I vividly remember the first time my mom used the term “lioness” in reference to her primal need to protect her kids. We were sitting at a restaurant with my (then) new in-laws, and my mom was describing the time I had run home from second grade crying because someone had hurt my feelings. Evidently, one of the girls at school had said that she didn’t like me. As my mom tells it, she looked at my tear streaked face and felt this primal growl building up inside of her, her body getting ready to defend her “cub” from this injustice of life. On the outside, she calmly stroked my hair and explained that sometimes people hurt our feelings, but our job is to continue to be kind to them, even if that’s not always the easiest thing to do. While my mom’s message has certainly stuck with me throughout my life on a subconscious level, I have no recollection of this particular incident. But even as my mom was telling this story years later, I could see that it still angered her to think of someone hurting her child. That “Mama Lioness” is always inside, even when your kids have moved from childhood to adulthood.
When my own daughter was born in 2006, I could finally relate to my mom’s feeling. My instinct to protect Clara kicked in almost immediately. Now on the cusp of her seventh birthday, there have been many times when I feel that “Mama Lioness” growl building in my chest, but never with more strength than after my own diagnosis with breast cancer. After absorbing the shock of the diagnosis two weeks before my 33rd birthday, and enduring surgeries and chemotherapy, it was that primal urge to protect my daughters that kicked in immediately. I was so angry that they now face a higher risk of having to walk this same path. I went straight to work trying to figure out how to channel the emotion of my inner “Lioness” in a way that might help my girls. They were all the motivation I needed to start Consano, a non-profit crowd funding platform that enables individuals to support specific medical research that matters to them. For me, that meant supporting breast cancer genetics and vaccines, things that might directly help my girls, but I’ve learned on this journey that there are many others looking for this transparent, directed and connected way to support medical research. There are many other “Lioness” moms out there, ready to go to battle to protect their children.
This is why I find that I’m always particularly excited for the opportunity to work with pediatric researchers. I would go through my own breast cancer journey over and over again if it meant that my daughters never have to experience it. As a parent, I know I’m not alone. My own mom and dad said on many occasions during my treatments, “I wish this was happening to me. I wish I could take this on for you.” I could see the pain in their eyes as they watched helplessly, unable to fix things for me. And I was an adult.
Consano’s newest pediatric cancer research project is out of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, a project studying childhood leukemia, and specifically Monosomy 7. Dr. Stella Davies has been a pediatric oncologist for thirty years and says, “I remember the children who are cured with joy and pride, but I carry in my heart the children who are lost. We honor the children who are lost with research, so that we can do better for the children who come after them — and that work is not complete until all of these children can be cured.” I heard about Dr. Davies’ work through a mom, a mom who lost her own son to Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
I believe that as moms, we all have that intrinsic desire to make things better for our kids. And when we work together to make a difference, nothing can stop us. So this Mama Lioness is asking for your help to spread the word about the innovative research going on in Dr. Davies’ lab at Cincinnati Children’s. Because a crowd of Mama Lionesses is a force to reckoned with. Together, we are stronger!
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