What does “Leaving a Legacy” mean in life?
It can be a tangible object left to someone in a will, it can be a business, such as a charity or nonprofit, or it can be so much more – the mark a person leaves on the world when they are no longer here. Leaving a legacy means giving something that will be valued and treasured by those who survive after your death.
To me, leaving a legacy means doing all that I can to help women, particularly young women, and women of color, diagnosed with breast cancer. I do this in several ways – sometimes it’s volunteering at a hospital, sometimes it’s being a mentor to someone newly diagnosed, and sometimes it could be speaking at an event or even writing a blog. The hope is that by sharing my personal story with the public, it will reach someone who can identify with how I feel, and therefore know that they are not alone.
When I leave this earth, that is what I want my legacy to be – one of connecting with and supporting other people in the cancer community, and they in turn doing the same for others.
In the metastatic breast cancer community, legacy work is a much bigger focus than with “early-stagers” (those not metastatic). I have met many wonderful people who have and who are currently doing things to leave an indelible mark on the world, some I have met in person, some I have not.
Ways to leave a legacy
The first person who comes to mind is Lisa Laudico, creator, host, and executive producer of the Our MBC Life podcast. Lisa was diagnosed “de novo” with MBC in 2017, the 4th generation in her family to receive a breast cancer diagnosis, and the first to be diagnosed at Stage 4.
She initially started the podcast for 2 reasons: First, while she knew there were people amplifying individual voices in the MBC community, she wanted to focus on the entire MBC experience, something created, managed, and hosted by people living with MBC, showcasing information that would pertain to not just one but all voices of the community, inclusive of diverse backgrounds and also unique to each person’s experience. Secondly, she wanted an easily accessible platform and felt that the podcast format was, in her words, “conducive to the way so many people living with MBC consume information – the radio, over the internet, while we are driving, while we are folding laundry, or going for a walk”.
Currently, Lisa is trying to recruit more early-stagers as volunteers for the podcast. She has stated that she realized early on that a podcast created and managed by only those with MBC is not sustainable. By being a volunteer to the podcast, not only am I building on the legacy I hope to leave, but I’m also ensuring Lisa’s legacy of being a source of information and support for the metastatic breast cancer community for many years to come.
Sometimes, people work on preparing their legacy without even knowing it. Such was the case of my dear friend TT. She lived a life of quiet service that only her closest friends were aware of. She was a part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and cultivated a mentor relationship and friendship with a young participant.
During Hurricane Harvey, she volunteered at the George R. Brown convention center in Houston, using her pharmaceutical expertise to help people who were displaced and needed medication. For her 35th birthday, she asked all her friends to participate in doing 35 random acts of kindness. Upon finding a big bag with smaller bags of individually wrapped toiletries in her home once, she explained to me that when she was feeling well, she would keep the bag in her car, and hand them out to homeless people around the city. She did these things because as an only child to a widowed parent, she experienced financial struggles growing up and was extremely empathetic (and private about it) towards people who dealt with similar issues. The biggest and most lasting impact she made in the world was contained in her will. She left gifts for many organizations from all walks of life – breast cancer, education, and youth, to name a few. In 2021, the Dr. Tylithia L Burks Foundation was formed to further cement her philanthropic legacy.
How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone?
These are just a few of the examples of legacies that will exist in the breast cancer community. How do you want people to remember you? What image do you hope is conjured up by those who will speak your name once you’ve passed?
What can you do to leave your legacy on this earth?
Whether it is something as momentous as a foundation or podcast, spending time volunteering in a hospital, or simply being able to support someone who is newly diagnosed, there are many ways to leave a lasting mark on the world for the better. My hope is that as we all learn to pay-it-forward, we promote a legacy not just for ourselves or our community, but for everyone to live a life of kindness, community, support, and encouragement.
