What's Normal? What's Not?

11/15/2022

Farewell Tom, my friend and my hero.
Your impact was life-changing and life-saving for me and for the thousands who have come to know you.
I love you so very much, and I will treasure you as well as Christine, Mia, Molly, and Marguerite forever.

View Thomas J. Kennedy, Jr.'s obituary, contribute to their memorial, see their funeral service details, and more.

10/17/2022

One of the best depictions of breast cancer I’ve ever seen! Incredible women and men sharing what breast cancer is.
It is not and never will be a pretty pink ribbon!!!

Amazing presentation, Katherine Lucas!!!

A collection of photographs captured to spotlight the realities of breast cancer and its impacts on the women and men diagnosed with the disease. By photographer: Katherine Lucas

01/23/2022

Please consider participating in this tangible way to honor the life and love of Debra Robinson.

Feel free to share with all those who may have been blessed to know Debra.

On January 18th, 2022, Debra Robinson passed away at New Hanover Regional … Joy Wade needs your support for Your Opportunity to Honor Debra Robinson & Family

09/01/2021

According to the Cancer Research Institute, “globally ovarian cancer is diagnosed in an
estimated 300,000 women each year, and causes roughly 180,000 deaths."

Visiting the gynecologist regularly for checkups is key to early detection. What are you
waiting for?

06/22/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday!

I absolutely love and learned from this amazing poster from the nonprofit Know Your Lemons.

Check out the lemons and then check out your tatas!!! See any of these symptoms? You know what to do. Call your doctor.

05/11/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday.
Overweight! Obese! Cancer Impacts!
OH MY!

05/04/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday.

We are ALL CHAMPIONS in some way.
This video was created 5 years ago.
If we were creating it today, what would your "I am a champion" saying be?

EVERYONE feel free to share your thoughts (and photo) if you'd like to.

04/27/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday!
Learn about “vitamin G” and the impact it can have, not only on your breast health, but also on your total body health! ☺️

04/20/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday.
Meet the What's Normal? What's Not? team of trainers.
We are ready to share best breast health practices and education with you in person and online.

Joy Wade is the creator of the What's Normal? What's Not? workshop initiative and has been sharing the workshops for the past 6 years. She has shared the WNWN workshop with more than 3000 folks across NC as well as in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Joy is a MammaCare certified self-breast exam instructor. She lives in Wilmington, NC and has served as program manager for two breast cancer nonprofits in NC. Her mission is to share best breast health education and practices with anyone who has breast tissue - that would be everyone!

Angela Lewis Buckner is our Atlanta area educational representative for What's Normal? What's Not? She met Joy Wade at a WNWN workshop at Delaney Radiology and was so inspired that she decided to become a WNWN trainer to educate other women about breast health. With a background in teaching, it has been a perfect fit. She is so excited that opportunities for education are starting to arise in Georgia!

Audrey Pennell is our Charlotte area educational representative for What's Normal? What's Not? Audrey was Joy's UNCW intern and assistant 5 years ago in Wilmington when the program was in it's beginning stages. She now resides in Charlotte and is thrilled to have the opportunity to share the WNWN workshop in the Charlotte region with everyone.

Jessica Ramirez is our Hispanic representative for What’s Normal? What’s Not? and is a breast cancer survivor. She is originally from Colombia, South America. At the age of 30, Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts. Her journey through cancer included a double mastectomy with a reconstructive surgery and later the rejection of these implants. Jessica decided to use her experiences to educate others on the importance of breast health and on how to perform a self-exam at least once a month. Jessica's gift of being bilingual opens so many doors to thousands across the world to learn about best breast health practices.

04/19/2021

Jessica is a breast cancer survivor and the Hispanic representative for What’s Normal? What’s Not? She is originally from Colombia. At the age of 30, Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer on both of her breasts. After a year of her journey through cancer, which included a double mastectomy with a reconstructive surgery and later the rejection of these implants, Jessica decided to use her story to educate others on the importance of breast health and perform the self-exam at least once a month.

Jecca Ramirez

04/16/2021

Angela is the Atlanta area educational representative for What's Normal? What's Not? She met Joy Wade at a Delaney Radiology class and was so inspired that she wanted to become a part of the process to educate other women in breast health. With a background in teaching, it has been a perfect fit. She is so excited that opportunities for education are starting to arise in Georgia!

Angela Lewis Buckner

04/14/2021

Audrey, is the Charlotte educational representative for What's Normal? What's Not? Audrey was Joy's intern and assistant 5 years ago in Wilmington, NC, when the program was in it's beginning stages. She now resides in Charlotte, NC and is thrilled to have the opportunity to share the workshop in the Charlotte region with everyone she knows.

Audrey Pennell

04/12/2021

Joy Wade is the creator of the What’s Normal? What’s Not? Initiative and has been sharing the program for the past 6 years. She is a MammaCare certified self-breast exam instructor. She lives in Wilmington, NC and has served as program manager for two breast cancer nonprofits in NC.

03/16/2021

Come join me as I have an annual breast exam.

Listen carefully as Dr. Antonelli shares how she performs such great
annual breast exams on patients. She is incredible at it and I wholly trust her to find anything that I may have missed when I do my my own self breast exams the other months of the year.

(This was actually filmed in 2018 long before we had to wear our masks. I had my annual exam with Dr. Antonelli last week and we both wore our masks the entire time.)

03/04/2021

Some ladies who get the COVID vaccine are experiencing swelling of the lymph nodes in their underarms. Mammograms are detecting the enlarged lymph nodes which can throw off the results of the mammogram. By waiting 4-6 weeks after the last vaccine the lymph node swelling should have returned back to its normal.

Health Alert: Are you due for your annual screening mammogram? You might want to put it on hold if you recently got the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Braithwaite agrees with experts and recommends you either have your screening mammogram before getting the first vaccine or 4-6 weeks after the second shot. We definitely don't want you to skip your screening mammo altogether, so just plan accordingly.

03/03/2021

Happy TaTa Tuesday!

Already this week I've had the opportunity to share the WNWN workshop with more than 140 UNC Charlotte ZTA sisters along with some other sorority and fraternity members at UNC-Charlotte.

So grateful to continue to be able to share best breast health info through Zoom. I even sent some of my b**b models to Charlotte so they could see and touch them!

Still more WNWN workshops to come this month for ZTA sisters in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Making the dream a reality and moving from awareness to IMPACT!!