From Volunteer to Patient to Advocate: How a Breast Cancer Survivor’s Life Has Changed Over the Years

November 3, 2022
Sailaja Darisipudi
Sailaja Darisipudi

Sailaja Darisipudi(she/her) has previously led communications for nonprofit organizations fighting against gendered violence and worked as an educator. She believes passionately in fighting for gender equality, destigmatizing mental health, making quality health resources available across socio-economic statuses and decreasing the gap between public education and the complexities of the American health care system. At Rutgers University, Sailaja studied public health, wrote and edited for newspapers such as RU Examiner and EMSOP Chronicles and accumulated an alarming number of parking tickets. When not working, Sailaja can be found getting lost (literally and metaphorically) in new cities, overanalyzing various romance books and streaming shows and ordering all the vegetarian items at different restaurants. You can also find her on Twitter at @SailajaDee.

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Ryan McDonald
Ryan McDonald

Ryan McDonald, Associate Editorial Director for CURE®, has been with the team since February 2020 and has previously covered medical news across several specialties prior to joining MJH Life Sciences. He is a graduate of Temple University, where he studied journalism and minored in political science and history. He considers himself a craft beer snob and would like to open a brewery in the future. During his spare time, he can be found rooting for all major Philadelphia sports teams. Follow Ryan on Twitter @RMcDonald11 or email him at rmcdonald@curetoday.com.

A woman without a family history of breast cancer shares how she went from volunteering at breast cancer walks to one day finding herself in the shoes of someone living with the disease.

Kelly Thomas wasn’t expecting to be on this side of the breast cancer experience.

Thomas worked in finance and the company she was employed at regularly partnered with the American Cancer Society. Throughout the years, she routinely volunteered to collect donations for the American Cancer Society during breast cancer walks.

Despite not having a family history of breast cancer, she remained diligent about self-exams but never noticed anything. Everything changed one December morning in 2017, when she sat down to watch TV and felt a large lump on her left breast. Thomas, who was 33 at the time, immediately made an appointment to see her gynecologist who then referred her to get a mammogram.A week later, she was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer.

In today’s episode of the “Cancer Horizons” podcast, Thomas breaks down her journey from volunteer to patient to advocate, the isolation she felt navigating breast cancer as a younger woman, starting an Instagram account to promote positive stories of patients living with triple-negative breast cancer and more.

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