Revista de Oncología Integrativa

The Male Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC).

Abstract

Cheri ambrose

February 13, 2019 marked the 5th anniversary of The Male Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC).  This non-profit and awareness foundation was established with the objectives of saving lives through advocacy, education and a complete resource access of any and all support facilities and clinical information leading to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Male Breast Cancer. Origins of the MBCC came from the partnership between MBCC President and Co-founder, Cheri Ambrose of New Jersey and co-founder Bret Miller of Kansas City who is recorded as the youngest male worldwide to contract breast cancer. Bret was just 17 years old when he found a lump during a high school sports physical. For six years he was told by various doctors that it was nothing to worry about, just calcium that would dissipate as he got older. Bret underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer at the age of 24.  He promised his doctor that if cured, he would become the face of breast cancer for me. He started his own awareness foundation, the Bret Miller 1T Foundation with his mother Peggy Miller as his manager and was attending many of the local 5k races and breast cancer events in Kansas City in an effort to bring awareness to the risk men face. Cheri had been working at her own organization in New Jersey known as the Blue Wave.  The Blue Wave was born out of a need for awareness after a very dear friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  He went from being a vibrant, outgoing person into a virtual hermit, shutting himself off from everyone due to embarrassment of having a women’s disease. Once connecting, through social media and an hour-long phone call with Peggy Miller, Bret’s mother and foundation manager, the two knew there was so much more they could do together and joined forces and never looked back.  To date touching the lives of over 500 men diagnosed with breast cancer around the world.