(CNN) -- My name is Anne Feeley. I am an American, a mother, a feminist, a baker, a wife, an atheist and a liberal Democrat. I am also a brain cancer survivor and an activist for brain cancer research and patient care. But when I fill out the Census, all it will reflect is that I am a 55-year-old white woman, and nothing about how I got to this point in life. When I was growing up in Newark, New Jersey, in the '60s and '70s, America was in a state of flux. Everywhere you looked, there were battles going on as traditional beliefs were being challenged. I knew I was an American, but I also wanted America to change.
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Anne Feeley grew up in New Jersey in '60's, '70s; knew she wanted America to change
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She says she moved to Boston and pursued American option of later college education
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She moved to Prague and opened a bakery; later, she learned she had brain cancer
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After surgery and remission, she formed Brains on Bikes to raise funds for cancer research
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