Episode 34: Patient Advocacy: Living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer

My guest today on the DiepCJourney podcast has a blog and website titled, No Half Measures, Living Out loud. 

2017 was a pivotal year in the life of my guest, Abigail Johnston. Early that year, while dual nursing her twin boys she felt a lump in her left breast. The next few months involved multiple appointments with radiologists, oncologists, and surgeons. Abigail was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. 

Abigail Johnston is a wife, mother, writer, educator, earned her JD after completing law school and is a patient advocate. She begins the interview by sharing her experience at the National AACR conference held in early 2023. She sat on a panel with the FDA speaking about the importance of overall survival as an important end point in clinical trials. With all the complexities on that topic, she felt the FDA worked hard to make sure her voice was heard.

Attending conferences allows her to meet other patient advocates and for Abigail and me, this is always one of the highlights of traveling to these meetings. We met in person in December of 2022 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. As she says, “Those in person hugs, nothing is better, honestly.”

She talks about the idea of “finding a purpose after a serious trauma.” Abigail states that trauma changes you fundamentally as a human being. The question becomes, how do you carry that trauma? Advocacy is the way Abigail has found some purpose in “the derailment of her life.” It has become an overarching theme in her life.

This was a podcast interview that felt comfortable, informative, and one I will go back and listen to myself often. You can reach out to Abigail and find more of her work in the following links:

Blog: No Half Measures: Living Out Loud

Bio: Abigail’s Story

Contact Information: Email Abigail

Place to find Abigail’s writing and work: Social Media and Elsewhere