lawyer to cancer patient.
When breast cancer hit, Angela was enjoying great success in her career as an attorney at Morrison & Foerster. She had just been named one of the “Top 20 Under 40” lawyers in the State of California by the Daily Journal’s California Law Business. She had also just been profiled in a national legal magazine as a “Portrait of Success” for “excelling in unprecedented areas of the law.”
I met Angela and her recently adopted baby, Isabella, in 2002, soon after Angela had been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Angela asked me to document her journey, adamant that it would be a journey “to recovery and it should be recorded.” She said if a tree fell in the forest she would want to be sure it was heard. I have been a quiet witness to intimate, frightening, precious and wonderful moments of Angela’s journey. From the moment that I met her in 2002, until the present in 2016, Angela has truly made the world a better place through her work as a passionate advocate for young women living with breast cancer and for homeless animals.
I am astounded by how much one person - and all the people who love and support them - can do to bring healing into our midst. Angela is one of those people. She told me most recently, “Whenever I see suffering, I feel I must step forward to help.”
In 2003, Angela envisioned a fundraising and community-building event where she could share many of the ground-breaking images seen here. Angela invited her friends Ruth Borenstein and Deb Mosley, who, like Angela, had also battled invasive breast cancer and were also attorneys at Morrison & Foerster, to create the event with her.
Angela, Ruth, and Deb came together and created a group they called RAD, which fundraised and raised $45,000 in a single evening. Angela underwrote the event so that 100% of the raised money could go to Breast Cancer Action and Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic. This exhibit was also shown at San Francisco City Hall and at national breast cancer conferences throughout California.
As a young mom with a 6-month old baby, Angela felt very isolated when she was first diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. She couldn’t find any support groups for women under 40 with breast cancer, and felt that the issues and concerns she was having as a new mom and younger woman were very different than the support groups she could find.
In early 2004, Angela decided to start a support group for young women in their 20s and 30s living with breast cancer. She asked her good friend and colleague Deb Mosley to join her. Together, Angela and Deb started BAYS Bay Area Young Survivors, Northern California’s first-ever support and action group for young women living with breast cancer.
http://baysnet.org
Since then, BAYS has grown to serve over 1,000 women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with primary and metastatic breast cancer, as well as long-term survivors. BAYS provides monthly support groups, community activities such as hikes and get-togethers, and an annual challenge hike in places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite’s Half Dome.
I worked with BAYS member Lynnly Labovitz, a professional photographer, to give life to her vision of teaching other young women to tell their cancer stories. We were awarded a grant from Bay Area Video Coalition for our Digital Storytelling Workshop, which we called “The Bravery Project.” BAYS member Jane Bresnick and BAYS facilitator Merijane Block were part of this work. Jane needed to tell the story of her experience with whole brain radiation, including the dreaded radiation mask. I videotaped Jane’s “Teacher-Warrior” documentary, which tells this story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vVaIgKHB30
In 2010, six years after launching BAYS, Angela founded a second non-profit organization, Family Dog Rescue. www.ilovefamilydog.org
Volunteering with shelter dogs had given Angela enormous peace and inspiration during her cancer treatment. Angela says that “working with homeless dogs helped to save my life.” She decided to return the favor by starting an all-breed dog rescue organization that specializes in dogs who are sick, injured, or disabled. Angela calls this “the work of my heart.”
Victoria Simpson created a wonderful short documentary, “Why the World Needs Family Dog Rescue,” that tells the story of how Angela’s struggle with breast cancer led her to start Family Dog Rescue.
https://youtu.be/oWRg_a-SpWU
In 2016, Angela was awarded a prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service, in recognition of her work founding BAYS and Family Dog Rescue.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/10/family-dog-rescue-pairs-dogs-at-risk-with-loving-homes/
I feel honored to have been witness and be part of Angela's Journey.
This woman is a Rock Star in my book.
By Stefanie Atkinson Schwartz
In an instant, Angela’s identity transformed from successful lawyer to cancer patient.
When breast cancer hit, Angela was enjoying great success in her career as an attorney at Morrison & Foerster. She had just been named one of the “Top 20 Under 40” lawyers in the State of California by the Daily Journal’s California Law Business. She had also just been profiled in a national legal magazine as a “Portrait of Success” for “excelling in unprecedented areas of the law.”
I met Angela and her recently adopted baby, Isabella, in 2002, soon after Angela had been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Angela asked me to document her journey, adamant that it would be a journey “to recovery and it should be recorded.” She said if a tree fell in the forest she would want to be sure it was heard. I have been a quiet witness to intimate, frightening, precious and wonderful moments of Angela’s journey. From the moment that I met her in 2002, until the present in 2016, Angela has truly made the world a better place through her work as a passionate advocate for young women living with breast cancer and for homeless animals.
I am astounded by how much one person - and all the people who love and support them - can do to bring healing into our midst. Angela is one of those people. She told me most recently, “Whenever I see suffering, I feel I must step forward to help.”
In 2003, Angela envisioned a fundraising and community-building event where she could share many of the ground-breaking images seen here. Angela invited her friends Ruth Borenstein and Deb Mosley, who, like Angela, had also battled invasive breast cancer and were also attorneys at Morrison & Foerster, to create the event with her.
Angela, Ruth, and Deb came together and created a group they called RAD, which fundraised and raised $45,000 in a single evening. Angela underwrote the event so that 100% of the raised money could go to Breast Cancer Action and Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic. This exhibit was also shown at San Francisco City Hall and at national breast cancer conferences throughout California.
As a young mom with a 6-month old baby, Angela felt very isolated when she was first diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. She couldn’t find any support groups for women under 40 with breast cancer, and felt that the issues and concerns she was having as a new mom and younger woman were very different than the support groups she could find.
In early 2004, Angela decided to start a support group for young women in their 20s and 30s living with breast cancer. She asked her good friend and colleague Deb Mosley to join her. Together, Angela and Deb started BAYS Bay Area Young Survivors, Northern California’s first-ever support and action group for young women living with breast cancer.
http://baysnet.org
Since then, BAYS has grown to serve over 1,000 women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with primary and metastatic breast cancer, as well as long-term survivors. BAYS provides monthly support groups, community activities such as hikes and get-togethers, and an annual challenge hike in places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite’s Half Dome.
I worked with BAYS member Lynnly Labovitz, a professional photographer, to give life to her vision of teaching other young women to tell their cancer stories. We were awarded a grant from Bay Area Video Coalition for our Digital Storytelling Workshop, which we called “The Bravery Project.” BAYS member Jane Bresnick and BAYS facilitator Merijane Block were part of this work. Jane needed to tell the story of her experience with whole brain radiation, including the dreaded radiation mask. I videotaped Jane’s “Teacher-Warrior” documentary, which tells this story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vVaIgKHB30
In 2010, six years after launching BAYS, Angela founded a second non-profit organization, Family Dog Rescue. www.ilovefamilydog.org
Volunteering with shelter dogs had given Angela enormous peace and inspiration during her cancer treatment. Angela says that “working with homeless dogs helped to save my life.” She decided to return the favor by starting an all-breed dog rescue organization that specializes in dogs who are sick, injured, or disabled. Angela calls this “the work of my heart.”
Victoria Simpson created a wonderful short documentary, “Why the World Needs Family Dog Rescue,” that tells the story of how Angela’s struggle with breast cancer led her to start Family Dog Rescue.
https://youtu.be/oWRg_a-SpWU
In 2016, Angela was awarded a prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service, in recognition of her work founding BAYS and Family Dog Rescue.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/10/family-dog-rescue-pairs-dogs-at-risk-with-loving-homes/
I feel honored to have been witness and be part of Angela's Journey.
Notes from the Exhibition night by Ruth Borenstein
ANGELA’S JOURNEY
November 14, 2003
I want to welcome you to this remarkable and moving exhibit, Angela’s Journey: Breast Cancer Hits Home. The exhibit is the result of a unique collaboration between Angela Padilla and her family, who are the subjects of the photographs you see here tonight, and photographer Stefanie Atkinson. Stefanie both documented, and was an integral part of, Angela’s journey to recovery, and, with Angela, conceived of and spent countless hours making tonight’s event a reality.
My name is Ruth Borenstein, and along with Deb Mosley, I helped Angela and Stefanie organize this event. I want to start the program by telling you a few things about Angela, Deb, and myself. Among other things:
Having seen this exhibit, I assume you all understand that Angela is a breast cancer warrior.
But I use term “warrior” because it helps convey that breast cancer does not end with the completion of surgery, or chemotherapy, or radiation.
I speak for all of us when I thank you for your support of this event, and for all the support you have given us through our individual journeys.
Now I want to introduce you to some other remarkable women.
Before we conclude the program, I want to thank you again, on behalf of Angela, Deb, Stefanie, and myself, for coming and for generously supporting the event. Although we don’t yet know how much we collected at the door tonight, we received contributions and pledges in advance of the event totaling more than $36,000. And as I said before, every penny will go to Charlotte Maxwell and BCA. (updated that 45,000 was raised)
But I also want to ask you to remember Charlotte Maxwell and BCA in your charitable giving not just by supporting this event, but also in years to come. (And if you can give more this year, that of course would be welcome too). To help you do that, we have information and donation envelopes at the door.
So thank you again for coming, and enjoy the rest of the evening.
ANGELA’S JOURNEY
November 14, 2003
I want to welcome you to this remarkable and moving exhibit, Angela’s Journey: Breast Cancer Hits Home. The exhibit is the result of a unique collaboration between Angela Padilla and her family, who are the subjects of the photographs you see here tonight, and photographer Stefanie Atkinson. Stefanie both documented, and was an integral part of, Angela’s journey to recovery, and, with Angela, conceived of and spent countless hours making tonight’s event a reality.
My name is Ruth Borenstein, and along with Deb Mosley, I helped Angela and Stefanie organize this event. I want to start the program by telling you a few things about Angela, Deb, and myself. Among other things:
- We are all lawyers who work at Morrison & Foerster
- We are all acupuncture clients of Beverly Burns, who is one of our guest speakers tonight
- We have all relied on Barbara Brenner, who is our other guest speaker, for information about treatment and referrals
- And we are all “breast cancer warriors”
Having seen this exhibit, I assume you all understand that Angela is a breast cancer warrior.
- She had the foresight to work with Stefanie Atkinson from almost the first moment she was diagnosed with breast cancer to have Stefanie document her journey to recovery
- She has the courage to have these pictures displayed to her friends and colleagues, so that we can all understand the realities of breast cancer and its treatment
- And she had the generous spirit to underwrite the substantial costs of the exhibit so that every dollar of every donation would go to the two wonderful organizations that are the beneficiaries of tonight’s event
But I use term “warrior” because it helps convey that breast cancer does not end with the completion of surgery, or chemotherapy, or radiation.
- In Angela’s words, breast cancer “is not a sports injury” that you leave behind you after treatment.
- Instead it is a disease that we battle throughout our lives, always living with the threat that it may return and may metastasize in other parts of our bodies.
- Unfortunately, we were faced head-on with that reality as we were planning this event, and Deb learned that her cancer had metastasized.
- And so, when you see her here tonight, full of her usual charm and humor while she prepares for the next phase of her treatment, you know that Deb too is a breast cancer warrior.
I speak for all of us when I thank you for your support of this event, and for all the support you have given us through our individual journeys.
Now I want to introduce you to some other remarkable women.
- First, Stefanie Atkinson who took these amazing photographs, and was part of Angela’s journey, every step of the way. Stefanie has decided to let her work and her many contributions to this event speak for her tonight. I’m sure you will agree with me that they speak eloquently for her. (have Stefanie come up)
- Beverly Burns is the medical director of the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic, which provides acupuncture and other alternative therapies to low income women with breast cancer. Having benefited from those therapies ourselves, and being fortunate enough to be able to afford them, Angela, Deb and I know how important the Clinic’s work is. (have Beverly speak)
- Barbara Brenner is the ED of Breast Cancer Action, a breast cancer advocacy group often referred to as the bad girls of breast cancer. I’m sure you’ll understand why after you’ve heard from Barbara. (have Barbara speak)
Before we conclude the program, I want to thank you again, on behalf of Angela, Deb, Stefanie, and myself, for coming and for generously supporting the event. Although we don’t yet know how much we collected at the door tonight, we received contributions and pledges in advance of the event totaling more than $36,000. And as I said before, every penny will go to Charlotte Maxwell and BCA. (updated that 45,000 was raised)
But I also want to ask you to remember Charlotte Maxwell and BCA in your charitable giving not just by supporting this event, but also in years to come. (And if you can give more this year, that of course would be welcome too). To help you do that, we have information and donation envelopes at the door.
So thank you again for coming, and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Below are flyers that were given out at the exhibit.
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