Dear Urban Zen Friends,
It saddens us to inform you that Lynn Kohlman passed away on Sunday, September 14th at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. At 62 years old, Lynn battled breast and brain cancer until the very end. Lynn is the inspiration for the creation of the Urban Zen Foundation and her light and energy will continue be part of everything we do.
When Lynn was first diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors told her that she only had four months to live. Those four months passed and later Lynn was told she had brain cancer as well. So much devastating news would bring most of us to our knees, but Lynn handled her diagnosis with the same strength and elegance that is evident in her work as a model and photographer.
Lynn underwent several operations for both cancers and survived for another four years She spent this time with her family and friends, continuing her life as a photographer creating images of people she loved and the life she lived, including yoga and her cancer recovery. Lynn spoke out on behalf of cancer survivors everywhere. Her portrait by photographer Robin Saidman shows Lynn in all her natural beauty, proudly sharing the scars of her mastectomy. Her inner strength is never more evident and her outer beauty, although changed, is still intact.
We at Urban Zen have been touched by Lynn. Her journey with cancer is a source of our inspiration to change the medical paradigm to include integrated therapies such as yoga, massage, aromatherapy and nutrition. We all learned first-hand through Lynn’s experience, that there are incredibly talented doctors and nurses, and science allowed Lynn to survive for many years. But we also learned that Western medicine treats the disease and not the patient. Urban Zen Foundation will continue to pursue this initiative in the hope that future patients will be treated mind, body and spirit.
We will carry Lynn’s memory and spirit with us always.
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