Three Ribbons of Support
Our Vision
To transform survivorship from a mood into a movement by empowering, educating, and connecting women whose lives have been touched by cancer.
Our Mission
To establish a network where women affected by cancer can find their voice, improve their quality of life, and embrace their 2nd Act.
Survivorship
If cancer was cured tomorrow, 1.5 million women would be spared a diagnosis this year alone. But the 7 million women survivors in America will continue to face issues they never expected once their treatment ended. Cancer is a line in the sand of life and a BIG game changer. Its impact doesn’t end just because treatment does. Survivors must address the long-term and life limiting effects of the illness and its treatments including physical, psychosocial, legal and financial issues. And then there’s the big one – fear of reoccurrence. Learning to navigate the muddy waters of their new normal is the only way survivors can return to being contributing members of their families and society as a whole. Survivorship, and the recognition of the many challenges survivors face following treatment, is the cutting-edge theme in the world of cancer.
- The Commission on Cancer (part of the American College of Surgeons) has mandated that its 1,500 accredited cancer care facilities must have survivorship care plans in place by 2015 in order to renew their accreditation. It is clear that the time has come to move survivorship to the forefront in the conversation about cancer.
- The Journal of Clinical Oncology published research in April 2014 regarding the need to improve the follow-up care of survivors.
- A newly released study from the University of Michigan (published in the journal Cancer) states that unemployment is common after treatment ends. The study was the subject of myriad medical blogs and nightly news broadcasts.
Clearly the time has come to open the dialogue about survivorship.
Who We Are
It all began with an event, SURVIVORville, the weekend the Women Survivors Alliance made a decision to creata national call to action to address the burdens of survivorship issues on women, their families, and by extension, society as a whole.
Since 2013, the WSA, a 501(c)3 organization, created BY women survivors FOR women survivors, provides Three Ribbons of Support:
The First Ribbon (www.UNTOLDProject.org) UNTOLD. is a global storytelling movement, mining the tales and using multiple platforms, print/photo/illustration/film/podcast and a traveling theatrical experience, to share how people have polished the roughest edges of adversity and transformed them it into the gems which enriches every reader, listener and audience member.
The Second Ribbon of support is New Focus Daily for women. (www.NewFocusDaily.org). New Focus Daily is a women’s lifestyle magazine, providing a go-to guide for health and wellness, cancer survivorship, finances, career, relationships, inspiration and more. A comprehensive resource, its dynamic content includes articles on nutrition, exercise, finances, sexuality, health, a book club and more. New Focus Daily is supported by our media partner, New Focus Network.
The Third Ribbon is our Stuffed with Love Project. In 2018, the Stuffed with Love Project, headed by WSA Volunteer Jen Neiderwerfer, creates Christmas stockings and delivers them to patients throughout cancer centers across Middle Tennessee and the Southeast. The WSA’s Stuffed with Love project begins July 1 every year and ends on December 24th.
The Women Survivors Alliance is honored to work along side its partner corporations and organizations to help women achieve true survivorship, and a fulfilling, promising, and cancer-free life!