This February, Colleen visits with Linda Settler, a lively and engaging native New Yorker, now a transplanted Milwaukean. Linda is a mentor for the local nonprofit After Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD). Uniquely, she shares more about her post treatment and reconstruction breast cancer experience than accepting and managing her diagnosis. Coming from a family history of breast cancer, Linda wholly expected to be affected by this condition so it was more a matter of “when” and not “if” for her. As she shares her memories of her grandmother’s breast cancer journey in the 1940s, Colleen remembers how difficult her own grandmother’s treatment and recovery was in the 1980s. The conversation reminds us of how treatment and support have changed so dramatically since those days.

We also learn about the concept of “previvors”; those with a genetic disposition to breast cancer and how to emotionally and medically address that before diagnosis. Linda is a wonderful example of the World Cancer Day theme of “United by Unique” and a great storyteller!