KISS for the cure

Not sure if any of you caught the Season Five premier of Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels last Sunday night but it’s worth watching. Yes, this seriously is a blog posting about the reality show following the life of the lead singer of KISS and his family. Don't judge my choice of television - we all have guilty pleasures!

Now as much as I truly enjoy the Simmons family rarely, correction – NEVER do I find myself identifying with the situation they’re facing during any given episode. That statement was true until last week.

While Gene was on tour with KISS for their new album, Shannon (Gene’s long time girlfriend and mother of his two children), Shannon’s sister and another female friend were shopping when in the fitting room Shannon felt a lump in her breast. From this moment on in the episode, I could not stop the tears. I could not control my emotions because I know all too well the horror and agony of having a loved one go through this stage of tests and waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting). Although I know how it feels to watch someone go through this, I cannot imagine how it feels to have this awful, unwelcome mass inside your own body – in your breast – and not be able to do anything but wait. Amazingly, Shannon is also going through this period of uncertainty and fear with a television crew following her every step.

The episode really did a good job of portraying the entire sequence of events so many women and men have personally gone through (from discovery of the lump to clinical breast exams to biopsies) and very many of us only have nightmares about.

The episode ended with Shannon and Gene’s children Nick and Sophie (ages 20 and 17) accidentally reading a text message and finding out about their Mom having a biopsy done. Nick calls Gene to tell him and Gene decides to come home from tour to be with Shannon when she gets the biopsy results.

Shannon received the results during last night’s episode and thankfully, everything was benign. I did admire the way she handled the entire experience and before she even left the doctor’s office she was asking how she could help in the fight against breast cancer. The episode ended with Shannon and her teenage daughter Sophie sponsoring a day of mammograms to low-income and underserved women in the Los Angeles area through the Pink Lotus Petals Foundation.

Life lesson learned from Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels: Take responsibility for your own health and find a way to make a difference for others.


UPDATE for the cure:
Total Training Miles: 26
Total Sponsored Miles: 25 out of 60
SPONSOR A MILE OF MY 3-DAY JOURNEY HERE!