There is nothing unusual about a non-profit organization publishing a calendar. There is something very unique about this one. Life is a Carnival is a bold approach to mastectomy and reconstruction education.

This 2008 calendar features photos from FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered members who have undergone bilateral mastectomy -- with or without reconstruction. To retain the anonymity of the models, they are wearing mardi gras masks.

This project is meant to celebrate life after mastectomy, to showcase many types of reconstruction and non reconstruction options in a nonthreatening and positive light. The calendar contains information about the models surgery with references included to the chapters in the Breast Reconstruction Guidebook which explains each procedure. A secondary goal of this calendar is to raise needed funds for FORCE programs.

According to a New England Journal of Medicine article, the answer is no. Women with the breast cancer mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2 seem to have similar survival rates as women without these gene mutations.

A clinical trial was conducted including 1,500 patients. The researchers wanted to see if the patients with gene mutations had worse outcomes then those that did not have the gene mutations.

The researchers found:

• Overall, deaths rates from breast cancer were not significantly different among patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from those without the mutations.
• Among patients who underwent treatment with chemotherapy, death rates from breast cancer were not significantly different between patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from those without the mutations.

I loved Ann's story, you will too. Ann is a fellow young breast cancer survivor. She lost her mother at a young age to breast cancer. Ann has two sons and when she was diagnosed she knew that she had to handle the situation differently when it came to telling her children what was going on. When she was young and her mother was diagnosed the family tried to protect her by not giving her information about what was going on with her mom. She knows first hand how that approach, though well meaning, only made her more scared and confused. Ann has a lot of good advice to share and feels honored to share her story with us. You can also read more about Ann in her blog called The Life Journal of Geeky Gal.

FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered is a nonprofit organization for women with increased risk of cancer due to family history and genetic status, and for members and families in which BRCA mutation may be present.

You can find information on risk management, health care, advocacy and also join in on a chat line or message board. There is also a help line to call for those who need support and are concerned about hereditary cancer.

One aspect of the site that I really like is the section for pre-vivors. These individuals have not been diagnosed with cancer but have a predisposition to cancer because of a genetic mutation. This section of the website talks about chemoprevention for breast and ovarian cancer, risk management, family history, genetic counseling and much more.

This is a great resource for those with an increased risk for cancer because they too have to make medical decisions and they face some of the same fears that cancer survivors do.