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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Maya Mowilos holds a Cheerios box picturing her and other breast cancer survivors.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008 Everett breast cancer survivor gains a little fame By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist Maya Mowilos is a radio disc jockey. A mother of three boys, she's a home-school teacher. And this month, the Everett woman also finds herself on a Cheerios box. That's her smiling face, at the center of a picture of five women on the backs of Cheerios and other cereal packages marked with a Pink Together logo. Sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure and General Mills, the Pink Together campaign aims to spread hope for women touched by breast cancer. Along with its $2 million donation to the nonprofit Komen organization, which funds cancer research, General Mills put up a Web site, www.myspace.com/pinktogether, an online community where breast cancer survivors and their loved ones share personal stories. Mowilos, 34, happened upon the Web site early this year. Seven years past her own stunning diagnosis, she had good reason to be there. "I posted a little blurb on MySpace Pink Together. It was the first time I had ever posted anything publicly, ever," Mowilos said Thursday. "I sent hope and love and healing to anyone who needs it." Back in 2001, she was the one in need of hope. Mowilos was just 27 when a Seattle doctor told her she had breast cancer. It was the last thing on her mind when she went seeking answers about what she assumed was a symptom related to the earlier breast feeding of her oldest child. An ultrasound was followed by a biopsy. At an age when few women would consider getting a mammogram, Mowilos was a breast cancer patient. Surgeries were followed by radiation. Six years this past July, her treatments ended. "At five years out, I thought OK, I'll start talking about it," she said. "You can call yourself cured, but you're always on the lookout." In the years since, she's been blessed by a growing family and a full life. She and her "other half Jeff" -- Mowilos calls him "my biggest supporter" -- have 5-year-old twins Quinn and Orion, along with big brother Lance, 13. Monday nights, Mowilos can be heard on Everett's public radio station, KSER-90.7 FM. On her "Starlit Skies" show, she's a volunteer DJ playing what she calls chill-out, down-tempo and healing music, a sound she says is a perfect remedy for Mondays. She's also on commercial radio, on the soft-rock station WARM-106.9 FM, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Between family and work, there's time for reaching out in other ways. Mowilos volunteers at area breast cancer fundraising events. A year ago, she helped put on a concert to benefit Postpartum Support International of Washington. Calling that event "Mama Rising," she spoke at the time of how the support group helped her after the birth of her twins. In the same way, with empathy born of hard experience, Mowilos didn't hesitate to lend her voice to the Pink Together campaign. After posting that first little blurb, her message of hope and healing, there came another surprise, this one positive. "General Mills called me," she said. Hearing her story, a marketing director for the food company asked her to fly to Minneapolis for a photo shoot. That was in late winter. By April, after what Mowilos called a "serious background check," she was in Minneapolis with four other women being photographed for packaging that would show up in stores this fall. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. "Our pictures are on quite a few items. The main things are Cheerios, Total, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Fiber One. We're on 17 different products," she said. Some stores have big displays with her face on them. On the Web site, the women's stories will be up through the end of the year. They include a blog entry by Mowilos describing the day of her diagnosis. In part, she wrote: "On the visit when I was told I had cancer, my son was with me. It was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle, and the leaves were making a pattern on the wall. I looked at my son coloring in his little sea animals book on the floor while a doctor explained what this diagnosis meant... I had a 5-year-old that depended on me." It's her own story, but versions of it are told every day. Women and families everywhere get the bad news. "I think about it every day," Mowilos said. She wasn't looking for Cheerios box fame. "Do I want public attention? It's not my goal," she said. "If it helps anybody, I'll do it." Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

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