A Man’s Acceptance into the Breast Cancer Sisterhood

My name is Herb Wagner and at the age of 75, I am a 14-year breast cancer survivor. I am also the founder and CEO of "A Man's Pink", the first survivor supported male breast cancer advocacy organization in Canada and the United States. Our mission is to provide education and support to other male breast cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones. Our mission is also to increase awareness, thereby helping both to increase the survival rates and to improve the journey for men diagnosed with this disease. Our goal is to establish an "International Day for Male Breast Cancer Awareness".The myths and stigma associated with male breast cancer have improved only marginally in the last 15 years. Today, many men diagnosed with breast cancer are still very much concerned that they are abnormal, have done something wrong and that they will die from what they believe, as I did, to be a woman's only disease. More often than not, male breast cancer patients are treated with female breast cancer protocols in female environments; this may be difficult for a male breast cancer patient's well being.By writing this book I hope to help bring male breast cancer awareness into the 21st century, improve the journey and the survival rates for men diagnosed with this disease, extricate male breast cancer from the depths of the sea of pink, and eliminate any inequality experienced by men diagnosed with breast cancer.