Survivor Series

Survivor Amber Steady: I fought that monster and survived By ELLYN SANTIAGO Mommy & Me photoshoot BEFORE treatment began Amber Steady had no idea that while nursing her newborn, she had breast cancer. And when she did find out, the cancer diagnosis arrived not through a compassionate phone call, but through MyChart.  She was just […]

Her Bucket List Has Several Unchecked Items, So She’s Sticking Around By ELLYN SANTIAGO For Laura Westner, the “thought of my cancer coming back does rent some space in my head.” But as a breast cancer survivor, she’s “trying not to let it consume me.” Rachel, Laura and adult kids Molly and Owen. One of

‘There’s no way!’ Erin answered the call from her OBGYN, and her heart sank By ELLYN SANTIAGO Erin Spurgas could not fathom it.  “In my mind, there was no way that three of us who graduated together from Montville High School in 1994 — lifelong friends — could all be diagnosed with pre-menopausal breast cancer,”

Survivor Series – Meet Patricia Santacroce ‘I drew the short straw on this, but I’m in a really good place right now.’  By ELLYN SANTIAGO In June 2021, still in the grips of the pandemic that had disordered our globe, Patricia Santacroce’s world was “turned upside down.” For the now 53-year-old, the breast cancer diagnosis

‘We were all on sinking ships, but rescued in one lifeboat.’ By ELLYN SANTIAGO For nearly 25 years, a group of random women of all ages from across the region, from different professions and backgrounds and different interests, meet up for dinner seven or eight times a year. What they share in common is a

I hope my story can help, even just one person By ELLYN SANTIAGO A few short months after her breast cancer surgery in November 1998, Marie Joly got on a plane with her husband, family, and church friends and flew to Italy for a holiday. Her doctors had given their blessing. Marie and Mike Joly

“Survival is a continual thing …breast cancer doesn’t end when you recover.” By ELLYN SANTIAGO For 47-year-old Christeen Gilman, what was most worrying and agonizing during her breast cancer battle was not how she suffered, and endured, but how it impacted her children. “The hardest part of this cancer journey was by far how it

For survivor Fawn Kleemann, it was the love and support that carried her through. By ELLYN SANTIAGO Breast cancer runs in Fawn Kleemann’s family. On her maternal side, it was her aunts. On her paternal side, her father’s mother, her grandmother, also had breast cancer. “With an extensive family history of breast cancer, I started

By the time her story is published, Mandy-Lyn Crispim will have undergone her sixth surgery. By ELLYN SANTIAGO Mandy Crispim “I didn’t know much about breast cancer before my mom died on October 1st of 2010,” Mandy shared. But after losing her mother, she’d learn. “My brother had her diary. She knew. She wasn’t diagnosed,

“How do you tell your son his party is canceled, and Mommy is going into the hospital? You don’t!” By ELLYN SANTIAGO Not wanting her to check testing results before they had a chance to speak with her first, the radiologist phoned Amy Blewitt. A registered dietitian, board certified in Oncology Nutrition, Amy was at