Behind the Breakthroughs
The Your Stories Podcast

Hear candid conversations between people conquering cancer – patients, their family and friends, and doctors and researchers working to help us all.

Kimberly Irvine
Kimberly Irvine and Riccardo Braglia
Behind the Breakthroughs
Taking Charge
Kimberly Irvine was used to taking care of the people she loved. Conquering breast cancer – twice – forced the young mom to learn how to take care of herself in a whole new way. In a conversation with fellow philanthropist Riccardo Braglia, Kimberly shares how cancer changed her family and offers advice for patients who meet cancer in the prime of their lives.

The Business of Conquering

Find a care team. Schedule appointments and surgeries. Organize insurance forms. This is the job most patients and their families take on following a cancer diagnosis. And the work continues as treatment begins.

“I learned very quickly that I was the CEO of that healthcare team,” says Kimberly of the people she assembled to help during both of her breast cancer recoveries. 

With several healthy years behind her, Kimberly works to ensure other people who are facing cancer are inspired to put themselves first and be their own advocate.

“None of us know if this is going to happen to us, but we can take some of the control back from what cancer tends to take away from all of us,” says Kimberly.

Parenting as a Patient

“The question I get most often is, ‘How did you parent through cancer?’,” says Kimberly. 

Kimberly recalls the struggles of caring for her daughter and son, who were 6 and 4 when she was in treatment, and searching to find answers to the hard questions her children asked about life and death.
 
“It was unfortunate that these kids have had to endure a cancer diagnosis not once, but twice, but they learned resilience,” says Kimberly.

Kimberly says the anxiety cancer brings to a family never leaves, but “there is hope. When you have kids and you’re going through a diagnosis, I want you to have hope."

“I tell my children every day, I didn’t want the adversity to really break us, I wanted to use it for purpose,” says Kimberly.

 

Disclaimer

The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. The podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. It is no substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests who speak in a podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions. Neither Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundations, nor any of its affiliates endorses, supports or opposes any particular treatment option or other matter discussed in a podcast. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy on a podcast should not be construed as an endorsement.

Your Stories
Being Your Own Advocate
None of us know if it’s going to happen to us, but we can certainly take some of the control back from what cancer tends to take away from all of us.
Kimberly Irvine