Sarah Palermo
Sarah Palermo - TNBC Awareness
Fundraising for Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation
Story
Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day is the only global event dedicated to raising both awareness and funds exclusively for triple negative breast cancer. 100% of all donations received during March will be dedicated exclusively to TNBC research.
For those who do not know me, my name is Sarah Palermo, and I am a TNBC survivor! My mother also passed away after a 3 year battle with TNBC when she was 43 years young! So for the month of March and every day after, my goal is to help against this disease, not only with triple negative breast cancer, but with all cancers! It’s not a fair disease, it does not discriminate, and it is ruthless! But together we can do better to understand all types! Starting with TNBC for the month of March which could use more funding to discover other treatment plans in addition to, or instead of chemo,, and more testing to understand this exact type of cancer.
💖Because of my mother I was always very diligent when doing my own self checks, following up with the proper doctors, getting mammograms, and ultrasounds early, and being very aware of my options and possible future outcomes. Because of my mother I found my cancer in the early stages, and was able to kill it with 20 weeks of the most rigorous chemotherapy treatment plan, followed by a double mastectomy to be sure we got rid of the cancer for good. February 4, 2021 was my very first chemo treatment, June 17, 2021 was my last treatment, and August 10, 2021 was my double mastectomy. After the surgery they biopsied the tissue in the affected breast and are confident that chemo killed it all, and I am cancer free! With that being said, TNBC is one of the most aggressive cancers, and it will always be something I stress out about. But I decided to live a positive and happy life for my children, my husband, and our family and friends. I decided to not let the stresses of cancer define me! I have decided that I will fight every day for the rest of my life to make sure my children and nieces and nephews never have to go through this! 💖
⛈ It seems like just yesterday Marc was walking into the house with the kids after basketball evaluations. I was aimlessly stirring dinner over the stove while listening to my surgeon tell me one of the worst things in my life. The phone rang at 7:30pm on a Friday night, and I knew it was the news I was praying would never come. As I picked up the phone I heard the tone of my surgeon’s voice and said to him “it’s cancer right?” My doctor and I have had a long history of scares with my left breast, and both of us ultimately knew both breasts needed to go, but the timing was never right due to my 3 beautiful babies!
As he composed himself with grace and honest compassion, he explained to me a whole slew of things, that I didn’t hear. You see, I knew prior to this phone call that I had cancer, but I still wasn’t ready for that call. I blankly stared at Marc as he smiled and said “good news?” and all I could do was shake my head no. As I hung up the phone Marc rightfully had tons of questions that I had no clue how to answer, so I handed him the phone, walked away to cry alone, and he called my doctor back. ⛈
🌪 On January 15, 2021, at around 7:30pm my world started to spin! I got half of what my doctor told me, and all of the “yes it’s cancer” out of that conversation. January 9th we celebrated our first born baby girl’s 8th birthday with our closest of friends, and family surrounding us at our home, with only half knowing what was going on in my head! I thought that maybe if I didn’t speak about it, it wouldn’t be true! So I bottled it all up, and plastered on a smile. January 15th my worst fear in life was confirmed… it got to me! Making the call to my dad was ONE of the worst calls I ever had to make! And I tried putting it off! I didn’t want his heart to hurt for me! I didn’t want him to have flash backs, I didn’t want him to relive any bit of it! But I knew the second I called him, he’d be practically moved in! And he was! 🌪
🌈 Over the passed year I’ve learned so incredibly much about myself, life, people, what truly matters, and what never did. AGAIN, in my lifetime I was tested to the fullest extent! I thought I was done being tested! But… Sadly I always knew cancer was coming for me. I, however, just thought I was going to beat it out! The plan was always to have babies and get rid of the ladies! But that wasn’t my plan in God’s eyes.
Maybe I needed a wake up call, maybe I needed a warning, maybe me going through this saved my sister and our kids, maybe it brought me and my husband even closer together than we already were, maybe it showed me who really matters and who never did, maybe it was teaching me not to waste my energy on certain things and individuals! Maybe it taught me how to have hard conversations with my kids, maybe it taught us all how to be tougher! Maybe there’s still things this lesson will teach me! I don’t really know why this happened to me, to my family! But what I do know is, I can’t spend my life trying to figure out the why!
There would, and still are days where I get down, I look in the mirror and can’t understand sometimes why I deserved this. I have many a moment, a break down, a bad day, but I wipe the tears, straighten myself back up, and tell myself, “it’s ok! It’s ok to be sad, have bad days, but get it out, and move the hell on!” My positivity runs solely on the thoughts that I would be doing myself, my husband, my kids, my family, my close friends, and my mom and brother a disservice if I let myself get down for too long! So with that, I can say how honestly blessed my life has been to be surrounded by such love!
I’ve ALWAYS been someone who took care of others, I’ve always put other peoples’ feelings ahead of my own! I always made sure everyone else was ok before I checked on myself! And while I still carry that same mentality through life, I also know that it’s time to put myself first, it’s time to advocate for myself! I’ve truly learned what letting go and giving it to God means, and it’s been a breath of fresh air! My mental state is challenged daily, but I have learned that i’m so much happier when I just hand it over to God! I’ve changed, quite a bit!
Im still not quite sure why the good suffer, why kids get really sick, why deserving people don’t get their every want and dream! But I'm learning to let go, and just be in the moments! The best moments! 🌈
💗 When I found out I had breast cancer the initial shock was hard! I had so many emotions flowing through my mind but mostly thoughts of my kids and how they were going to feel, my husband and how he would tackle this on top of everything else he tackles daily, and about how it looked when mom went through it! I thought often about why I deserved to get this after watching my mom suffer through it and not make it in the end! She fought until the very end, and in my opinion our family has suffered enough heart ache between her and my big brother dying. I thought about how hard my mom truly fought, and how when people tell me I’m strong, I think quietly to myself how truly strong my mom was! 💪🏻 In my opinion my mom didn’t deserve for one of her daughters to get this disease after what she went through! BUT God had another plan, and he knew I was the one to carry it out. The reason I have remained so positive through all of this is because I know that advancements have been made, and are still being made, and that me going through this is preparing our family so that my sister and our daughters do not ever have to go through this. My sister and I both tested negative for the brca gene mutations, so God sent us a little warning… take care of this shit, get on it, protect your babies! So there I sat in my chemo chair doing just that… protecting my babies and their futures! And I’m confident that is the reason I am here! There MUST be another gene out there that they haven’t found yet, because I ended up with the same exact cancer as my mom. But without them knowing of it yet, our family needed a warning, and I’ll be that warning if that means the rest of my family doesn’t need to go through this. I stayed positive through most of this journey, and I remain positive as I embark now on a new journey. 💗
☀️ Thank you to everyone who has supported me, given me words of encouragement, lifted me up when I felt like falling down, and for all the help with the kids and dinners etc etc. Thank you to all of you who showed up with me during this fight! I see you and appreciate you! Thank you Marc for being my rock!!! You are amazing and I would never for 1 second want to be on this journey with a single soul other than you! And thank you to everyone for continuing to support me! ☀️
💕I am raising money for myself, my mother, my sister, and our kids! This fundraiser is in honor of what myself and my mother went through! This fundraiser is because I don’t wish this on a single soul, and I hope to help change that.💕
😮💨 Since chemo and surgery ended, it has been quite hard to get back into the routine of working out and pushing myself and my body. I’m still tired, my body is out of shape and weak, but exercise is the best medicine for that! Soooo… Each day I get at least $100 in donations for the month of March, I will climb up on that peloton, pick up the weights, and push my limits for 1 hour in the gym’! With your support not only will we fight TNBC, but I will get my life back the way it used to be! Thank you, and love you all! 💪🏻
