The Scooper Bowl has a whole new meaning for me on this World Kidney Cancer Day #partner

This year, one of my favorite events of the year has extra special meaning to me. The Scooper Bowl, an event held in downtown Boston where you can eat as much ice cream as you want, is held the first week in June and benefits the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and The Jimmy Fund. Today is World Kidney Cancer Day and has special meaning to me as my family has been affected by the disease, so I wanted to help raise awareness.

I have worked in downtown Boston for the past two decades; I learned about The Scooper Bowl one day walking through Boston and have made it a mission to go every year since and let as many people know as I can.

I had a great time and got to try some delicious ice cream from favorites like HP Hood, New England Ice Cream, Friendly's, Haagen Dazs, Bliss, Edy's, Alec's and Brigham's, as well as some brands new to me like Holy Cow Ice Cream Cafe, Jonny Pops, Melona, and Philadelphia Water Ice.

My favorite ice cream by far was pretty much every flavor from Holy Cow and HOLY COW their cereal milk as soooooo good as well as their award-winning Ritzy AF flavor - Salted Butter Cracker ice cream loaded with house-made Ritz Cracker Toffee Bark. Yum.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021, they even had a Scooper Bowl-in-a-box at home version where you picked up kits at various places around Massachusetts and would hold your own event at your house! The team at DFCI was so creative to pivot so quickly and put together such an event.

If you're wondering why it has extra special meaning to me, that's because late last year, during my regular physical, my doctor ordered an ultrasound of my abdomen. Well, one thing led to another, and they found something on my left kidney, but they just weren't sure if it was cancer or not. Either way, it had to come out.

I had part of my kidney removed through a procedure called a Robotic Partial Nephrectomy. I'm super thankful for all of the surgeons, oncologists, doctors, nurses, medical staff, pathologists, anesthesiologists, and everyone on my care team at Mass General Brigham and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

I am also grateful and blessed to live in the Boston area where we have world-class healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.