Allison Stanley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (June 2008)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (June 2008)

This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since June 2008).
You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!)

Catherine Allison Stanley (b. September 7, 1966) is a breast cancer survivor featured on NBC’s Daytime Emmy Award nominated reality television program, Starting Over.^[1] ^[2]

[edit] Biography

Stanley was born and grew up in Charlotte, NC. She has one brother that is older than her. Allison's dad, James Stanley, Jr., graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and took over his father's drug store business. "Stanely's" was a Charlotte hotspot during the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's until it closed in 2001 ^[3]. Her mother, Ann Stanley, worked at her husband's drugstore for years before branching out into real estate. Allison lost her father in 1991. Her mother remarried a few years later. She lost her step-father in 2005 and her mother in 2008.

Following in her father’s footsteps, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Soon after, she traveled to the Big Apple to pursue a career in performance.^[4] While in New York, she became a cruise director in Alaska and Latin America, a junior sales assistant at Morgan Stanley and even checked coats at a posh NY restaurant. In 1996, she left the Big Apple for the Big Easy (New Orleans) and worked as a production manager for a top national political media producer for the 1996 and 1998 elections.

She returned to her hometown in 1999 to work as an executive assistant at Bank of America Securities. In her spare time, she serves on event committees for several charities, enjoys singing with the Opera Carolina chorus and volunteers as a public relations coordinator and soloist for her church.

In February of 2004 she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. After aggressively fighting the rounds of radiation and cancer medications, Allison came out on top. She is now committed to raising awareness and supporting causes that make a difference in her community and across America. She established the Chemo Cafe', where fellow cancer patients are visited by people and given homemade goodies while receiving chemo. She has also volunteered at Race for the Cure, promoted Laugh for the Cure and produced Charlotte’s Sing for the Cure in September 2006. She continues to participate in each of these and added Raft for the Cure as the Komen representative along side North Carolina’s first lady, Mary Easley, wife of Governor Mike Easley.

Allison has been a keynote speaker for the Hereditary Cancers Conference in Tampa, sponsored by F.O.R.C.E. (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered)^[5], Laugh for the Cure 2005 ^[6] during which she received the Celebrated Survivor Award, CCFC Breast Cancer Conference for Health Care Professionals in Cleveland, Ohio, and Share Our Strength’s Conference of Leaders in November 2007. She also had the honor of singing the National Anthem before the Charlotte Checkers professional hockey team during their “PINK IN THE RINK” breast cancer fundraiser.

She is best known for being on Season 2 and Season 3 of NBC’s daytime reality show, ”Starting Over.”^[7] While on the show Allison underwent treatment for breast cancer during a leave of absence from Bank of America. The country watched as Allison struggled to overcome lifelong self esteem issues,^[8] only to find out later on the show that she had tested positive for the BRCA-1 gene and was pre-disposed to cancer. With millions of viewers watching, Allison made the decision to lose both her breasts and her uterus.^[9] Allison has since overcome this traumatic period in her life, and is now stronger and more motivated to live life to its fullest, sharing her story along the way. Allison showed her humility and strength as she allowed millions of people to witness all the struggles, pain and difficulties of life after cancer. She continues to be a source of inspiration for women and continues to be a voice on their behalf.

A confident true professional, Allison is committed to using her talents and experience to change the focus of “those in need” to “those who succeed.” She is not only a role model for others, but her credibility and touching story are sources of inspiration she hopes others will hear and use to become empowered.