As we acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we reflect on the strength, resilience, and hope within our own H.O.O.V.E.S. family and community. This journey touches many lives, including those who serve alongside us and those we serve. Through stories of courage and perseverance, we aim to raise awareness, inspire action, and foster a deeper connection to the healing power of support. Together, we celebrate the brave individuals who have faced breast cancer, honoring their legacy and uplifting those who continue the fight with the same steadfast spirit we hold at H.O.O.V.E.S.
Katy Hubbard’s Journey:
We are honored to share the story of Katy Hubbard, our dedicated Associate Director and facilitator of The Patriot Project at H.O.O.V.E.S. Katy’s passion for helping others and her deep connection to the H.O.O.V.E.S. mission shine through in everything she does. As we kick off our Breast Cancer Awareness stories, Katy’s journey exemplifies resilience and compassion, making her the perfect person to start this series of inspiration and strength within our community.
What about your survivor journey makes you a crusader for breast cancer awareness?
I feel like my survivor journey is different from others in that I didn’t stop my healing journey after the medical portion of my treatment was finished. I wanted to know where my cancer came from. I knew that it was genetic because I had genetic testing done to see if it was on BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 (which it wasn’t). But just because there is a gene mutation, that doesn’t mean the gene has to turn on. I began the healing of my whole self, not just my cancer. I was 35 when I was diagnosed and I wanted to ensure that it would not come back ever again. My kids are young and I want to ensure that I am around for as long as I can be without this cloud of cancer hanging over my head. So healing all of me, not just the physical part became my crusade.
How did being diagnosed change you? Affect the way you look at yourself?
When I was pregnant with my son a year prior, I was considered a “geriatric pregnancy” because I was 34 when he was born… so I would hear “you’re almost too old to have kids”. Now, a year later, I was “too young to have cancer like this”.
I was diagnosed in February of 2021 with Stage 2, Grade 3 carcinoma of the axillary tail of the left breast, estrogen receptor positive with an oncotype score of 73… meaning my cancer was very aggressive, fast growing, and likely to come back somewhere else in my body unless we were extremely aggressive with treatment after a lumpectomy. That also meant that my lumpectomy was going to be aggressive as well. So many tests were done, so many doctor’s visits. After that, I struggled with “but I feel fine”. I didn’t feel sick, but my doctors were telling me that I would die unless we were aggressive with all aspects of treatment. So now, any time I have a random sickness that can’t be explained by having two young children in school, the weather, or my own life choices, I get very anxious and wonder if it is cancer again. So the anxiety surrounding my health has gone up. Up until cancer, I was a very healthy person. Any health issues I incurred were self-inflicted lol.
I was fortunate in that my cancer was visible (it was a visible tumor that stuck out under my skin) and that breast conservation surgery was a very viable option for me. I was offered a mastectomy, but I declined it. With the location of my tumor, at the time I did not feel like a mastectomy was a necessary option. That’s not to say that I haven’t been physically impacted by that surgery choice either. Because of the location of my lumpectomy, I am missing muscle that makes it possible to hang or life myself, like doing the monkey bars with my kids or other types of playground equipment similar to that with them. Part of my treatment involved placing a port in my upper right chest, just beneath my collar bone. When that was in place, I was not allowed to lift my arms up over my head. There was a straw catheter that went from the port to a major vein in my heart. If I lifted my arms above my head for too long, the straw could snap and just go floating into my heart (joy, right?). So I had to adjust how I slept because I liked to sleep with my arms above my head. So it wasn’t huge things about my physical appearance, way I see myself, but little day-to-day things that we all take for granted that I have to think about… but it is better than the alternative.
Did you choose to have breast reconstruction?
I kind of answered this one above. I chose the lumpectomy because of the location of my tumor and said that if they were unable to get the margins or came back with other findings that I would do the mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Through tests, etc, I did not have to go back to have a second surgery. I had a fabulous surgeon that got clear margins in the surgery.
What advice would you give newly diagnosed women?
First, advocate for yourself and do your homework. I trusted my doctors implicitly, but I also wanted to know what I was going to possibly feel like after surgery, then chemo, then radiation. I read tons of blog posts from breast cancer survivors that had the same treatment plan as me. Ask all of the questions. Always take a second person to visits with your doctors so that they can take notes. Your head will be spinning with information and you’ll want someone with a calmer head than yours to take notes for you and help ask questions that you aren’t thinking right then. I had a special notebook that was only for appointments and it lived in my “cancer bag”. When I went to visits or treatments, I had a bag that always went with me and that notebook lived in it. I also made a 3-ring binder for all of my printed documents.
Second, let your body tell you what it wants. If it wants to sleep, sleep with no shame or guilt. If it wants to go for a walk, walk for as long as it tells you. Don’t push yourself too much beyond what it says it can do in that moment. It is fighting for your life, give it time to rest.
How has your connection with H.O.O.V.E.S. impacted you and your day-to-day journey?
I completed a H.O.O.V.E.S. Healing Intensive in October of 2021, when I was on a month off between portions of my treatment. I finished chemo in September of 2021 and was scheduled to start 30 radiation treatments in November of 2021. To say what I learned in the healing intensive save and changed my life would be an understatement. The tools that I gains for overcoming challenges, seeing the balance and seeing how everything is happening for me and not to me changed the trajectory of my life forever. I can now become a true master of my destiny instead of being defined by cancer. I don’t see myself as a breast cancer survivor. I see myself as a breast cancer conqueror and thriver. I conquered it- with the tools I have learned from H.O.O.V.E.S. and doing The Work daily, I know it will not be coming back. Knowing The Work, and doing it daily has made me a cancer thriver. When I went through my healing intensive, I was as bald as the day that I came into this world. After my healing intensive, my hair grew back faster than anyone on my care team thought was possible. Ever since then, my yearly mammogram, breast MRI, and bloodwork have all come back normal. It is the power of The Work that has made this possible. Is it easy? Hell no it isn’t. But the alternative is worse. Giving up and letting this deadly disease take me is not an option. So I choose my challenge- I choose to do The Work every-single-day.
How could it help others who are going through this traumatic experience?
When someone is ready, The Work will always work- when done consistently. My biggest take-away that I use every single day- when confronted with a challenge- “what is this challenge doing for me, not to me?” Changing that statement has made all the difference. Challenges aren’t there to do things to us. They are there to bring us back to our true authentic self- “for me.” I was the textbook overachiever, I wanted to find the moment that turned my RAD51D gene mutation on… So I did the HARD work, using the tools I learned at H.O.O.V.E.S. and with the support of my family and best friend. But not everyone has to go to that extreme. Just knowing that the universe, God, spirit, is doing things for us, not to us can make all the difference in the world, and save your life.
Thank you, Katy, for sharing your perspective on this life-changing concern!
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