I was traveling the world with my dream job for the past year before my diagnosis. I am a 25 years old healthy, non smoker, drank responsibly for my young age, and walked 1hour a day with my dog. I felt a lump in my left breast and told my boyfriend to feel it. Since his aunt had breast cancer, he insisted that I checked with a doctor. ALL the doctors I saw were confident it was a fibroadenoma. There is no cancer in my family at all! I insisted to have a needle biopsy, and I could hear in my doctor's voice that the news were bad. She told me I had cancer in December 2013, I was diagnosed with IDC, triple negative...a tumor that doubled in size only in 3 months. I started 2014 by freezing my eggs, I have no children but dreamed to have 4 since I was little. Then a week after that, I started chemotherapy, every 2 weeks, a new protocol that shrank the tumor after the first treatment. I am now 3 weeks away of finishing chemo, the day before my 26th birthday and I want every person diagnosed with cancer to have hope and strength. I waited for my boyfriend 8 months while he was in Afghanistan, and I know how anxiety and depression can impact our lives when we are sad, but there is no time to be sad. You need to be positive you will beat cancer, and not be afraid of crying if you feel too and to keep a "normal" life. I realized life is really too short to be complaining about little things that don't deserve our energy, and you have to tell yourself you are beautiful even if chemotherapy is affecting your image. Surround yourself by people that tell you that you are beautiful with a wig, without or with a scarf. Don't be afraid to do your self-exam, to let others take care of you while you beat cancer's ass...Early detection do save lives, it saved mine, you know your body best ladies!

Vicky Reinoso
Quebec City, Canada