"I learned that I don’t need mounds on my chest to feel like a woman, that I’m even more resilient than I ever thought I was, and that, at least at this moment in time, I’m leaning towards not being afraid of dying."
Cancer Student, Yearbook Feature
“I have used social media to tell my friends instead of having to call them. I think this is because I really thought that since I tested negative for the BRCA1&2 genes and had checkups since I was 30 because of my mom’s own breast cancer history I was in the clear. “
Cancer Student, Yearbook Feature
“I knew very little, especially about metastatic breast cancer. I never considered myself at risk, and certainly didn’t know the statistics, like that 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer in their lifetimes, and 30% of those diagnoses will metastasize, and that metastatic disease only receives 7% of funding for research but still has a life expectancy under 4 years and kills 114 people each day.”
Cancer Student, Yearbook Feature
“I had never, ever, in my deepest of life’s depression, considered suicide. My very first chemo dose in 2017, the steroids hit me so bad, I was refusing to go back. I was able to look my (at the time) four year old right in the eye and think she was better off without me. I’d never been in that spot before, or even remotely considered it, and it was educational. I went back and immediately talked about how it felt and we cut the steroids. Everything after that. . . . was kind of bearable. I learned to accept how I cope with things, that showing off and feeling awful are ok, and so long as I get up the next day, I might as well do it again. What else am I doing, anyway?”
Cancer Student, Yearbook Feature
"I don’t like the term 'fighter' or 'war' or 'she lost her battle'. I have cancer. It is part of me. To say it’s a war implies I am at war with myself. And I am not.Cancer is like a passenger in a car. Sometimes it sits quietly in the back, sometimes it back seat drives, sometimes it the passenger, and sometimes it’s the driver. No matter what, I feel like I’m driving on flat tires, but at least I’m moving forward.
Cancer might kill me some day- But NOT TODAY!”
Cancer Student, Yearbook Feature
“When I was first diagnosed with Stage 3c Ovarian Cancer, I had an incredibly tough time throughout treatment, however I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I ended up becoming NED (No Evidence of Disease), even though there was a high chance of recurrence, I could rationalize that maybe, just maybe, I’d had bad luck in getting this disease, but it was just a one off and I’d miraculously “beat it”. However once it recurred, it became clear that it would just keep coming back. I had to adjust my mindset to cope with the fact that I would always be living WITH cancer.”
