Breast stroke

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month globally; and here in the Philippines, advocacy groups such as ICan Serve were all out in raising awareness about the disease, which, despite the advances in medicine and technology, remains prevalent. Encouraging conscious decisions about healthy lifestyle choices and disease prevention, the campaign also centered on early detection when cruel fate would intervene, as that would mean better chances of a cure and recovery.

This year, in order to better spread the message, ICan Serve partnered with various corporate concerns; and whereas in previous years, the donations would help ICan Serve with its various educational outreach programs both in Metro Manila and in the provinces. This year also saw said cooperation result in the putting up of Pink Walls in the offices and business concerns of ICan Serve’s partners.

Beyond the pink ribbons and stickers festooned in the malls and offices of the likes of Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, Del Monte, the Cebu Business Park, Ayala Center Cebu and ABS-CBN, to name a few, the Pink Wall was an opportunity for employees and mall-goers to give a little to the cause, and leave messages and remember their loved ones who may have succumbed to breast cancer, or have been afflicted, and are now undergoing treatment or have recovered and survived.

At ABS-CBN, the likes of Angel Locsin, Jericho Rosales, Maja Salvador and JC de Vera were on hand when the Wall was formally unveiled. While at Eastwood Mall, a launch event for the Wall was hosted by Issa Litton, and involved a number of activities related to the cause. Besides the talk of survivor Melissa de Leon-Joseph and Dr. Katrina Ferrera, there were fitness sessions courtesy of Curves and Fitness First, plus Tokyo Posh was offering hair extensions and full wigs for those undergoing chemo treatments.

My mother succumbed to cancer in 1996; and with my sister Lilibeth C. Virata, a breast cancer survivor and sitting on the board of ICan Serve, the cause and their efforts have always been dear to me. And when you factor in that such friends as Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Bettina L. Osmeña and Bibeth O. Siguion-Reyna are all involved with ICan Serve, it makes the question even moot as to why I would write about them, and other groups who similarly make breast cancer awareness their advocacy.

Manual stroking of one’s breasts, checking for lumps regularly, is just the first step in making early detection an ongoing concern. And given how breast cancer does not discriminate between the rich and the less fortunate, the young and the more advanced in years, it’s so essential that the message gets across, reaching from the top to grass roots level. Throughout the year, ICan Serve is ready to accept any help that can be given, and one need only go to its website to better appreciate how that help can be extended, and where it will go to.

Chiaroscuro

Dark novels that play with shadow and light in equal measure, these three novels come from the crop of emerging writers who have earned deserving plaudits for their earlier works. Great reads guaranteed with a stirring diversity of subjects.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl (available at National Book Store) After her much praised Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Pessl returns with an ambitious novel, that’s part-conspiracy thriller set in the world of cult cinema, and part-meditation on being obsessed with something in your life. When Ashley Cordova, daughter of recluse film director Stanislaw, was found dead, journalist Scott McGrath goes on a mad hunt to find the reason why a young girl would take her own life. Sinister and claustrophobic, McGrath re-enters a world where one is never sure if one is on terra firma, or a world manipulated by Cordova himself. Peppered with photos, forensic reports and website entries, this is almost a mixed-media work that is never less than suspenseful.

Brilliance by Marcus Sakey (available on Amazon.com) Imagine a world where “brilliants,” people born with unusual powers, has grown exponentially. Imagine then the fear and trepidation that would cause for us “normals.” It’s an X-Men world without the costumes and comic book elements. With suspense a byproduct of every page, the novel takes into the life of Cooper, a brilliant who works on the side of the government that seeks to restrict and control movement by the brilliants as they react against the prejudice and control being levied against them. Going into deep cover to help expose the John Smith that seems to be leading the terrorist-type activities, we’re led into a labyrinth of deception and subterfuge. A gripping read!

The Humans by Matt Haig (available at Fully Booked) Haig’s previous novel, The Radleys, was one of the best comic novels of recent years, funny yet insightful and compassionate. That same blend is present in this new work. This is a first person narrative, where the person is an adult ET, tasked with a mission with dire consequences for humankind. He takes over the body of a Cambridge Math professor, and begins to appreciate humans with life-changing ramifications. Wry observations of people are coupled with a suspense quotient that is delightfully maintained throughout the novel. You’ll love how the simplest things we take for granted are the very stuff that endears us to this being from a much advanced civilization, restoring faith in ourselves.