The story will open on women talking, laughing, enjoying wine and appetizers and other goodies.  Two women chat privately in a corner; another group is sharing pictures of their children.  Another pair is laughing and telling stories about work.  Yet this is no ordinary “Girl’s Night Out.” This is a modern day networking group for young breast cancer survivors. We will follow the women in this group to see the struggles that survivors face when the medical treatment is over and they are expected to hit the play button on their lives again.

The women who will take us into their lives will candidly discuss the key issues facing young breast cancer survivors today.  We will meet women aged 30- 50 who are rediscovering their own bodies and how having new breasts, no breasts or new scars have affected their body image and their relationships.  The women will bring us into their lives and share the pain of being both single or married and having the option of bearing children taken away by a cancer diagnosis and how they are finding other ways to have a family. The spouses of the women will explain how their marriages have endured and we will take a look at how their children have weathered the storm. We will show the lasting effects of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and hormone treatment and how women are finding ways to live with them. These women will openly discuss their gripping fear of recurrence and some who are currently facing this part of the journey with amazing inner strength and grace. In the end, we will explore these women’s strong desire to help other survivors and their need to connect with one another.

Thankfully, as in the case of a devastating tornado, we do have the power to grieve, re-order and rebuild.  So, too, do the women we meet have this power. In the end you will see this power as they have the ability to look at everday as a gift and that after every storm... where everyone can celebrate that everyday is a gift and that after the storm, comes the promise of blue skies.