GILLIAN’S STORY

In 2012, the couple was determined to fulfill another dream: starting their family. But just a few days after beginning IVF treatments, Gillian noticed a burning pain in her right breast. She noticed a dimple, then felt a mass. She assumed it was a side effect of IVF treatment, but made an appointment with her ObGyn to be cautious. She was thrilled when an early pregnancy test revealed that she was pregnant, but she was devastated by the results of the ultrasound and biopsy: The mass was malignant. Gillian had stage III advanced and hormone and progesterone positive cancer, which was being fueled by pregnancy hormones.

Determined to save their unborn child, Gillian and Boe rejected the advice of the first oncologist who pressed Gillian to terminate the pregnancy and begin chemo immediately. Instead, the couple reached out to friends who are physicians with the Johns Hopkins University system. Those doctors helped them to establish a dream team of oncologists, led by Dr. Vered Stearns, and reconstructive surgeons that would remove Gillian’s affected breast and protect her unborn child. She underwent surgery just eleven days after she learned she had cancer.

At twenty weeks pregnant, Gillian began chemotherapy. Lying in the chemo suite trying to ignore the stares at her and her pregnant belly, Gillian felt overwhelmed by her fears. But she also felt a determination to heal and to take charge of her health and future.

“I had this epiphany. What if I wasn’t able to do the things I loved anymore? What if this was it? What would I regret? What would I wish that I could do? I knew this wasn’t the end for me. That was my motivation. It was to do it for myself, but also for all of these women who didn’t get that opportunity to do it.”

More chemo began three and a half weeks after her son, Kailen, was born, followed by a mastectomy on her other breast and then radiation. She resolved to celebrate her return to health and fitness by climbing a mountain, but not just any mountain.

“Dr. Stearns asked, ‘And where?’ I said, ‘I have my heart set on going to Tanzania and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.’ She kind of looked at me and said, ‘I’ll see you in six months.’

On the night of a full moon, Gillian and a close friend did just that, reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in time to witness the sunrise over Africa.

“The full moon symbolizes rebirth. I saw this whole experience as being a big ‘F- you’ to cancer. I was saying: ‘I’m alive and I’m going to do this. I’m going to close that chapter and I’m going to move forward.’”

She did move forward, celebrating the birth of her daughter, Laykelyn, four years later, in August 2016 after more IVF treatments. Then that February, on a ski trip to celebrate her 40th birthday, Gillian felt a burning pain in her back, lower rib cage that reminded her of the pain she had felt in her breast.

Dr. Stearns wasn’t concerned at first: Gillian’s scans in December had been perfect. But the pain worsened, becoming so bad that Gillian asked Dr. Stearns to move the scans up. They revealed affected lymph nodes in her lungs. Biopsies confirmed that the cancer had returned and metastasized.

For three weeks, Gillian descended into deep grief.

“I was stuck, ruminating over how limiting that was for my life, instead of determining how to untangle myself from my negative experience and trauma. So that I could shift my perspective and pour myself into a more positive way to live with more intention, with more purpose.”

As her physicians put a treatment plan together, Gillian constructed a plan of her own. She resolved to be proactive in her healing, putting her scientific training to work by researching alternative treatments to supplement conventional treatment. Her first act was to eliminate the stressors of her life, which meant leaving her dream job. The effect was positive: Her cancer antigen numbers decreased in just a few months, before she began conventional treatments.

“My scans that July showed a drastic reduction just by doing things that I empowered myself to do for me. That was super important evidence. It is not all drugs.”

Along with conventional treatments — an oophorectomy and Ibrance — she adopted the recommendations of Dr. Jane McLelland in her book How to Starve Cancer. Eight months after Gillian began following Dr. McLellan’s protocol, her scans showed no sign of the tumors and her breast cancer antigen number was the lowest it has ever been. There is no growth, so she is termed “stable.”

Even as Gillian healed physically, emotionally, she felt alone and cast adrift. Despite the outstanding conventional care that she received, she was frustrated by the lack of targeted, age-appropriate resources for women like her who were struggling with issues that conventional treatment neglected, like self-image, relationships, intimacy, and mental and emotional well-being.

And she was troubled by the disempowering messages that focused on survivorship, leaving young women with breast cancer feeling like victims. Still other messages urged these women to return to “normal life” after treatment, even though they were irrevocably changed by life-altering side effects and the trauma of breast cancer. Her own experience showed her that addressing mental health challenges were every bit as crucial and challenging as treating cancer.

And she recognized that other young women were experiencing the same sense of isolation.

It was another epiphany for Gillian.

“I was determined to fill the gaps I experienced, live my best life, and change the conversation about breast cancer, particularly as it relates to young women like me.”

In 2017, Gillian established the iRise Above Foundation to help other women like her to do the same thing: to self-advocate and not rely solely on their oncologist to drive their treatment. She wanted to establish an organization that provides women with the information and tools about myriad treatment modalities that they can incorporate into their own lives. And she wanted to build a community of like-minded women who want to ditch limiting beliefs and do more than simply survive.