Shirley Sims

Shirley is a breast cancer crusader! She embodies everything we've come to know about the fight against this disease and we are thrilled to have her be the final shoot for this year's Daily Inspired Calendar.

Her battle against this disease has been with her her entire life. Seven of her family members have had cancer, either breast or prostate, and she is fed up with this being the thing that plagues her family. With four children of her own, she wants nothing more than for that word, cancer, to disappear for good!

The setting for our photo shoot was the Kubota Gardens in South Seattle. It is there that her sister has her final resting place, under a tree at the entrance, where she can see all the people coming and going. Shirley lost her sister to breast cancer and telling us their story brought many emotions to the surface. The same day that her sister went in for surgery for her mastectomy, Shirley had the mammogram that discovered her cancer. For Shirley, she was diagnosed in such an early stage that her cancer was thoroughly removed and she is now an eleven year survivor. Her sister on the other hand had breast cancer three different times and didn't have the strength to beat it again.

You can hear in her voice the love she has for her sister and how much she misses her. But it is for her sister and the rest of her family that she agreed to do this project with us. Having her picture taken isn't exactly something she looks forward to, but for the cause, she will stop at nothing to do her part.

Shirley, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for offering your support. And thank you for being Dale's friend on her journey. Shirley is a dear friend of Jason's mom and we are both incredibly grateful that Dale has such comrades in battle like Shirley who understand her pain and cheer her on to put this behind her.