A new book, “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” comes out today. There are few resources like this and none with real insights from women, told in their own words, along with photography by Kathleen Galligan that captures their healing spirit. The book is $35 from Rowman and Littlefield and available on Amazon.com and some Barnes and Noble and other select bookstores.

On June 29, author Patricia Anstett, a long-time medical writer, will launch the book with a community event on the topic, with a book-signing, from 5-7 at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital. Other events are planned throughout the upcoming year.

#BreastReconstruction # breastcancer #plasticsurgery

Patricia Anstett is an experienced medical writer who worked 40 years in newspaper journalism in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Detroit, her hometown. For the last 22 years of her professional newspaper career she was a medical writer for the Detroit Free Press, retiring in September, 2011. In 2017, she was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, and she was named Headliner of the Year by the Association for Women in Communications. In April, 2019, she was named an outstanding alumni of Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts & Sciences.

She is the author of two books _ “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” published in 2016 by Rowman and Littlefield, and “Triumph: Inspirational Stories from the Beaumont,” published in 2014 by the Beaumont Health system. She administers a Facebook page and web site on the topic at (bcsurgerystories.com and https://www.facebook.com/groups/BCsurgstories/). She volunteers actively with two breast cancer groups: The Pink Fund, and the Tri-County Breast and Cervical Cancer Control program; serves on the patient advisory council for the Henry Ford Health System; and is on the board of the Detroit chapter of the Association for Women in Communications.

For the last 22 years of her professional newspaper career she was a medical writer for the Detroit Free Press. Her award-winning stories  extensively covered breast cancer,  breast surgery and reconstruction and mammography.  State cancer leaders credit her reporting for exposing failing mammography centers that led to substantial improvements in the quality of mammography standards in Michigan, a model for federal legislation. Other awards citing her reporting came from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, for breast implant coverage; the Vivian Castleberry Award, a national competition for her stories about breast biopsy options; and the American Cancer Society and the Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute for the accuracy and comprehensiveness of her breast cancer reporting.

Her freelance articles have appeared in the Reader’s Digest; the National Observer; the Chicago Tribune; Washingtonian and Chicago magazines; and Paris Match. She was part of a reporting team that published The Suicide Machine,  about the first 47 patients to seek assisted suicide from the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Kathleen Galligan, photographer, is an Emmy award-winning photographer and videographer who specializes in women’s health, social justice, mental health, poverty, and juvenile justice issues. A single mother with two sons, Galligan worked as a plastic surgery center photographer before joining the Detroit Free Press in 2002. Her first online documentary project, “Christ Child,” about a residential treatment center for severely abused and neglected boys, was awarded a national news and documentary Emmy in 2009. Her work also has captured a National Headliners Award in journalistic innovation as well as numerous national and state awards in photography.