Purple … it’s the color of violets and plums. It’s also the color of survivorship. Just as each cancer has a signature ribbon, purple represents the survivorship of all cancers. It seems only fitting, then, that the first and only magazine dedicated to women cancer survivors should be entitled The Plum.

Plums are not only significant to us for their color. Plum blossom are one of the most beloved flowers in China because they often bloom amidst the winter snow. They have come to symbolize perseverance, hope, and resilience. What a perfect metaphor for the metamorphasized creatures we survivors have become!

An individual becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis. It’s at that very moment in time they begin to survive cancer. The work of the Women Survivors Alliance, then, is to support all women on the survivor spectrum. Our mission is clear: to establish a network where women affected by cancer can find their voice, improve their quality of life, and embrace their new normal.

Cancer has been the great unifier for those of us who have traveled the journey. Race, religion and sexual orientation don’t matter to this menace – it’s an equal opportunity killer. But whether newly diagnosed or many years from that date in our personal history, we are connected by the fact that we faced the beast. Most amazing of all is that cancer’s very deadliness gives us power we never expected.

That collective power in turn gives us the strength to help those behind us in their fight. It enables us to guide the scientific and medical communities worldwide in the quest to treat and cure the disease. And it will guide us as together we create and live “the Plum life!”