“Are you going to freeze your eggs?” I was asked this question multiple times when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer.  Yes, I still had my monthly period and no, I wasn’t in menopause. But I was 47 years old, so the query felt out of place. When I’d remind the doctors of my age they’d sigh and say, “Oh, right. You look younger. So do you think it’s something you’ll want to do?” Umm, no. A hard no. Divorced, single and edging towards 50, starting a family by myself was not something I wanted.

When I received the news that I had breast cancer, my world seemed to crumble before my eyes. Overwhelmed, vulnerable, and defenseless, I faced a daunting journey ahead. As a seasoned business owner, I had encountered my fair share of adversity, but nothing could prepare me for this level of fear. For the first time, I found myself fearing the unknown, dreading the loss of everything: my health, my quality of life, my business, and all my assets. How could I possibly endure this?

2023 was a year of many changes, and CBCN’s work reflects that. In this post, we look back on some of the many activities and projects that we participated in, developed, or updated. With each development, CBCN is committed to ensuring that breast cancer patients and survivors are the driving force of the organization and that their views and concerns inform our priorities.

There was an abundance of promising new research that came out of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Here are some highlights for metastatic breast cancer. Be sure to check out our early-stage highlights.

For me, hearing these words felt like I was falling into a deep pit that I had no way of crawling out of. My diagnosis wasn’t something I could negotiate or talk my way out of either—two things I am fairly good at. This lack of control and inability to change my situation hit me hard. I had to accept that cancer was my new reality, and this filled me with fear. The feelings that followed oscillated between depression and anxiety—and they weren’t fleeting.

CBCN had the pleasure of attending the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December. Below you’ll find the latest research for early-stage breast cancer. Watch out for the latest research on mBC.

In 2023, our most read blog posts reflect the interest that patients have in connecting with others, seeking support, and sharing experiences and personal stories. Diagnoses at a young age, parenting with breast cancer, living with mBC, and other personal stories made up most of our list. Lifestyle, the latest research, and different options for reconstruction fill out the topics that our readers were most interested in last year. Here CBCN presents our top 10 blog posts from 2023.

Our mother had breast cancer in her 50s, which increased her two daughters’ risk of also developing breast cancer. In 2005, my sister, Lorraine Smith, who was 41, enrolled in an early detection program and had her first mammogram. At the time, mammography reports were not disclosed to the patients, and they were not told anything about the density of their breasts, and what it means.

CBCN had the opportunity to attend the ABC7 conference in Lisbon, Portugal from November 9 to 11, 2023. Here are some highlights from the conference.

I was single when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Freshly divorced too. I’m still single, because let’s be honest, I’m insecure about what my right boob and armpit now look like, never mind the fact that I’m still carrying 40 pounds of Tamoxifen weight. So, when I think about the idea of being naked in front of another human being, it makes me want to run upstairs into my bedroom, rip open my dresser drawers, pull out and put on every single pair of big panties, sweatpants and baggy sweatshirts I own all at the same time. But that’s the easy part. The emotional stuff is harder.

In today’s post, we provide the questions that were sent in and asked during the live session of our Questions and Experts session held on October 3, 2023. In this session, Surgical Oncologist Dr. Mark Basik answers your questions about clinical trials. In the parentheses, you’ll find the timestamp of where to find the question in the on-demand video.

The European Society of Medical Oncology held their annual congress in Madrid, Spain from October 20-24, 2023. Members of the CBCN team had the opportunity to attend and learn about the latest research to be announced for breast cancer. Here are some of those highlights.

Man, I’d be rich if I was a scientist and discovered a way to prevent a breast cancer recurrence. But I’m not. Instead, I’m a normal woman who is often riddled with worry that I’ll one day have one. I’m not thinking about this 24/7, but I am thinking about a potential recurrence often enough that the thought is a constant in my life, lurking in the back of my brain. It’s normal, I had breast cancer, I could have it again. These nagging thoughts always seem to resurface and escalate right before I’m scheduled to see my doctors for a mammogram or ultra-sound screening. And so, because I’ve been counting down the days until my next breast cancer-screening appointment, I’m having them now.

In today’s post, we provide the questions that were sent in and asked during the live session of our Questions and Experts session held on September 19, 2023. In this session, Dr. Tina Hsu, MD, FRCPC answers all your questions about navigating a breast cancer diagnosis at an older age. In the parentheses, you’ll find the timestamp of where to find the question in the on-demand video.

Colleen Packer of Calgary felt a wide range of emotions when she was diagnosed with metastatic lobular breast cancer in 2019: “Shock. Frustration. Fear. Grief. I sobbed. Initially in that first year, it had a really huge impact. Now it has become more routine. Now I feel a lot more in control. It’s a strange mix of feelings to have. It’s both/and. It’s possible to feel happy and sad, angry, grateful, afraid, and confident all at the same time. All those feelings are valid, and you need to provide space for all those feelings because they’re all very much a part of the experience.

Haven is a patient support program by Sentrex that specializes in oncology; this means our all our staff have oncology expertise. In fact, all Haven’s staff have joined Sentrex from hospital cancer centres. Haven offers certain patient support such as insurance reimbursement assistance and pharmacy services.

Because I’m a born and raised Canadian, I just assumed I would have access to all sorts of free testing and screening when I found the hard, pea-sized lump in my right armpit. Not so much. Here’s how my breast cancer-screening steps went.

My name is Cortney Drover, and my identical twin sisters’ name is Connie Claeys. We are 37-year-old females living with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, and being identical twins, we both carry the BRCA2 gene. Here is our story.

Caregivers are often told, “You need to take care of yourself if you are taking care of others.” It’s so easy to say but not so easy to do. I wrote the above sentence in June 2021 for a future memoir. I had no way of knowing that 15 months later I would be writing about a new challenge. Before I can share my breast cancer story, I need to set the scene.

A breast cancer diagnosis can leave you feeling winded, like you’ve been socked in the stomach and can’t breathe, or even think for that matter. That’s how I felt. I had no emotion, no tears and no anger when I first heard the words “you have breast cancer.” My mind and body simply froze and everything around me, including my mind, went hazy. I attribute this now to shock, which, in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable reaction to receiving such life-changing news. And while the haziness eventually wore off, the surrealness of my new reality remained overwhelming.