Personal Stories
Brandi’s family is all too familiar with the despair a cancer diagnosis can bring. Her father was 54 when he passed away from colon cancer, and her mother passed away from lung cancer several years ago. In between Brandi’s parents’ diagnoses, she learned she had a rare type of breast cancer – and that her cancer was not due to an inherited gene mutation.
An avid runner who has completed multiple half marathons and marathons, Monica has approached treatment like she approaches a race. “There were times when I wanted to give up, but that’s not who I am,” she said. “I said okay, I can do this. I’m going to finish. I’m going to pass this finish line.”
For Nashville-based wife, mother and marketing entrepreneur Jennie Smythe, life has always been about forging connections and building something meaningful. As the Founder and CEO of a well-known marketing agency, Jennie has dedicated over fifteen years to helping entertainers and brands amplify their voices and thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Her client roster is […]
In December 2023, Nicole was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive cribriform carcinoma, a hormone driven rare form of breast cancer. “Talking about my experience is a way to give back,” she said.
When Colleen learned she had two conditions that increased her chances of developing breast cancer, the disease from which her mother passed away, she started taking tamoxifen. She took it for five years in order to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer by about 50%. Recently, she took her last pill.
For two years, Laura struggled to get a correct diagnosis for what was happening to her body before finally learning she had Paget disease of the breast and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). “The news was overwhelming, but I felt a sense of relief,” she said.
Shanise learned in October 2020 that she carries two inherited gene mutations, including BRCA2. Three years later, she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. “Hearing those words shattered me,” Shanise said.
Eve has always been healthy. She’s been an athlete for most of her life, doesn’t drink or smoke and there isn’t a history of cancer on either side of her family. Eve was not just shocked at her breast cancer diagnosis, but at the fact she had to advocate for herself to be heard when something was wrong.
For many women, a routine OB-GYN appointment comes and goes without much thought, especially when they’re healthy, active and in their 30s. That’s how Dawn, a mother of two from New Jersey, felt when she went to her yearly appointment in June 2021 at 39 years old. “My birthday was at the beginning of June […]
A month after Tennille Smith rang the bell, signaling she had finished treatment for stage 2 breast cancer, she learned the cancer had spread – she had stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer, for which there is no cure today. Finding a Lump In February 2021, Tennille felt a lump in her right breast and reached out to her […]
Frances is an advocate for yearly mammograms. She promised her mother that when she turned 40, she would get her mammogram yearly, a promise she kept. In 2017, Frances learning she had stage 2B triple-positive breast cancer.
During the summer of 2022, Casey, who was 33 at the time, felt off. “Something just didn’t feel right,” she said. She asked her doctor to run bloodwork. “They ran all sorts of tests, but everything came back perfectly fine, no issues. But I still didn’t feel quite right.” Casey never expected a breast cancer diagnosis.
