Metastatic Breast Cancer

My name is Tiffany Nardella. I’m a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a dog mom, and I am living with metastatic breast cancer, a terminal disease. I do not know how long I have left. The average prognosis is five years, but the data is changing, and we all have a unique diagnosis with various rates of response.

My name is Cassie and I’ve been living with metastatic breast cancer since November 2020.

In January 2020, I went in for a routine mammogram. I felt great and had not been experiencing any symptoms that would lead me to be concerned. There is a history of breast cancer in my family, so I was being proactive and had been getting these tests since I was 38 years old.

Victoria Goldberg has become a SHARE icon. She first learned about SHARE’s helpline from a friend about eight years ago, and right away, she knew it was something she wanted to work on. For the first two years after her MBC diagnosis, she explains that she was somewhat consumed by the idea of death, but then as she continued to live and thrive, she wanted to help others.

Receiving a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis was one of the worst days in my life. Nothing prepares you. I never thought it would be me, but no one ever thinks it will be them; the one to get the diagnosis. The one being told they will probably only live three to five years.

In November 2022, I was diagnosed with stage four inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 28. I was completely caught off guard by this news being a young mother of three children, ages seven, five, and a year and a half. My time with them seemed to be taken away in a single sentence.

Our MBC Life Continues to Flourish in its Third Year

Lisa Laudico developed her vision for Our MBC Life just as the COVID pandemic began to take hold across the country. Lisa, a metastatic patient herself,  wanted to give others who face metastatic breast cancer the chance to build a community through a new podcast.

In April 2016, when I was in my late 30’s, I heard those words that no one wants to hear.…”you have cancer”. My whole world was turned upside down, but I was determined to do everything I could to beat it. I had invasive ductal carcinoma stage 3 grade 3 with lymph nodes involved and I was triple positive.

In 2016, I discovered that my early-stage breast cancer had not only metastasized but had left 12 tumors scattered across my brain. The image of my brain MRI, with small white circular spots dispersed amongst the tissue took my breath away. While two years prior, news of my early-stage diagnosis had reduced me to a puddle of tears, the revelation that my brain was now invaded by cancerous tumors left me speechless.