Contributors

Mark Hicks
Mark is a retired freelance artist and illustrator who has created hundreds of works of art for books, magazines, greeting cards, websites and countless other publications over a long career. After retiring, he hoped to just live a simple life, maybe do volunteer work with his wife at some National Parks and continue to paint, sculpt, and do other creative works – but this time just for art’s sake. However, his wife received a BRCA2-associated cancer diagnosis that shattered that dream. Mark became his late wife’s caregiver as she struggled with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and all the horrible side effects that come with treatment. In turn, he became a hereditary cancer awareness and prevention advocate. And since his daughter also carries the same germline BRCA2 mutation, he said that his advocacy means even more.
Eugenia Mancini Horan
Eugenia Mancini Horan is an artist, lifelong anxiety sufferer and an early patient of humor and laughter as her medicine. She spent 2019 finding then fighting stage 4 lung cancer and defeating it by 2020, most likely one of the coolest things she’s done. That year in the medical system an end-stage cancer patient with 0% odds gave her a unique perspective about illness and survival. She proudly mothers two questionably behaved dogs and is married to the man who carried her everywhere that year she couldn’t walk. Gina has aspirations to change the world of oncology and also wants to be on the "Great British Baking Show," with only a fundamental lack of skill keeping her from the show. Nothing stops her battle for better patient care.
Kim Johnson
Kim was a caregiver for her sister while she battled stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma for nearly five years, from diagnosis through an autologous transplant. She turned her experience into change and has since become an activist in finding a cure for cancer. Kim has worked in politics and assisted in the passing of numerous legislative pieces impacting patients with cancer and their families. She is an activist in the field of oncology, nursing and beyond. Additionally, she is a volunteer and champion for a cure with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Campaign. Kim has shared her experiences with cancer as a contributor with Cure and through public speaking engagements throughout the United States.