Breast Cancer survivor, author, Glenside resident, and now owner of Glenside Books & Collectibles, Rasheen Davis, is gearing up for her grand opening to coincide with the Downtown Glenside Arts Festival on April 21st from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The event will be catered by Quad Chef Catering of Pensauken, NJ. Ms. Davis also booked and sponsored the popular musical band, By Any Means, of Philadelphia for the event.
“I believe having this shop in Glenside will certainly enhance this already adorable town. I’m excited to introduce myself, the new business venture and my story to my new community.” says, Davis.
That story she’s referring to began back in June of 2009, when Rasheen Davis who never had a mammogram, found a lump on her right breast. At just 38 years old, a mother of 5 with two kids both younger than age 2, Davis was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Her life took a drastic change at that point. Working as an IT Security Analyst for ten years and in Corporate America for over twenty years with companies such as, The Vanguard Group, Rohm and Haas, Deloitte and Jabil, she was now forced to step down from it all, for it was inevitable that there was long journey ahead.
Ms.Davis recounts this journey through treatment, mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and recovery in her self-published book, The Chemo Room: My Journey Though Fear, Hope & Survival. She will have two signings this weekend and will be discussing the book as well.
“I had been working on it since I was diagnosed; I just didn’t know it was going to be a book,” said Davis, referring to what started as a blog. “Writing about it was very therapeutic.”
“I didn’t understand what a mammogram was,” she said of her pre-cancer life. “If I hadn’t found the lump, it would have gone undetected. I would have died at 40, the recommended age to start having mammograms. That’s why I’m an advocate of early detection.”
Davis told Glenside Local that her reason for writing “The Chemo Room” was to increase cancer awareness and to support patients and families impacted by the disease.
“Unless you know about cancer and its impact, and it doesn’t hit you directly in your home, you’re removed from it. You don’t think about it,” Davis said. Her family has been affected by it, as a great aunt had breast cancer and her father died after colon cancer. Typically, mammograms are recommended for women starting at age 40.
David Tabosky, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul’s The Cancer Book: 101 Stories of Courage, Support & Love, was quoted in the foreword of Davis’s book, “Rasheen is a living example of an ‘ordinary’ person being forced to her limit by the physical, emotional and psychological hurdles that cancer presents,”
On Saturday make sure you stop by her place on Glenside Avenue to meet Rasheen Davis and to hear her story. Davis has invited Chef Amirah of Quad Chef Catering, who will be sharing samples of her culinary expertise. There will also be raffles with great prizes, one of which is an iZip electric bike. They will be featuring the works of photography artists, Daniel Jackson and many other wonderful and unique items for sale.