Cliche Alert

Here's my least favorite cliche--whenever a female character has had a long and horrible illness, it is always breast cancer. Because as women, we are defined by the size and status of our tits. We should constantly monitor them and be afraid, lumps of flesh just waiting to erupt into deadly tumors.

Does no one get into a car accident? Get another type of cancer? Have a stroke from birth control pills? Automimmune disorder? Shingles?

I'm taking Health Information Resources--I'll give anyone who wants to enliven their fiction other awful afflictions for their characters to suffer from, just to save us readers from another character with breast cancer.