When Life Changes Overnight: Sarah’s Story of Breast Cancer, Courage, and Quick Care

Sarah L. and her hus­band were filled with antic­i­pa­tion as they pre­pared to wel­come their baby. But in the midst of that joy, Sarah noticed some­thing unex­pect­ed — a lump under her arm, fol­lowed by anoth­er in her breast. Trust­ing her instincts, she didn’t wait to act. 

“I’m the type of per­son who doesn’t ignore any­thing. I always go to the doc­tor, but I didn’t think it was a big deal at first,” she said. ​“I was preg­nant, so I googled it and read that breast tis­sue can change dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Still, it was alarm­ing because the lump felt large.”

What began as a qui­et wor­ry quick­ly became one of the most over­whelm­ing moments of her life. With­in days, heart­break and fear col­lid­ed. Sarah mis­car­ried and then received news no one is ever pre­pared for.

“I found out I was hav­ing a mis­car­riage and then lit­er­al­ly the next day, I found out that I was diag­nosed with can­cer,” she said.

Mov­ing Quick­ly from Fear to Action

Sarah recalls how quick­ly every­thing moved once she received her diag­no­sis. ​“It was just a whirl­wind,” she said. ​“There was a lot to take in, but my hus­band was by my side through it all, writ­ing every­thing down and advo­cat­ing on my behalf.”

That speed mat­tered in her case. With­in days, Sarah was meet­ing with Amrit Man­gat, MD, FACS, Breast Sur­geon at Duly Health and Care, along with the broad­er care team. Each appoint­ment and each step brought her clos­er to a plan.

“It was over­whelm­ing, but also reas­sur­ing,” she said. ​“I didn’t have to sit and wait. I knew what was com­ing next.”

The urgency of mov­ing quick­ly from diag­no­sis to treat­ment in cer­tain sit­u­a­tions is some­thing both Sarah and Dr. Man­gat emphasize.

“The wait­ing is very hard for patients,” Dr. Man­gat said. ​“That’s why our breast nurse nav­i­ga­tors are so impor­tant. They reach out after diag­no­sis, offer sup­port, and help expe­dite appoint­ments if need­ed. They’re real­ly key in mak­ing patients feel sup­port­ed and cared for.”

At Duly, breast can­cer screen­ing patients move from screen­ing imag­ing to pathol­o­gy results in less than 20 days, far faster than nation­al aver­ages. For our breast can­cer patients, that speed offers some­thing price­less: clar­i­ty, a plan, and hope. 

Women should begin annu­al screen­ing mam­mo­grams at age 40. Learn more about who should be screened and how to pre­pare for your next mammogram > 

Dr. Man­gat remem­bers Sarah’s case well. She con­tin­ues to see Sarah on a reg­u­lar basis and rec­om­mends con­tin­ued mon­i­tor­ing with imag­ing. ​“She was young at diag­no­sis, and that can poten­tial­ly make things more seri­ous,” she said. ​“Women in their 30s aren’t typ­i­cal­ly screened, so patients like Sarah are usu­al­ly diag­nosed when they notice a symp­tom — a lump, pain, cer­tain types of nip­ple dis­charge, or skin changes.”

A Com­pre­hen­sive Treat­ment Journey

Due to the tumor’s type and char­ac­ter­is­tics, Sarah’s treat­ment began with chemother­a­py. ​“Some­times we start with chemother­a­py to shrink the tumor before surgery and allow for breast con­ser­va­tion,” Dr. Man­gat said. ​“Oth­er times it’s nec­es­sary because of the type of the tumor. After chemother­a­py, we use imag­ing such as MRIs to eval­u­ate the response and then plan surgery accordingly.”

Radi­a­tion ther­a­py played anoth­er key part in Sarah’s treat­ment, and she gives cred­it to Kather­ine Bak­er, MD, Radi­a­tion Oncol­o­gist at Duly, and her team for their thought­ful care. Day after day, Sarah would leave work and head to her appoint­ment — a rou­tine that soon felt less clin­i­cal and more personal.

“Dr. Bak­er and her team were absolute­ly incred­i­ble,” she said. ​“I’d go in every after­noon around 4:15, and it just felt like fam­i­ly. They were so kind and wel­com­ing that by the end, I was actu­al­ly sad not to see them every day.”

A Genet­ic Discovery

Sarah also under­went genet­ic test­ing. Through this test­ing, she dis­cov­ered she has Lynch syn­drome, an inher­it­ed genet­ic dis­or­der that increas­es the risk of devel­op­ing cer­tain can­cers, par­tic­u­lar­ly col­orec­tal, endome­tri­al, and ovar­i­an cancers.

“Find­ing out I have Lynch syn­drome was a lot to process,” she said. ​“It means ongo­ing mon­i­tor­ing and pre­ven­ta­tive care, like year­ly colono­scopies and oth­er screen­ings, but it also gives me the knowl­edge to take proac­tive steps.”

Through it all, Sarah found com­fort in the com­pas­sion­ate, team-based approach. ​“The nurs­es, the doc­tors, every­one was so sup­port­ive,” she said. ​“They were there for me every step of the way.”

Dr. Man­gat notes that this col­lab­o­ra­tion is by design. ​“Here, our sub­spe­cial­ties — med­ical oncol­o­gy, radi­a­tion oncol­o­gy, surgery, radi­ol­o­gy, pathol­o­gy — all work close­ly togeth­er. That cohe­sive, team-based is absolute­ly essen­tial for our patients.”

Going through some­thing like this, Sarah explained, ​“You’re forced to look at life dif­fer­ent­ly. Things that used to stress you out feel dif­fer­ent now. Of course, I still have stress­es, but it’s just not the same.”

Climb­ing High­er: Life After Treatment

That new per­spec­tive inspired Sarah and her hus­band to pur­sue adven­tures they had dreamed about. ​“We like to hike and camp, and after all this, it was a goal of mine to do a big hike. We end­ed up hik­ing in Tan­za­nia and sum­mit­ed Mount Kil­i­man­jaro. It real­ly lit a fire in me and cement­ed how impor­tant health is.”

Look­ing back on her care expe­ri­ence, Sarah says what stood out most wasn’t just the exper­tise of her med­ical team, but their sup­port. ​“I nev­er felt rushed. I know these doc­tors deal with such heavy bur­dens every day, yet they were ful­ly present for me, and that made a huge difference.”

Today, Sarah reflects on her jour­ney with grat­i­tude — for her hus­band, who was with her every step of the way, for her care team, who act­ed quick­ly and com­pas­sion­ate­ly, and for the strength she dis­cov­ered with­in her­self. She shares her sto­ry in the hope that it encour­ages oth­ers to lis­ten to their bod­ies and seek care with­out delay.

Dr. Man­gat echoes that advice. ​“Don’t ignore symp­toms, and fol­low the screen­ing guide­lines,” she said. ​“Annu­al screen­ing mam­mo­grams should begin at 40, but women with fam­i­ly his­to­ry or oth­er risk fac­tors may need to start ear­li­er. Some women may need annu­al breast ultra­sounds or annu­al MRIs based on their risk of life­time devel­op­ment of breast cancer.” 

“I nev­er thought this would be part of my sto­ry,” Sarah said. ​“But I’ve learned that even in the hard­est moments, you can find sup­port, you can find hope, and you can keep mov­ing forward.”

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