[Monica]

Hi,
I personally spoke to Joe and Christine for a paper I was writing around 2008. I flew out to California and their family were amazing hosts. As background, some time in the 1990’s when HER2 was in its infancy, Christine’s breast cancer had spread to her lungs and brain. After the treatment failed, Christine had done her research and found out about herceptin. She insisted that her doctors test her for Her2. It turned out positive, she got herceptin, and her cancer went into remission. She told me how the website started:

“I sat down at the end of my bed and said to myself, ‘I’m completely well. This was so terrible and I had nobody to talk about it. I’m a health educator. I want other people to enjoy my wellness. How am I going to do that on a large scale?’ During my (breast cancer) search, I had looked for information like crazy but only got dribs and drabs and found most of it not helpful. I asked Joe to construct a worldwide web site for me so I could put down everything I’ve done for myself. I need to tell them, ‘You won’t die.’ Everything I’ve done I’ll put on my web site. Maybe they too can survive . . . Women have so many fears—fear of MRI, fear of chemo . . . So they can survive better and get through it all . . . I wanted a worldwide outreach— not just U.S., but the whole world. I wanted all the resources in one place and more. I did not want to harbor them all to myself. I get survival.”

Her vision for this website still shines through today.
Monica