And while she showed up today and delivered a dynamic speech on stepping up as women and girls and choosing to embrace our roles as leaders, on a personal note Woods also spoke to us about what has taken place after choosing to disclose her diagnosis of breast cancer at the last house meeting. She says that she has learned that it can happen to anyone.

Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"I do my annual Checks which I encourage all women to do them last year. They were clear I was due this October and self exam. I realized that something was a bit off and then I was due, and that was when it was confirmed so I felt it was necessary to make this statement at the end of the session because one. I always think it is important that you control your own narrative and two it is important for those of us not just women quite frankly but the Belizean public it can happen to anyone at any time and at the last house meeting I quoted Dr Yacab the Oncologist for Belize at KHMH where he gave some startling statistics, and I'm not sure if people honed into that, but it was very startling on breast cancer, and he made the point that he is concerned that our woman and our girls are not doing their annual checks so I do hope that it encourages our woman to do their self exams, but to get their annual checks and maybe just maybe it helps a little bit to de stigmatize cancer we need to talk about it We need to raise awareness about it and we need to know that it is a community of support. The Belize Cancer Society and many others have been doing an excellent job and I add my voice to that."

We'll keep you posted on her progress as Speaker Woods makes updates available..