I’m incredibly fortunate to have friends and family all across the country who are concerned for my wellbeing and invested in my fight against breast cancer. As many of you know, I broke the news of my diagnosis on social media to encourage others to get checked, just as Leanne Hainsby’s announcement on Instagram had done for me. I’m thrilled by how many of you have reached out to say that you’ve scheduled your screenings or genetic testing because of my diagnosis. Future you will thank you.

One surprising outcome of going public with my diagnosis is just how many women came forward with either their own story of a cancer diagnosis, or put me in touch with a friend who had gone through one. It’s shocking to me how prevalent this disease is. I’ve also been surprised by how individual each person’s journey is – no two I’ve heard have been the same. Some were prophylactic, some did chemo before their mastectomy, others did several rounds of chemo post mastectomy (like I’m about to do) before reconstruction, while others were able to skip tissue expanders altogether and go straight to implants. One thing that has been consistent though, is how much hearing about their journeys and talking to them about mine has helped me. I call them my “Cancer Sherpas” and I would be a wreck of a human without them. In the name of paying that forward, I’ve created this blog, both to keep you normies (ie: non-cancer riddled people) updated on how I’m doing, but more importantly, to be shared with those who come after me so that they might find even a little bit of comfort in my journey before them. While our paths might not look identical, knowing someone else has been through a similar fight makes it so much less scary.