What's With The Peas? The Susan Reynolds Story

Since I virtually live on my computer, I am used to seeing my buddies playing with their "avatars". Those little pictures, or representations of themselves that go with their messages on sites like twitter.com, facebook.com, etc. I use a beautiful Samoyed dog on this site and everywhere else. But a few weeks ago on twitter.com a few people started going crazy with pictures of peas somewhere in their avatars. What's this all about?

This is an example of "social media" in action. A lady named Susan Reynolds, an artist and author got the dreadful word that she not only had breast cancer, but a rare and particularly nasty variety of same. Being a lover of life and people, as well as a lover of herself, she took her personal "challenge" and put it into a blog for the benefit of other patients and their families. In the same spirit which motivated and motivates this blog, she let it all hang out about the ups, down, ins and outs of being a cancer patient. You guys are gonna love this. She calls her blog "Boobs On Ice".

When I first read her story on The Frozen Peas Fund page I thought the name was a brilliant joke of some kind. No, this brave lady had surgery and was in bad pain. She tried ice packs and all the rest, but for her two bags of frozen peas tucked into her bra gave the best and longest lasting relief.

The movements beginning and giving $5 or more to The American Cancer Society specifically for Breast Cancer research are all documented. $5 is about the cost of two small bags of frozen peas. I love small donations, because I'm on a fixed income and I can't drop the large donations. But even I, with my impulsive shopper ways can give $5! So now I too have joined the ranks of the PEAple who have a PEAvatars.

But Susan realized that a permanent avatar change would soon disappear in peoples minds. They'd see it daily and it would loose its impact. So "Frozen Pea Friday" was born. I believe this is #7 or #8. We all change our pictures for only one day a week, on Fridays. The change is striking, as more and more little pictures are surrounded by or embedded with peas. Here's mine:

This rendition will only appear once a week. I love grass-roots, or in this case icy boobs movements. I know next to nothing about The American Cancer Society, but according to Susan they are the only 24/7 phone number cancer patients can call and talk to someone. That in itself is enough for me.









Here are the links I've referred to in this blog with their actual addresses:

The Frozen Peas Fund Page; http://frozenpeafund.com/

Susan Reynolds Cancer-related blog "Boobs on Ice": http://susanreynolds.blogs.com/boobsonice/

Free pictures of peas can be found on Flickr.com: (I did the "peas" search for you: http://flickr.com/search/?q=peas

google search results for "susan reynolds": http://www.google.com/search?q=susan+reynolds+md&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


Be sure to check out the google search page for "susan reynolds". She is far more than just a cancer patient. I have no doubt, this illness will fade to a "blip" on her active and creative life radar.

You GO girlfriend!