One of the inspiring initiatives that helped MBC go mainstream was an annual event that highlighted the show’s color and purpose—literally and beautifully. During #LightUpMBC, more than 270 iconic landmarks around the world are lit up in green, pink and turquoise. Locations range from towering skyscrapers like One World Trade Center in New York City to natural wonders like Niagara Falls and are spread across 172 cities in all 50 states and beyond. On Sunday, October 13 (National Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day), attendees can find local landmarks to visit in person before enjoying it all from the comfort of home by watching #LightUpMBC Live, a virtual benefit starting at 8:00 p.m. ET./5 :00 pm PT. Broadcast live from the Hilton Short Hills via the LiveOne platform on YouTube Metavivor, Facebook Live, and metavivor.org/lightupmbc—watch on YouTube, above—the event will feature MBC’s inspiring stories told from illuminated landmarks throughout world. Celebrity guests will be included American Idol-award-winning musician/actor David Cook, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb, Emmy-award-winning entertainer Keith David, and many more. The event will be hosted and co-produced by Tami Eagle Bowling, a motivational speaker and MBC stage IV star of nine years, along with actress, influencer and breast cancer survivor Miranda McKeon.
McKeon, who appears in the Netflix series Anne with an Ereceived a shocking diagnosis of stage III breast cancer at age 19 and has blogged powerfully throughout her treatment journey. Part of her mission now is to raise awareness about the fact that early-stage breast cancer often returns years later as incurable stage IV MBC—the only deadly type of breast cancer. “Because I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was still young, it left a lot of time for me to experience a recurrence. I am well aware of that and would love to find a cure for metastatic breast cancer. If we cured MBC, no one would die of breast cancer,” says McKeon (who, channeling her new perspective on life, recently launched a card game called Fill Your Tank that helps deepen relationships through questions). Unfortunately, he knows that he is not the only person who has faced the decades-long question of whether his cancer will metastasize again. “Cancer diagnoses are increasingly occurring in the younger generation,” he said. “What happened to me is not something that is unheard of. We need to create more treatment options for stage IV to ensure that all these beautiful young women—and women of all ages who currently suffer from incurable MBC—can live long and healthy lives.”
If you’re ready to join the movement, tune in to LightUPMBC 2024. The best way to enjoy the broadcast, according to the host, is to watch it twice: Streaming on your smart TV via LiveOne or Metavivor’s live YouTube channels, and simultaneously on your phone or laptop You (with the sound off) via a Metavivor Facebook Live broadcast. That way, you can get the full visual impact of the illuminated landmark, but also follow the comments and interact with others who care about MBC’s cause. In the meantime, you can browse some exciting additions to the annual fundraising event: #LightUpMBC apparel, and the Shimmer for the Cure jewelry collection, which offers a variety of jewelry with teal, green, and pink gemstones, with 100 percent of net profits going to Metavivor during October.
A defeat that launched a movement
The original spark for #LightUpMBC came from Laura Inahara, a New Hampshire woman who lost her best friend, Jessica Moore, to metastatic breast cancer. A college women’s basketball coach, Moore took an elbow to the chest one day while playing, and the resulting pain continued. As a nurse, she knew the wound should have healed faster. After she visited a doctor for a check-up, she learned that she had metastatic breast cancer—meaning the disease had progressed and spread to her bones, even though she had no other symptoms. He is only 32 years old. He battled the disease for four years, and died at the age of 36. “Before Jessica died, she said that she thought it would be a great thing to mark such an important event for MBC as a way to raise awareness,” Inahara said. who founded a group called Moore Fight Moore Strong in honor of his friend. In October 2017, five months after Moore died, the group lit their first landmark—the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, near Jessica’s hometown.
