Dear perioperative professionals,

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our annual “Together We Can Save Lives Through Early Detection” breakfast forum featuring Dr. Marla Shapiro, author of Life in the Balance: My Journey with Breast Cancer and renowned Canadian on-air medical expert. The event was held on Monday, March 31 at the Anaheim Marriott during the AORN 55^th Congress.

More than 800 perioperative nurse professionals joined us at 5:45 a.m. for this special event. We were honored to have Janelle Hail, president of the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) with us to talk about the foundation’s generous activities and accept Medline’s 2008 donation of $100,000. This funding will help support healthcare facilities across the nation that offer free mammograms to women in need.

Our featured speaker, Dr. Marla Shapiro, delivered a dynamic presentation on coping with stress, balancing life and battling breast cancer. Through pictures and interactive storytelling, she shared her personal journey with this pervasive disease and helped us all understand how we can keep our lives in equilibrium even when catastrophic events come our way.

Dr. Shapiro left the audience with the following inspirational words on the profession of nursing: “You were the one that wheeled me down the hall to surgery. You were the one that was there to hold my hand when I woke up. … Don’t ever let anyone devalue the importance of what you do.”