Debbie Legault

My view on Breast Cancer Awareness month — aka “Pinktober” — shifted after my daughter was diagnosed.

It’s easy to question treatment choices patients with cancer make, but my job as the mother of a patient was to be supportive.

It’s good that celebrities with cancer raise awareness about the disease, but I think that they can do more.

When my daughter first started cancer treatment, she was brave, but after she understood how difficult it was, she was courageous in continuing.

From bald heads paired with lush eyebrows to the typical emaciated patient, there are certain tropes of how cancer is portrayed on TV that bother me, as they do not represent the experiences of everyone with the disease.

Despite how caring they may be, certain people in our life had a difficult time being there for the realities of my daughter’s cancer experience.

It baffles me that people take advantage of patients with cancer by peddling fake cures.

When a friend with metastatic breast cancer said that her cancer responded to treatment and she was excited to stop taking daily pills, I thought that something must have been miscommunicated to her.

I can’t imagine my daughter not getting important cancer treatments because we could not afford it or because insurance denied it. Unfortunately, that is the situation for many patients.

Telling friends and family about a cancer diagnosis can be gut wrenching. Here’s how I did it.

Watching my daughter’s life be interrupted by breast cancer made me want to help other parents who might find themselves in a similar situation.

I haven’t seen many 10-year triple-positive breast cancer survivors in my online support groups, but I can’t help but wonder: will my daughter be the one?

Should I mention my daughter’s cancer diagnosis, or keep people blissfully unaware, and say that we’re all doing fine?

If there was a certain diet that could prevent my daughter from going through the perils of chemotherapy, she’d do it in a heartbeat. But science doesn’t back the sugar-feeds-cancer myth.

My daughter’s radiation oncologist said that certain treatments may lead to another cancer diagnosis later in her life, but isn’t living better now worth the risk?

Eventually, my daughter will stop seeing her oncologist, and while I appreciate all that he has done, I hope that they part ways forever.

As humans, we have an inherent need to know why everything happens in our life — including a cancer diagnosis. But unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer would likely cause my daughter to lose her hair, but instead of waiting for her locks to fall out on their own, she took matters into her own hands.

Although my daughter’s cancer scans currently show no evidence of disease, I am haunted by the fact that there is always a possibility it could return and uproot our lives yet again.

As a caregiver to my daughter with breast cancer, I had to get creative in finding ways to help her keep food down after treatments made her nauseous.

A mother of a breast cancer survivor who has lost loved ones to the disease explains why the phrase “living with cancer” doesn’t make sense, because there is no escape from it after diagnosis.

A mother of a breast cancer survivor explains how she and her daughter creatively incorporated exercise into her daughter’s daily routine to improve her physical and mental health during treatment.

A mother of a breast cancer survivor explains how she pinpoints the reasoning behind why a certain day might be extra difficult emotionally for her and how she deals with it.

A mother describes how her daughter formed an unlikely friendship with one of her chemo nurses after her treatment ended.

A caregiver writes a poem expressing joy over her daughter’s clean scan results after having had breast cancer in her own version of the 12 Days of Christmas.

A mother of a young breast cancer survivor shares the letter she wrote to Santa explaining her only Christmas wish.

A caregiver and mother of a breast cancer survivor explains the common misunderstanding people have when asking how her daughter’s health post-treatment.

A mother explains how difficult it is to forget about the painful memories of her daughter's cancer experience and how she is moving forward, one step at a time.

“The financial burden is another gift that cancer keeps on giving,” writes the mother and caregiver of a young woman with breast cancer.

A mother of a breast cancer survivor expresses the constant worry she lives with, wondering if cancer will wreak havoc on her daughter’s life again.