Meet the Models, New England: Justine Egan-Kunicki

The experience of cancer, she notes, makes one confront their own mortality, but in the same token “you also learn how strong you are. Despite the struggle, I have learned I am a strong person who can persist and continue to enjoy life.” Indeed, though she get the phrase of ‘new normal,’ Justine prefers to say she’s reframed her life now: “You find a way to make a new life.”

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Meet the Models, New England: Ruthanne Larsen Brown

Seven years prior to her breast cancer diagnosis, Ruthanne Larson Brown felt achy/sore around her breast area. She followed up with a doctor, who gave her the all clear and told her she would be a lot more sick if she had cancer. It was a statement that not only gave her relief, but stuck with her. It’s why, seven years later, she ignored the same aches and sore feeling, instead opting to address it at her mammogram. The testing would reveal stage 2 breast cancer with indications it had spread to the lymph nodes.

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Meet the Models: Bernadette Anderson

At 69 years old, Bernadette Anderson never felt healthier. Having just graduated from the Institute of Nutrition and prioritizing her own wellness, she felt the strongest she had in years. It’s why her stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis took her by complete surprise: “I was in shock, had a lot of fear and disbelief, but immediately I went into fight mode.” Treatment included surgery, chemo and radiation.

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Meet the Models: Sabine Manoli

Sabine Manoli has been a breast surgeon her entire life. It’s fair to say she has an extensive and unique view behind the curtain of all things breast cancer and treatments. She herself began mammograms at the age of 35, due to heavy family history. Nearly ever female on her father’s side of the family has had breast cancer and it made the yearly tests nerve-wracking. For ten years she was in the clear, so ironically, at 45, she wasn’t nervous for her yearly check up. It would be the year she got the dreaded call- she had breast cancer:

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Meet the Models: Rebecca Muse-Orlinoff, Love Local, Concord

My name is Rebecca Muse-Orlinoff; I am a Concord native; I moved back almost two years ago with my
husband Justin and two kids, Levi and Zara who are in first grade and kindergarten at Alcott. We love it
here – the great schools, wonderful people and community – and it’s sort of a comfort to know that the
level of cell phone service is about the same as when I last lived here. In the nineteen hundreds.

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Get Your Breasts Checked

Three years ago I walked out of the front doors of Mass General Hospital with a new baby- my third, George. He was ready to come home and I knew my time in the maternity ward had come to a close. My time at MGH, however, would be far from over; in fact, the hospital and I have a long history and a forever future in front of us.

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JANUARY BLOG – FITNESS

Researchers found that physical activity lowered the risk for depression, and that the amount of exercise required to prevent depression was relatively low — 15 minutes a day of strenuous exercise like running, or an hour of general activities like walking, housework, or gardening.

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