As a member of this team, we are each playing a part in helping Susan G. Komen® in their  mission to end breast cancer forever.

A little over a year ago, I made the decision to undergo a bilateral mastectomy after learning I carry the PALB2 genetic mutation, which significantly increases my risk of developing breast cancer. What started with a lump the week of my wedding turned into months of testing, monitoring, and living with uncertainty.

Today, I am one year post-surgery.

That decision was not easy, but it was one I made with my doctors and with the full support of my husband, Nathan. It was an act of prevention, not fear—but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t emotionally and physically life-altering.

Recovery has been a journey of its own. There are still days where I feel the weight of everything my body has been through—appointments, surgeries, healing, and learning to feel like myself again in a body that has changed in ways I never expected. But there is also gratitude. Deep gratitude for early knowledge, for modern medicine, for the choice to take control of my future, and for the support system that carried me through it.

Nathan has been by my side through every step—before surgery, during recovery, and in this new chapter of healing and adjustment. This past year has strengthened us in ways I didn’t know were possible, even through the hardest moments.

I share my story not because it is simple, but because it is real. Genetic risk is not always visible, and prevention is not always understood. But I hope that by sharing, I can help bring awareness, encouragement, and urgency to continued research and support for those facing breast cancer today—and those trying to prevent it tomorrow.

We are one year forward, but still part of the same fight.