SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to For Your Health News Podcast. We have such a powerhouse conversation lined up for you today. We have Miss Lindsey Levinston, who is an amazing advocate, and I'm so excited for you all to hear her story.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, Queen. I really appreciate the invitation.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Oh, thank you. And I for folks who probably can't see or maybe listening, there's a lot of color. So if you need some pops of color in your life today, definitely watch this video. And you are the founder of Survivor. And I would love for you to talk more about why this organization is so important to you.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Survivor is so important to me because I'm able to inform, inspire, and empower women about breast cancer awareness and wellness year-round. And it's, I really consider it my ministry. My breast cancer diagnosis really thrust me into this work because I was very ignorant about breast cancer awareness. And so I wanted to share everything I learned with other women who have been in fact impacted and affected by the disease. So I consider Survivor my ministry. I'm very, very passionate about helping women, educating women, helping women to get screened, supporting them through treatment, really filling in the gaps where they need, you know, those really, really the really, really critical support.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I think that's what I've enjoyed most about reading about your journey and work is this impact on this focus on the impact of genetic testing. That's something that I had never thought about prior to doing research for this interview. Tell us why that's important and why everybody needs to know about this.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

It is so important that everyone knows their family history and their genetic predisposition. I had no idea that breast cancer ran in my family on my dad's side, on the paternal side of my family. And had women on my paternal side been talking about it, I could have taken preventative measures. But I know everything happens for a reason. And so part of our messaging is to educate people about genetic testing. If you know that you're at high risk for breast cancer, for example, then you can perhaps consider a prophylactic or preventative mastectomy to reduce your risk. I mean, that's just one of many um action steps that we can take, especially in the black community where the Brock-1 gene mutation is prevalent.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

That's really real. And I like that you always rep Houston where you go. H-Town. Of course. I'm an H-Town Hottie. That's for making the stallion scenes. I mean, and I love Beyonce. I was just about to say the land of Meg, the Stallion, and Beyoncé. You cannot go wrong if you're from Houston. So we love that for you. But you do a lot of work in Houston as well. Talk about some of the community initiatives that you are leading in Houston and across the country as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

We are leading so many initiatives, and you know, it's the train is moving quickly, and so hard to keep up with the train. One of the initiatives that I'm really proud of is our signature program, Treat Her. We partner with a local hospital system in Houston, the Houston Methodist Neil Cancer Center, to host a day of education, um, wellness, and fun for women. So we're treating women to not only education, we're treating them to a yoga experience. They also receive a complimentary lunch. We have door prizes. So it really makes it a fun experience to learn about breast cancer and risk.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

It's important. And I think that especially because you mentioned the gene and black women being more predisposed to having it, it's important that people are aware of where to find your organization and also how to get involved as well. Because I think that's important as well. So, how can people find you? And also, how can people invest or donate to the causes that you're working on?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

So they can find Survive Her through a simple Google search. It's SurviveHer, A-T-R. Our website is imasurviveher.org. We are on every social media platform, Survive Her. And if you click on the donate button on our website, you can contribute. And I always like to share that our money goes directly into the hands of women who need it most, underserved women who need to pay for a mammogram, women who cannot afford to pay for rent while they're going through chemotherapy, women who need an Uber ride to treatment, etc. So our money goes directly into the hands of women who have been impacted severely by breast cancer.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yeah, what came to me when you were saying that is a community of care, right? With someone leading the work who has a personal mission to this and personal experience. So you can see that the touches there, that feeling of being cared for as part of this work.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

And that is my goal is to offer that um that care, that empathy, that compassion. And I think women really resonate with that because as a person with lived experience, I know what it's like. And so I really try my best to um just put myself in that woman's shoes as she's recently diagnosed or going through treatment because I've been there.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Thank you so much. We really appreciate you being part of this conversation. Thank you for just being a light, literally. I'm a beacon of pink light, as you should be, as you should be, and excited to see you take over the world and really help more women know the power that they have even as they face this illness. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Queen, for having me. Of course.