Playing The 1st Question

Three Relay For Life team captains were among the four contestants in The 1st Question on Tuesday. I couldn't be there myself because of the timing but I watched it later on line.

Aryon Dagger is a breast cancer survivor who has been featured before in these pages when she took part in the Makeover Magic program last year. She's a consultant for this year's program and talked about the fashion show which is taking place on Sunday.

The other contestants were Jasmine Night and Katina Magic who are both team captains, and Franja Russell who runs the SciFi and Fantasy portal and was last week's winner.

Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe host this weekly fun quiz on SLTV, and there were plenty of plugs for Makeover Magic and for Relay For Life.

First up, each contestant was asked to define which element defines them best. Aryon and Jasmine both chose mercury, which Aryon chose because it is 'liquid, smooth, and mixes well with other elements'. Katina and Franja chose oxygen and cobalt respectively.

It was a closely run contest between the two 'mercurial avatars' but Aryon slid in front at the end. Woot Aryon!

Watch it here on:

http://archive.treet.tv/1st-question-02jun09

UPDATED Friday, June 5 - Aryon has blogged about her experience here:

http://christhebutch.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/the-1st-question-show-in-second-life/#more-774

Looking good helps you to feel better

Aryon Dagger was one of the survivors who was given a totally new look as part of the Makeover Magic program. She has blogged her experiences on -

http://christhebutch.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/a-new-life-and-a-new-look/#more-387.

Her story reminded me of a time, long ago, when I had a recurrence of thyroid cancer. I came out of hospital with an embarrassing large red scar across my neck. Without my asking, a friend scooped me up and took me shopping. We found some pretty, high-neck blouses. Her gesture helped me hold my head up and look life in the face as I went through the next stages of treatment and waited anxiously to hear if it had spread. The scar has faded, and I'm disease-free, and my friend has moved on. But her action touched me deeply and the memory will always stay with me.

I love your new look Aryon, but above all I love you as a person. Thankyou for reminding us that it is not the new look alone, it's the friendship, the listening, the understanding, and above all the acceptance that counts. That helps us to feel better about ourselves.

And that's what the American Cancer Society's real life program - Look Good, Feel Better - is about too. For more information about this program see:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ESN/content/ESN_3_1X_Look_Good_Feel_Better.asp?sitearea=SHR.

Aryon does battle with breast cancer

On Sunday, October 12 Aryon Dagger led a session on how she has fought her breast cancer. The session was organized by Making Strides in Second Life as part of its program to raise awareness for breast cancer in the month of October, and it brought an audience of nearly 30 people to Hope Haven.

I wasn't able to be at this session myself but I heard from some of the people who attended that it was a truly inspirational story, and Aryon shared her talk with me.

She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2001. The advice: a double, radical, bilateral mastectomy. "I sat there and went numb, became a robot of sorts in my responses, got up and walked out ... I phoned the one person in my life that I needed most right then ... my wife. My life flashed in slow motion before my eyes but it wasn't over yet."

Aryon made the choice to fight. To "... stand toe to toe with it, stare it in the eye and tell it where to go ... I wanted to see my son happy, to hold my first grandchild, to spend time with the woman I loved enough to leave my life as I knew it behind and move to a place I had never been to before."

Aryon's partner loved and cared for her, but she couldn't face the scars and Aryon never knew why. She passed away several years later. "My wife never got to hear the "all clear" given to me. But I fight on, to repay the debt I incurred by bargaining. I fight on by trying to make women AND men aware of this tragic killer that if caught early enough, can be treated."

She came into Second Life to heal from the loss of her wife of 26 years, and from the immense trauma of fighting the breast cancer. It was several years before someone other than a doctor, nurse or Aryon herself actually touched her scars. Not only touched them but looked at them, and said the words that she had said many times before, without having seen them … “it doesn’t matter”.

Aryon considers herself to be one of the lucky ones. "I don’t know why one person wins their battle and another loses it. But I do know that everything happens for a reason ..." So now she shares her story, in the hope that by making people aware, she is serving a purpose. And she now takes pride in her scars and campaigns through her blog for lesbian women to 'get to grips with their nips" because, as she writes there, "... lesbian women are almost twice as likely to suffer from breast cancer than women generally". See: http://christhebutch.wordpress.com/2008

She concluded her talk: "If through my survival, through my standing here and speaking to you all today, through my fundraising in the name of breast cancer awareness and research ... I can save one life ... by making someone aware of regular self examinations, of regular mammograms ... then I will be happy but not fulfilled. We MUST find a cure. So, I will continue to battle, wearing my scars like a medal won in a war, for life ... mine and everyone elses."