While Hayley brings her firsthand experience with breast cancer to this project, Susan brings the professional skills needed to help our contributors tell their stories in a publishable manner. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and two children. She has a thriving freelance editing and writing business.

    Susan, who has always loved language, writing, and books, has an extensive academic background. But she is no ivory-tower dweller. Having grown up on the wrong side of the freeway and coming from a long line of salespeople, she has the ability to talk to and work with all sorts of people. In addition to her academic work, Susan has written and edited material for a wide variety of audiences, from new mothers to wine lovers to children.

    Because Susan is a teacher at heart—she has taught writing skills to people of all ages—one of her specialties is working with inexperienced writers. While everyone has a story to tell, not everyone has the skills needed to write it. She loves the passion that first-time writers bring to their subjects. Her guiding principle on every editing project, no matter how much revision is needed, is to maintain the writer’s own voice.

    Although Susan’s primary contribution to this site is as an editor, she too knows very well the mixed blessing that cancer can be. Several of her friends and family members have had cancer, and for the past five years she has volunteered for ChemoAngels, a cancer support organization that provides emotional support to both children and adults.

1. ** This is Susan’s school picture from the 5th grade, the year her first published piece of writing, “The Tree’s Own Story,” appeared in the San Mateo County Times. It is a very short story about a Christmas tree that, despite the fact that is has been chopped down, is replanted in a flower pot and kept in a basement from year to year. The story clearly demonstrates that Susan had not yet learned the importance of background research.

    Stop thumbing through your books to find out what the letters after the name stand for. They simply stand for “Breast Cancer Survivor”; survivors all over the world are using these letters with pride. And, like them, Hayley deserves it.

    Hayley Townley lives in San Luis Obispo, California, with her wonderful husband and best friend, Tim. They own Comet Realty and love working together. Their cat and two dogs are the light of their lives.

    Hayley’s many talents include sales and marketing, building relationships, and making people laugh. She received her education at the School of Hard Knocks: she has made it through her parents’ divorce, an abusive first marriage, her own alcoholism, her mother’s death from breast cancer, and her own journey with breast cancer, which began in 2002 when she was diagnosed at the age of 36. The grace and style which she has exhibited through all of this are unmatched by most. Her attitude is an inspiration to every single person with cancer she knows.

    Hayley has counseled many people through their cancer diagnoses as only another survivor can do. She and her oncologist have founded the Young Survivor Support Group in their county, and Hayley is always at the end of a phone (or a computer) for anybody who needs support. She has just been named a spokesmodel for Cleavage Creek Cellars. Through her website, Cancer Survivor Stuff.com, she sells her Survivor BuffsTM and greeting cards designed by her friends specifically for cancer survivors, in order to raise money for research.

    Hayley co-wrote and acted in a stage presentation benefiting breast cancer research in April 2007. She has been asked for a repeat performance, both for writing and acting in upcoming shows.

    Hayley also throws terrific parties! 

   We have brought together an altruistic group of breast cancer survivors, friends, and family members eager to share their experiences in order to help others cope. They are a diverse bunch; every reader should find someone with whom he or she connects. The youngest is a 20-year old student; the oldest is an 87-year-old who has survived breast cancer for 40 years. They come from all over the United States and Canada and even Europe.

    Are you next? Share a story!

  Margerie was minding her own business in 2005 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After enduring the glamour of surgery, chemo, radiation, and more surgery, she discovered that the hardest part of the ordeal was not getting through the treatments, but rather the danger of losing herself emotionally to the disease. Then she started drawing cancer cartoons and she hasn’t stopped. She has since opened her Cancer Speaks online store and draws the illustrations for There Is Life After Breast Cancer.

    She doesn’t think breast cancer is the least bit funny, but finds drawing her cartoons therapeutic. Margerie, who thinks in cartoons, can express a few chuckles or a thousand tears in pen and ink on a small piece of paper.

    In all her free time, Margerie lives her best life with her three kids and wonderful husband in California. Her family loves to hike, boat, travel, ski, read, play sports, cook, and discover things big and small together. 

    Margerie was a general dentist before kids and cancer. She threatens to return to the profession, albeit halfheartedly. She currently spends her days as a full-time family manager and part-time artist and breast cancer advocate. She has helped form a local support group for young cancer survivors and is a proponent of using the latest techniques in breast reconstruction. She has also participated in a breast cancer clinical trial and is a consumer advocate on breast cancer research review panels.

We are so excited! We are pleased to announce the addition of Margerie Manning to our team. She will be an integral part of There Is Life After Breast Cancer.com as we turn our website into a book series. (Coming 2012).