Maya Angelou has taken up the issue of women’s health by opening her own wellness center. “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me,” she said. Angelou believes you can’t help others until you get healthy yourself. The Huffington Post has the story:

Wisdom comes with age, and at 84 years old, Maya Angelou has lots of wisdom. But she says she picked up her most valuable piece of wisdom early on. “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me,” she said. In that spirit, Angelou has taken up the cause of women’s health.

“If I do that well enough, then I’ll be able to look after someone else — the children or the husband or the elderly. But I have to look after myself first,” she says. “I know that some people think that’s being selfish, I think that’s being self-full.”

That philosophy is at the center of her latest effort, a partnership with Novant Health, a not-for-profit integrated system of 13 hospitals that is set to unveil the Maya Angelou Center for Women’s Health and Wellness in her hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C.

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