Patti Labelle

Cancer Type – Breast

Bio – Vocal legend and actress who graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, lost three sisters to cancer.

Short Story – The R&B Legend and Grammy winner lost three sisters to cancer, and has teamed up with the American Lung Association’s LUNG Force Initiative to raise awareness for lung cancer. In an interview with People Magazine Labelle stated, “One woman dies every eight minutes in the United States of lung cancer. Bottom line: We all can do more to learn about lung cancer and contribute something to the initiative.”

Yet, there is more to Patti Labelle’s story. In 2005, she had her own scare with cancer. Losing sister Barbara to colon cancer, Vivien to brain cancer, and Jackie to lung cancer, she acknowledges she she was nervous about her mammogram results. But Patti left her breast scare quiet, only to tell the heartfelt story on stage at Denise Rich’s biannual Angel Ball for Cancer in 2005.

Doctor’s told her there “might” be something to worry about. The event was the first anyone in her family new of her scare. As a testament to her survival, at the ball she sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

SInce her scare and the passing of her sisters, Patti lends her voice to the LUNG force Initiative.

Patti, thank you for inspiring a “New Attitude” for the many who hear the word – Cancer.

Image Credits – By dbking (originally posted to Flickr as _MG_9594) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons