Dr. Susan Love is one of the world’s foremost breast cancer researchers and a tireless advocate for finding both causes and cures for the disease. Now, however, this lesbian mom is also a cancer patient.
Dr. Love was diagnosed with leukemia, a blood cancer, last June, reports Patt Morrison in the LA Times today. Morrison interviewed Love about her cancer, her research, her use of social media to recruit an “Army of Women” (and some men) to participate in studies and surveys related to the disease, and her thoughts on the word “boobies.”
My own interview with Dr. Love, a year after she launched the Army of Love in 2008, is here. In it, she spoke of how her Army can help study small subgroups of the population, like lesbians and male breast cancer survivors, and why she thinks more research should be done on breast cancer in transgender people, both MTF and FTM.
Love is doing well after a bone marrow transplant, according to the LA Times. She said, “Right now my bone marrow is clean and I’m feeling stronger, but something could be hiding—you never know.”
After seeing my father go through cancer (lymphoma and pancreatic) three times, however, I know how mentally trying the “you never know” can be. I wish her all the best.
I’ll leave you with an inspirational from the LA Times interview, in which Love explains that she doesn’t intend to slow down, despite her own struggle with the disease:
If anything, having cancer myself has given me a new sense of urgency. We have a limited number of days in our lives—you become more aware of that—and if I’m going to spend them coming to work, then I’m not going to be just diddling around.
