For last weeks #facesoftne40000, we are recognizing Avis Halberstadt, who died this past August. Avis was one of the founding members of METAvivor, served as treasurer of their board of directors, and the person who coined the phrase metavivor. She excelled at fundraising and helped raise over $600,000 for the organization since 2009. In her lifetime, Avis was diagnosed with three different types of cancer, although metastatic breast cancer was, according to her obituary, the one that took her life. Avis was a retired school teacher, who, in addition to her work with METAvivor, ran a math and SAT tutoring business. She also founded the Chesapeake Bay Book Club and helped start a yearly authors luncheon that raised money for METAvivor. When asked to describe the authors luncheon, Avis said, We like to think of ourselves on good days as normal people, and normal people like to read. We do talk about the disease for about two minutes. Otherwise I like people to see that we’re pretty normal and do normal things. Shortly before Avis death, the annual authors luncheon was renamed in her honor. As a fellow book lover myself, I was so inspired by Avis story that I plan on reaching out to METAvivor as the event gets closer (it is usually held in the early fall) to see if I can be of any help in planning. Below are two pictures of Avis. One with her husband Fred, who Ava took care of until her death because he suffered from Parkinsons Disease. The other is Avis with her neighbors dog, Sacha, who took an immediate liking to Avis, and whenever she came over, Sacha would follow her around or try to sit on her lap. I am also including a link to a letter written by an ovarian cancer survivor about the impact that Avis and the other founding members of METAvivor had on her views on metastatic breast cancer. touch.capitalgazette/#section/-1/article/p2p-81094618/
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:43:38 +0000