Today Cindy Papale is doing a book signing at the Changing Times Bookstore in West Palm Beach. I really wanted to get there and had to figure out how to get to West Palm Beach from Ft. Lauderdale. Seems the best way is to rent a car and drive the 45 minutes north to West Palm Beach. Luckily we caught a ride to a car rental place and Darren drove us to West Palm! We got map quest directions from our hotel and it was fairly simple to find.

We arrived early and I hadn’t prebooked my spot so I went into the store early to be sure I could attend. I saw the crew setting up the lighting and cameras with Cindy sitting on her chair at the front of the set up. I went up to Cindy and introduced myself.  She knew right away who I was. We were both so happy to meet. As I told Cindy I’ve had the tickets to come to Ft. Lauderdale for over 2 years and have never been able to arrange the trip. What are the chances Darren and I make the trip and arrive the day she’s doing a book signing/filming!

More people started arriving and I met Paula Holland De Long who was also giving a workshop that evening. I also met Micheal Colanero a digital photographer, http://www.cafepress.ca/BCABPP

Cindy started the evening by presenting her book The Empty Cup Runneth Over www.theemptycuprunnethover.com about her journey with breast cancer. Cindy also displayed her photograph of her body painting Ribbon in the Sky www.cafepress.com/BCABPP/6735454 What a wonderful project to bring awareness about breast cancer.

Cindy answered questions from the audience about her experiences, her book, and her work promoting her inspirational message to University and high school students. She speaks to groups of young people and informs them about breast cancer and how to be aware of their bodies. Great advice. Unfortunately women are discovering breast cancer younger than ever before. Since typically young women don’t get breast cancer sometimes it is being overlooked. Awareness, detection, lifestyle, and early diagnosis are key.

Paula’s workshop was called “What’s Next For My Life?” www.whatsnextformylife.com  Her workshops are for cancer survivors and their familes who are faced with the changes after experiencing cancer.  This was a very interesting exercise for me as this is definitely what happened to me. It’s great to know there is support to help guide people through this process.  We experience changes in physical and emotional ways and others close to us might need some help sorting and readjusting to change.

What a wonderful group of people! I’m so happy to have met them. We are keeping in touch and I’m sure will meet again.