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Such sad news from the blogosphere today. Susan Niebur, better known on the interwebs as the mom behind Twitter's @whymommy and the blog Toddler Planet, has lost her battle with inflammatory breast cancer. Leaving behind husband Curt (whydaddy) and her two little boys, Niebur's death is hitting one community particularly hard.
They are the mothers with cancer. They are the women who would follow Niebur's adventures as she tried to pass on to her 4- and 6-year-old sons her love of science (she was an astrophysicist) while simultaneously waging a battle against a vicious disease that made every day hard and parenting harder.
Blogs like Susan's have become a source of strength and solace especially for moms battling breast cancer, the disease that kills nearly 40,000 women every year, many of them with children at home. She called the other bloggers who helped her spread her message about inflammatory breast cancer, the particularly aggressive cancer that took her life this week, Team Why Mommy. Her mission was to help other women catch the cancer early and to survive.
Because Susan was a survivor herself. Initially diagnosed in 2007, she fought cancer four times over, and she very nearly made it to the five-year mark, time that as much as half of IBC patients never have. And even as the cancer spread to her neck, spine, ribs and hips, Niebur continued to blog about parenthood, womanhood and more. She died yesterday, but her husband is helping her to continue her fight by asking that donations be made in her name to the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
My heart breaks for her little boys today. Growing up without their mom by their side will be harder than most of us can imagine. But I hope her blog stays up so they can go back and meet the amazing woman who gave birth to them.
Were you a follower of Susan's battle with cancer?
Image via Toddler Planet
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