Hi Ladies!

It is AYA (Adolescents and Young Adults) Cancer Awareness Week! This week brings awareness to those who currently have or who have had cancer between the ages of 15 to 39. Many people are shocked when they are diagnosed with cancer at a young age. Cancer is something many believe can happen as they grow older, not when they are still growing and developing. Women who are diagnosed young, not only fight for their lives, but they must make difficult decisions before they are thinking about having a child which may affect fertility later.

Some of the issues that AYAs face are isolation, debt, fear of death, problems with relationships, sexuality, infertility, and they often don’t receive the emotional support they need.

A friend of mine named Julia is a mother today, but when she was a young adult she developed leukemia and had to have treatment. Great news is that she beat leukemia and became a mother last year! Throughout her pregnancy journey, she felt great physically and emotionally. And in September, she had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I was so happy for her!

Lauren is another woman who had cancer young and beat it. Lauren was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She beat it twice! But when she was 24 years old, she was told by her oncologist, when she had her relapse, that her treatment could prohibit for from having children.

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