Serap Yildirim
Serap Yildirim is a Turkish born person who lives in New York. She was diagnosed with one side stage IV inflammatory breast cancer in 2005. She had mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy in 2005/2006. Cancer returned to the other side in just a few weeks after she completed the treatments. She started 9 months of another course chemotherapy treatment and completed in June 2007. 5 months later this time cancer metastasized to her skin on her chest and again she started 15 months of chemotherapy treatment.
She attended breast cancer support programs to help her through this difficult time. She was the speaker of Adelphi Breast Cancer Support Program's 2008 Celebration of Survivorship Panel. She was featured on Long Island's Newsday in an article AbOUT Breast Cancer survivors. She attended Adelphi Breast Cancer Support Hotline's training to become a volunteer at the Adelphi.
After getting the support from other survivors she decided to create a cancer support website for people in her home country. www.umitliyiz.com ; the word "umitliyiz" means "we are hopeful" in Turkish, and "it's just cancer people needs to feel" says Serap Yildirim and adds "In Turkey my website was the first cancer support website where people talk about their feelings and be supportive of each other". In a few months there were more than 500 users on the website and talking about everything they want to talk about cancer and some other subjects. She attended Voice Of America radio program to talk about her website. On her first visit to Turkey she and 30 people from the website met face to face in Istanbul. This meeting was published in a newspaper. A tv channel's news room reporter also saw this article and made an interview with Serap Yildirim and 5 others and this interview was aired on the prime time news. After both newspaper article and tv interview there were a lot more new members of the website.
Serap Yildirim says "We have very good relationship with the people on the website, we feel like we are a part of a very large family. We feel the loss deeply when we loose a friend and we have crazy parties when a friend beats the cancer. Everybody has a story and everybody understand each other more than a person in your own family, because we are on the same road, we share the pain."
Links: http://www.umitliyiz.com http://www.stargazete.com/guncel/kansere-karsi-8216-umitliyizcom-8217--4829.htm http://www.umitliyiz.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=119 http://www.stargazete.com/guncel/umitliyiz-hepimiz-kanseri-yenecegiz-110551.htm http://www.vidivodo.com/178041/kanserle-mucadele http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6BqQ79z1a3jlOKSSN http://www.adelphi.edu/nysbreastcancer/UpdtWntr%2709.pdf http://www.newsday.com/test-page-1.886569