Courage To Fight Breast Cancer 2018

Because of your generosity, C2 will be able to visit more communities and help more women in Lebanon. We are so grateful for your support.

Thank you so much for your support! We have a few hours left in our campaign, so there's still time to remind your friends to give using bit.ly/CourageToFight. We are deeply grateful for gifts of any size.

St Jude Founder Danny Thomas once said, “I’d rather have a million people give me a dollar than one give me a million. That way, you’ve got a million people involved.”

We may not get to a million dollars or a million donors this year, but we'd love to have many small donors on this last day of giving. Please don't hesitate to give! Every gift is welcome and needed, from $5 to $500.

Thank you once again for your generous gifts this holiday season. And happy new year to each and every one of you!

Last night on MTV Lebanon, superstar Elissa spoke about her successful battle against breast cancer. Her story is helping to erase the fear and denial that many women feel when it comes to this disease. As one twitter user said, "Because of Elissa's videos, I will stop looking away... I will not be afraid."

The stigma associated with breast cancer haunts so many women in Lebanon. Hiba Yazbeck knew that she could make a difference when she created C2. And today, we have met our goal of raising $10,000!

What more can we do in the two days remaining?

Hiba Yazbeck and Chady Wehbe have generously offered to match every dollar donated until the end of December with an additional fifty cents up to five thousand dollars.

A pledge like this means that even if you are only able to make a small donation, it will be multiplied by our generous founders. And we want to take as much of their money as possible!

In all seriousness, Hiba and Chady made this challenge in order to encourage as many people as possible to give. How many dollars can we raise between now and midnight on December 31st? That all depends on you. If you've already given, thank you! Why not encourage a few Facebook friends or twitter followers to do the same? You can use the link above, or just send them to bit.ly/CourageToFight (make sure you capitalize all three words!). 

Please, help us give women in Lebanon a fighting chance. Thank you so, so much for your support.

On December 18th, Dr. Myrna Doumit, Fatima Beydoun, R.N., and C2 founder Hiba Yazbeck held the 18th Courage To Fight Breast Cancer workshop in Lebanon. We're so pleased that the three women who have been so crucial to creating and continuing the C2 program were all together to celebrate this milestone and to share C2's important message.

It's important work we're doing; striving to give women all over Lebanon a safe space to learn about the early signs of breast cancer, and to give them an opportunity to practice with the medical-grade prosthetic breasts we bring with us to every C2 workshop. With your help, we can provide these prosthetics to every Public Health Center in Lebanon.

Right now, thanks to the generosity of Hiba Yazbeck and Chady Wehbe, every dollar you give will be matched by an additional fifty cents. Once we've gathered $100 from various donors, we'll be able to purchase one of these $150 prosthetics. So even if you can only give $10 or $20, these small gifts add up. Please don't hesitate to give at this time. We are grateful for every donation.

As we celebrate our founder Hiba Yazbeck, and her generous offer to match every dollar donated from now to the end of December with fifty cents, we'd also like to note that you can make a donation to honor a colleague or a loved one!

Ed Shiner donated in memory of his mother, Catherine Shemas Shiner.

Mary Logan Rothschild and Erika Iverson gave in honor of Katherine Jensen.

Robert and Margaret Hollback donated in honor of Fouad Ashkar and in memory of Fatme Ashkar.  

Sahar Abdallah donated in honor of "my mom, Hilda Haddad Zureikat."

Charbel Tagher, Marla Rice-Evans, Fadia Sadek, Shannon Connelly, Michael Hull, and Ralph Khoury each made a gift in honor of Hiba Yazbeck!

And Vicki L. Regenold donated "in honor of all survivors." To which we say, amen.

Perhaps you'd like to make a donation as a holiday gift or in honor of a family member. Or perhaps you know someone who might like to give! We're very grateful, both for your donations and for any advocacy you might be able to provide on our behalf. 

Thank you so much for becoming a part of the #C2 team!

We've reached 57% of our goal; and with just 14 days left in our campaign, Hiba Yazbeck and Chady Wehbe are giving you a new incentive to donate. For every dollar you give to Courage to Fight Breast Cancer from now until the end of December, Hiba and Chady will donate an additional 50 cents.

If you've already made a donation this year, thank you! If you haven't donated yet, won't you please consider donating? 

The medical-grade breast prostheses we use at Courage To Fight Breast Cancer workshops are used to train doctors and nurses all over the world to feel for the signs of breast cancer. We want to make these prosthetic breasts available in every public health center in Lebanon.

Our goal has been to raise $10,000, though with Hiba and Chady’s pledge, we believe we can surpass it. The prosthetic breasts cost $150 per set; so if we raise $15,000, we would be able to donate them to 100 public health centers. We’d love to distribute them to even more facilities in need, and your donation would help us do that.

We can make a big difference in Lebanon. Thank you so much for your help!

The Courage To Fight Breast Cancer campaign was covered by LAU News this weekend; read more about our campaign here.

Our next C2 workshop will take place this coming Tuesday, December 18th in Roueissat Jdeideh. C2 founder Hiba Yazbeck will join Dr. Myrna Doumit at the Mar Antonios Primary Health Care Center for the first time since the creation of the program in 2016! Check the LAU Twitter and LAU NY Academic Center Facebook page for updates throughout the day, and share them with your friends to encourage them to donate!

IDUN Minerals has kindly offered to donate a portion of their profits during the month of December to C2! This Stockholm-based mineral makeup and vegan skin and hair care line is making its debut in Lebanon this month. Here, in a brief excerpt from her speech at the launch party December 4th, Dr. Doumit speaks about her background as a breast cancer researcher and Associate Professor at ARCSON, and how she and Hiba Yazbeck came together to create what is now C2.

Our own Hiba Yazbeck co-chaired the committee for the 2018 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Detroit Gala! Here, she speaks about her own journey and the creation of Courage To Fight Breast Cancer.

Photo: C2 workshop, December 2016 in Mashha, Halba Akkar, North Lebanon

Breast cancer rates are escalating rapidly in Lebanon, with approximately five women diagnosed every day. More than ever, women are being diagnosed at very young ages: 50% of breast cancer patients in Lebanon are under the age of 50.

We know that breast cancer is 98% treatable when detected early. Unfortunately, an aura of shame and silence surrounding breast cancer still exists in some parts of Lebanon, particularly in more remote areas where women may fear being ostracized or abandoned by their families and communities.

Dr. Myrna Doumit, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing and facilitator of the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program, has written extensively about breast cancer in Lebanon.  “Breast cancer in particular is still considered in certain Lebanese cultures a prohibited word to mention because of its relationship to several important feminine aspects such as loss of the breast, guilt feelings, fear and uncertainty.” 

"Women need to know about the importance of early detection," says Dr Nagi El Saghir, oncologist and director at Beirut's Breast Center of Excellence. “It can save their lives. In our culture, as in many Arab countries, cancer means death, but we are trying to tell women that it does not have to be that way. If a woman feels a lump in her breast, and she consults a doctor straight away, it's likely she will be cured … but people are afraid, and it's a huge reason why women are not coming forward sooner."

Courage to Fight Breast Cancer works to spread awareness about the importance of early detection to diverse communities across Lebanon. Won’t you help us combat the culture of denial and fear? Thank you in advance for your donation!

For more information, please visit:

“Living with breast cancer, a Lebanese experience.” Myrna A.A.Doumit, Naji El Saghir, Huda Abu-Saad Huijer, Jane H. Kelley, Nada Nassar. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, Volume 14, Issue 1, February 2010, Pages 42-48.

“Women urged to fight breast cancer stigma: Medical experts say awareness is key to overcoming shame and silence surrounding the disease in Jordan and Lebanon.” Jessica Sarhan, Al Jazeera September 2014.

LAU and Courage To Fight Breast Cancer would like to express our sincere gratitude to Lebanese superstar Elissa and Rotana Music for permitting us to use an excerpt of Ila Kol Elli Bihebbouni (For All Those Who Love Me) in our GiveCampus video.

One of the top-selling female artists in the Arabic-speaking world, Elissa shocked fans on August 7th, 2018 with the release of a seven-minute video for her new single, Ila Kol Elli Bihebbouni. The video revealed that the singer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, and ends with a personal message from Elissa to her fans: 

I’ve recovered, I’ve beaten the illness, and I won…
Early detection of breast cancer can save your life, don’t ignore it, face it…
Do it not only for yourself, but for your loved ones.

The video resonated with so many of us, especially since our first C2 workshop took place in 2016 in Deir Al Ahmar, Elissa’s home village. We’re very grateful to Elissa and Rotana for their generous permission.

The International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care recently recognized Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing (ARCSON) Dr. Myrna Doumit with the Past President’s Award for her work on breast cancer, specifically the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer initiative at LAU. Congrats and many thanks to Dr. Doumit for her tireless work!

In September of 2015, LAU alumna Hiba Yazbeck was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer at age 38. When she began telling friends and family about her diagnosis, nearly everyone she spoke to in Lebanon had a story– a sister, a mother, or a friend who had also been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Hiba started doing research, and found that the carcinogenic chemicals that were found in her blood at diagnosis are most commonly found in people living in a war zone, or near a landfill. With a history of conflict in the region as well as the ongoing garbage crisis, Hiba realized that the rising rates of cancer among Lebanese women could only be fought with information. “I decided I wanted to do something positive out of what I was going through.”

She teamed up with Dr. Myrna Doumit, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Nursing at LAU, to create Courage to Fight Breast Cancer, an initiative specifically developed to share information and awareness to women in rural areas of Lebanon. The first clinic was held in Deir Al Ahmar, a village in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, on November 29, 2016. “We first want to encourage the women to openly discuss breast cancer and remove the fear and stigma that surrounds it,” Dr. Doumit says.

Courage to Fight Breast Cancer has partnered with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health in order to bring these clinics to women all over Lebanon. We are about to enter our third year of the program, expanding our efforts even futher. But none of this is possible without help from friends like you.

GiveCampus is the easiest way to give to C2! But if you prefer to send a check, it can be made out to Lebanese American University and sent here:

Lebanese American University

New York Headquarters and Academic Center

211 E 46th Street

New York, NY 10017

Thank you for helping us save lives in Lebanon with C2!