Throughout this past month we’ve had the honor of sharing the stories of three courageous women in the IT channel who have touched our lives while battling breast cancer. In talking to Nathalie Turner, Barbara Koch and Sandy Preto, we learned a lot about what it means to face a tremendous life challenge while remaining active in the workforce.
As our month-long series on breast cancer comes to a close, here are five thoughts we wanted to leave you with in the spirit of spreading awareness, prevention and support:
- Your Call to Action: As business owners, business leaders and people managers, what can we do to help? The call to action all of us at Channel Impact would like to ask you to accept, is to embrace IT and workplace best practices that are supportive of those with cancer. This includes flexible work schedules and collaborative tools, as well as onsite mammograms and other services to make preventative care more accessible and convenient.
- It Takes a Village: Whether it’s accepting a gift of food or flowers, or even better – engaging in good conversation – there is comfort in community. And if a colleague of yours has been diagnosed, take time to show your support. Even the smallest gesture can go a long way.
- Use Technology: All three of the women we profiled chose to keep working throughout the course of their treatments and surgeries. Although their employers offered plenty of time off, they felt their careers were so intrinsically tied to who they were that they didn’t want to put that part of their lives on hold. And because of all the collaborative tools and remote technologies available, along with flexible schedules, they were able to keep up at their own pace.
- Take Preventative Action: For those of us working in the busy IT channel, there’s no question that free time is hard to find. But there’s nothing more important than your health. Be diligent about breast cancer screenings, annual exams, the food you eat and the environment in which you live and work. The bottom line is that you can’t be of help to others unless you are in good health yourself.
- Give Back: As Nathalie, Barbara and Sandy have all shown, we have much to be grateful for, even as we face our greatest challenges. Nathalie became involved in a leadership role with the Bloom Again Foundation’s New Jersey chapter, and Barbara became an active participant in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Sandy started her own charitable organization, Notes4Hope, and the Channel Impact team has shown our love and appreciation by supporting her efforts — because we know how much it means to her and others fighting this disease. We hope other businesses will follow in our footsteps and donate to these or other organizations that provide important funding and services to those in need.
In closing, we would like to once again thank Nathalie, Barbara and Sandy for sharing their stories with us. Ladies, you have inspired us beyond belief!
