The first time Ashley Bernath dropped her then-three-year-old daughter, Charlie, off at preschool, there was no hug, no tears, no long goodbye — just a quick “see you later” and a full-steam-ahead dash for the classroom. Charlie’s excitement that morning in September 2025 was understandable. She had spent the previous 15 months in active cancer … Read more
When the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies’ Practice Manager Sara Menendez, LAT, ATC, learned she had Lynch syndrome at age 30, she had dozens of questions. A hereditary condition, Lynch syndrome raises a person’s risk for cancer in several organs including the colon, endometrium, ovaries, and skin. Suddenly faced with this new information, … Read more
As she got out of the car and waved goodbye to her husband and her mother, Margaret-Ann Simonetta’s shoulders stiffened with anxiety. It was April 2021, still in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was headed into Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a colectomy – a total surgical removal of her colon. With … Read more
It was a hot day on the links in New Hampshire in July 2014. Carol MacKenzie recalls that her neck was strangely sore. By the end of the round of golf, she had a fever. Soon after, MacKenzie met with an oncologist. In 1996, she had been diagnosed with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer and successfully treated. Eighteen years later, … Read more
Dienna Lehner grew up in a Massachusetts town with a small ski hill and a rope tow. “It was hot dogs, tomato soup, and an outdoor fireplace,” she recalls. “And it was Nirvana.” Later in life, she opted to spend her winters in Park City, Utah, to enjoy big mountain skiing. The conditions have been mild this year, but last year she skied all season – which … Read more
When Ann Carroll was diagnosed with cancer at age 28, her dream to get married and have a baby felt out of reach. Now, seven years later and cancer-free, she is living that dream with her husband and their 7-month-old son, Teddy. “I didn’t think I would get this far,” says Carroll, of Boston, Massachusetts. “My whole journey started when I walked into my doctor’s office because I wasn’t feeling well.” As a graduate student in 2019 studying clinical psychology at Northwestern University, Carroll started experiencing lightheadedness and tunnel … Read more
Since she was a young child in a family in which Portuguese and German were often spoken, Sarah Downey, 23, has been fascinated with different languages and cultures. Now, as a recent college graduate living with a very rare cancer of the heart known as cardiac angiosarcoma, Downey is committed to helping others facing cancer, along with their providers and caregivers, … Read more
Bill Kelley’s unbreakable bond with the clinical team that guided him through myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a group of rare blood disorders impacting the bone marrow, and a stem cell transplant was never more evident than during a Sunday night in the summer of 2025. Kelley’s sister Joan had arranged a surprise 70th birthday baseball outing for him and 30 of his friends and family members at Boston’s Fenway Park, where Kelley had grown up … Read more
In the kitchen of Sabor de Minas, Caesar Sodre plates delicious Brazilian fare. For Sodre, 66, food is a love language and a way to care for his customers. For more than two decades, the bright blue Brazilian restaurant in Framingham, Massachusetts, has been a cornerstone of his community. That community — including staff and longtime customers — returned the care by … Read more
Like many teenagers with cancer, Declan Cassidy, 16, has endured having his life interrupted by surgery, chemotherapy infusions, and other treatments. In his case, however, the greatest ongoing challenge goes beyond the cancer itself. Declan is legally blind, the result of an optic pathway glioma — a slow-growing brain tumor that forms in and around the optic nerves connecting the eye to the brain. … Read more
The call from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) seemed to come from out of nowhere, but it bore some hopeful news: Dana-Farber senior project manager Alexandria Monteiro’s stem cells were a match for a stranger with leukemia who needed a stem cell transplant. “I don’t remember signing up,” Monteiro admits, “but based on who I know myself to be,” she continues, “it does sound like something I would have done.” … Read more
Devon Choi had a great job, a terrific group of friends, and had just run the Boston Marathon – the first of six 26.2-mile races he hoped to complete in major cities around the world. So, when the East Boston resident felt a lump on his left testicle while showering in May 2023, he shrugged it off. Choi was … Read more
On July 20, 2009, Michele Milso was leaving the gym when she received a call from her radiologist. That call changed her life. “He told me I have breast cancer,” says Milso, who lives in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. “It was the last thing I thought I’d hear.” To maintain a healthy lifestyle, Milso ate well, exercised … Read more
In February 2024, while being treated for pneumonia, doctors noticed that Rebecca Santorelli’s spleen was enlarged. “No one was concerned at first,” recalls Santorelli, 61, who lives outside of Albany, New York. Doctors estimate spleen size with fingerbreadths — or approximate widths of a finger — below the rib cage, with normal being about zero. … Read more
The walk is a little different each day, sometimes a twisting, turning path through the various side streets of Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, and on other occasions more of a straight line down bustling thoroughfares. One thing, though, remains consistent: no matter which route Paris Prinsen, 21, takes from her apartment to classes at the … Read more
By Jennifer Peters On April 23, 2024, my life jumped onto a conveyor belt I never saw coming — one that would race me through numerous exam rooms, tests, and heartfelt conversations. The diagnosis? Triple-negative breast cancer. I’d never even heard of it. I thought breast cancer was all the same. Boy, was I wrong. But even in that first shocking moment, I knew one thing: I wasn’t going to do … Read more
Nolan Young has aspirations of a career in both the Air Force and FBI, and even at age 15 it’s easy to imagine him achieving these goals. After all, when you’ve already endured the rigors of chemotherapy, radiation, emergency surgeries, and a stem cell transplant for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) — all before high … Read more
Marsha Olsen’s grandmother always used to say, “You have one body, take good care of it.” And for most of her life, Olsen has spread that message as a middle school physical education and health teacher instilling healthy habits in her students. “I wanted all my students to have a positive experience in physical education, … Read more
When Donna McDaniel came to Dana-Farber with what she thought was lung cancer in 2024, she could barely walk and struggled to breathe. She’d been treated elsewhere, but the drugs had seemingly stopped working. Her quality of life was suffering, and she couldn’t keep up with her busy catering job at Blue Cross Blue Shield. … Read more
Leah Christoforidis was pregnant with her fourth child when she began feeling pain in her lower back. Her doctor initially figured it was a muscle tear, but something told Christoforidis that wasn’t right, and she successfully advocated for an ultrasound. A few weeks later, Christoforidis faced a new kidney cancer diagnosis instead of a routine … Read more