Bay Area Young Survivors (BAYS), a San Francisco-based action and support group for women under 45 diagnosed with breast cancer, has released a story collection, available via Amazon, titled The Day My Nipple Fell Off and Other Stories of Survival, Solidarity, and Sass. The anthology seeks to give voice to the experiences of younger women whose challenges in facing the disease include confronting dating, infertility, parenting small children, career loss, and premature death, and doing so through a different generational lens than many survivors’ groups, as the median age of breast cancer diagnosis remains 61.
The collection has been compiled by Erin Hyman, who says, “Most of the fifteen contributors included here do not consider themselves writers, but they have incredible stories to tell: about the creative ways they broke the news to their preschoolers, about discussing surgical options with a stripper survivor—while she was performing—about how to now handle their Jdate profile. There’s a lot of wisdom here, as well as liberal doses of black humor.”
BAYS will be having a book launch party on Thursday, June 13 from 6pm-8:30pm at Dolores Park Cafe, 501 Dolores Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.