Her Story
About Maura
I've been a patient advocate for 17 years, though I never wanted to be an advocate initially. I was just a survivor. It wasn't until my cancer came back as metastatic that I said, wow, people need to know more about this. I had triple negative breast cancer, which is a less common form that only makes up 10 to 20% of breast cancers and is harder to treat. When it came back as stage 4, I learned that once it's metastatic, it's not going to be cured. I had a prognosis of 12 to 18 months to live, but after an experimental treatment, my cancer did not come back. We are out there as long-term survivors, making up less than 1% of metastatic breast cancer patients. I've done a national campaign for Susan G. Komen, a commercial for Comprehensive Cancer Center of Southern Nevada, a PSA with WWE, and spoken to the National Bowlers Association and Coaches for Cancer. I got to speak in the Senate in DC and to my local lawmakers to try to change the laws for patient rights. I got involved with livingbeyondbreastcancer.org with their inaugural class of Hear My Voice, where we could come together and come up with ideas to get information out. Now I'm partnering with Men Have Breast Cancer 2 to get more awareness out about men's breast cancer. Before all this, I had a background in stand-up comedy and improvisational comedy, and I owned my own nail salon outside of Boston for 10 years. I am so passionate about women, listening to women's stories, and really hearing women. Those were the best years of my life at that salon.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maura
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm going to say my faith, but absolutely the people who propped me up. There were times that I did not want to go on, but through my community, and my friends, and my family, it was unbelievable, the support and the love that we got to get through. All these opportunities have just come to me and popped up, and I've been able to take advantage of them. As a Christian, it is super important to me to be encouraging somebody alongside of that. The really exciting moments I've had, like being in DC or meeting WWE wrestlers, have been great, but also the one-on-one conversations where I can help someone who just got diagnosed are always so rewarding and fulfilling.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There's still a lot of awareness that needs to be spread. They say Pink October is becoming over-pink and nobody wants to hear about the awareness, but we still need to be aware about the discrepancy in the races of mortality, and we need to be aware about the lack of access in the rural communities, and we need to be aware about men's breast cancer. A lot of times with men, it's stage 4 right off the bat because it's ignored and not taken seriously, so it's late stages when it's caught. I think about 3,000 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the United States. I'm working on getting more awareness out, and it's hard. I had to change my language because I used to just speak about women, but now I'm including men and women in all my speeches.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My faith is absolutely central to everything I do. As a Christian, it is super important to me to be encouraging somebody alongside of that. I am so passionate about women, listening to women's stories, and really hearing women. When I was very sick, people used to ask me what my bucket list was, and I would say I want to clean my own house and take care of my own kids. That was my bucket list. I didn't think I would live to see my son's graduation from kindergarten, so when he graduated from kindergarten, it was a big deal. Now he's a sophomore in college. I'm incredibly proud of my kids and being supportive of my kids' hobbies. I'm also a huge pet lover, and our family has fostered over 200 kittens for the animal shelter.
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