My Story
My experience with breast cancer was about far more than what was happening physically. It reached into my emotions, thoughts, relationships, identity and everyday life.
Living through diagnosis, surgeries, radiation, recurrence and a mastectomy showed me how much happens beyond appointments, procedures and test results and how meaningful it can be to feel genuinely heard, understood and supported.
That experience ultimately led me to become a Cancer Doula and Certified Cancer Coach.
Today, I use my lived experience, training and deeply personal understanding of cancer to support other women as they find their own way through it.
I don’t assume that your experience will be the same as mine. I will meet you where you are, listen to what matters to you and offer support shaped around the life you are living now.
NOV 2022
Breast Cancer
DIAGNOSIS
I remember pacing around my house repeating the words aloud: “I have breast cancer. I have breast cancer.” I needed to hear myself say it. I wanted to take some of the sting out of the “C” word and begin processing what had suddenly become real. There were also more than a few choice F-bombs. Sometimes that was exactly what I needed.
MY LEFT
BOOB BLOG
Three days after my diagnosis, I started a public blog called My Left Boob. It became a creative outlet for processing my emotions, tracking my journey, and providing a space where loved ones could stay updated without me having to give regular individual updates.
JAN 2023
Lumpectomy
After meeting with my oncology surgeon in late November, I had a biopsy in early December and a lumpectomy in mid-January 2023, followed by another surgery in February due to unclear margins. I was learning how quickly cancer fills your calendar with appointments, information and decisions—while the rest of life continues to ask things of you.
APR-MAY 2023
Radiation
Then came an exhausting regimen of 15 rounds of radiation - every weekday for three weeks. The side effects accumulated throughout treatment, and I continued to experience significant discomfort for weeks after radiation ended.
The experience was physically demanding, but it was also mentally and emotionally exhausting. Caring for my mindset and emotional wellbeing began to feel like a full-time job.
I turned to mindfulness, meditation and journalling to help me stay grounded. Some days I wrote thoughtfully about what I was experiencing. On other days, my journal contained little more than a page of expletives. Both were valid.
I also learned to lean on the people who loved me. Accepting help did not always come easily, but I began to understand that I didn’t have to carry every part of the experience by myself.
On May 9, 2023, I rang the gong at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre to mark the end of radiation.
It was an emotional moment; not simply because treatment was finished, but because it represented everything I had lived through to reach that day. That summer I focused on recovery.
RING THAT
GONG
I gave myself permission to rest, heal and begin finding my footing again, physically and emotionally. I thought cancer was moving into the rearview mirror.
THE PLOT
TWIST
In November 2023, a routine follow-up mammogram showed a possible local recurrence in the same breast. A biopsy in December confirmed that I would need more surgery. I WAS DEVASTATED.
The news reopened fears I thought I had begun putting behind me and brought a completely different set of decisions, emotions and uncertainties. But I was not entering this chapter as the same woman who had received her first diagnosis. The inner work I had done, the tools I had gathered and the support I had learned to accept helped me face what came next.
January 2024
Mastectomy
In January 2024, I underwent a mastectomy of my left breast. Losing a breast affected far more than my physical body. It challenged my sense of identity and brought grief, relief, vulnerability and gratitude—sometimes all at once.
Recovery was neither quick nor easy. I learned that healing does not follow a neat timeline and that “doing well” does not mean feeling positive every moment. I needed practical help, emotional space, patience and permission to heal in my own way. That experience deepened my understanding of how profoundly cancer can affect the whole person—and how important the right support can be.
The Next
CHAPTER
In early November 2022, I went for a routine mammogram and received the news that would change my life: something had been found in my left breast.
A biopsy followed, and I was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) an early-stage breast cancer.
On November 4, 2024, two years after my initial diagnosis, my right breast mammogram came back clear. And it was also clear in 2025 and here’s hoping for every year after.
Reaching this point did not erase what I had experienced. Cancer had changed my relationship with my body, my sense of certainty and the way I wanted to move through my life.
It had also shown me something important: medical care is essential, but living through cancer involves needs that extend far beyond medicine. There is information to organize, help to coordinate and daily life to manage. There are difficult feelings, changing relationships, questions about identity and moments when you simply need someone who understands how much you are holding. That understanding has become the foundation of my work.
WHY I BECAME A CANCER DOULA
All the experiences and lessons of my life have led me here.
My own breast cancer experience gave me an intimate understanding of the practical, emotional and organizational realities that surround medical care. My training as a Certified Cancer Coach from the Cancer Wellness Institute gave me additional tools to support women through uncertainty, change, decision-making, self-advocacy and the search for what matters most now.
As a Cancer Doula, I bring those pieces together.
I help women make sense of what they are facing, organize the moving pieces, put practical support in place and feel less alone in the experience.
Cancer coaching is one part of that broader care. I also help women prepare, plan, communicate their needs, receive help, protect their energy and create more space to live and heal.
I am not here to tell you how to experience cancer or ask you to find a silver lining. I am here to listen, help you identify what you need and walk beside you in a way that honours your life, values and choices.
THE EXPERIENCE I BRING
My approach has been shaped by both formal training and years of personal growth, creative practice and community involvement.
I am a Certified Cancer Coach, Qi Gong practitioner and Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert.
My experience also includes meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, journalling, mindset work and volunteering as a camp counsellor for children affected by cancer.
These are tools and experiences I may draw upon, not a prescription for how you should cope. Every woman and every cancer experience is different. Together, we will explore what feels useful, supportive and true for you.