The Truth of Breast Cancer

Every year when October comes around, I can’t help but feel a sense of dread. October is breast cancer awareness month, and I am a stage 3, triple negative breast cancer survivor. During this month, as our social feeds and shopping experiences are filled with pink ribbons and promises, I’m left feeling the pang of anxiety and trauma that was brought on by fighting for my life. I often wonder if the masses, as they are purchasing their pink memorabilia, will ever understand what the fight is really like. It’s not about ribbons and commercial pink washing, it’s about digging deep into yourself to take on a battle you never asked for.  

For me, that meant, at age 32, trying to survive a disease that most people think affects only older women. As I was desperately trying to fight cancer, I was also working full time, raising two small kids and just getting on my feet as an adult. I felt alone and scared. When I finished treatment and was deemed “cancer free”, the world expected me to jump for joy and move on with my life, but it was at that exact moment when I felt the most scared and confused. What had I just gone through? Why did my body change so much? How do I know it won’t come back?

I was a lost soul after my cancer diagnosis, until I found Project Koru. My Camp Koru experience changed my life tremendously. It was the first time I had met a community of survivors my own age that were experiencing the same mental health challenges I was experiencing. I didn’t have to hide anymore; I found my tribe. I spent a week regaining confidence in my new body, building community, and accessing vulnerability I didn’t know I had. I am a different person because of Project Koru, and I’m forever grateful for my experience.  

For the remainder of breast cancer awareness month, Project Koru will be sharing real stories of real survivors about the raw truth of breast cancer. We want to shift the narrative back from the corporatization it has become, to one that is controlled by, and about, the survivors themselves. And we want to help educate people on how they can actually help survivors–both on an individual level and a systematic level.

As you are making your decisions on how to directly support breast cancer survivors this month, I hope you’ll consider supporting Project Koru. Every young adult breast cancer survivor deserves to build community and find adventure again in their new post-cancer diagnosis world.  

You can follow along with the campaign through our Facebook and Instagram.

.Thanks for being here,

Beth Peck, Executive Director

Project Koru