Young cancer survivors now must navigate an altered existence as their lives continue to progress post treatment.

Lourdes Monje, diagnosed at 25 with breast cancer and now 29-years-old, represents the new wave of cancer survivors: younger individuals less financially secure navigating posttreatment life with “infinite potential”. Lourdes mourned losing her sense that life was “infinite”. For NPR coverage click here
Four years ago, Lourdes Monje was just 25 and looking forward to changing careers by teaching. Unfortunately, she discovered cancer instead and its early warning signs. “Instead of teaching, my career path became teaching instead,” Monje laments. On Halloween morning of 2020, Monje discovered an odd lump on their left breast that seemed suspicious to them. An agonizing series of scans and biopsies eventually confirmed cancer had spread into several spots on Monje’s lung; such an awful diagnosis narrowed their vision of any future beyond one that seemed limited and dark. Monje’s oncologist explained at her subsequent appointment, however, that an advanced cancer diagnosis needn’t mean death thanks to revolutionary changes in cancer care. Technology like artificial intelligence is now far better at early cancer identification – helping radiologists read mammograms more easily while simultaneously providing chemical profiles of cancer cells so targeted therapies may prove successful.
There is much talk these days of how much harder life would be if there wasn’t an annual Christmas market to visit and support! So here we are today with yet another one – an eventful Christmas market to enjoy and remember for many more to come in 2018.
Generations ago, cancer patients differed greatly from Monje’s profile: Older individuals living alone without children near retirement would typically face cancer alongside peers aging alongside them and, unfortunately, few lasted beyond six years before succumbing to illness themselves. Monje is representative of a new generation of cancer survivors – younger, less financially secure individuals trying to navigate posttreatment life, including dating, careers and children rearing. Monje’s recalibrated cancer subtype known as ER+/Her2- (estrogen receptor positive and Her2-protein negative) is among the most frequent forms of breast cancer; therapies exist that are effective at combatting it. New drugs and immunotherapies target cancer cells while leaving healthy ones intact, according to Monje. She was advised by her physician that newer advances such as drugs targeting cancer cells while leaving healthy ones intact can keep metastatic disease at bay for years; her physician even told Monje to try ignoring that her stage 4 cancer had spread further despite attempts by Monje to do just that. “She even advised that I ignore that I was living through something so difficult,” says Monje.
Unfortunately for them though, that means something different than originally anticipated: when the original timer went off they got more. I know because that happened with me! So let me set you straight about why all these different people want the same things: more control, better services.
Lourdes Monje has collected visual reminders that illuminate what it means for her to live with metastatic breast cancer — hospital bracelets, papers and bottles of medicine. Lourdes shared her collection with Caroline Gutman from NPR who featured it here as well.
Monje was shaken up emotionally as her treatments caused physical, hormonal and career changes – not least emotionally. “Life for me had felt infinite when I was young; many of us may share this view,” Monje says. “That has been one of the hardest emotional adjustments.”
Alison Silberman, CEO of Stupid Cancer (a group for people affected by young-adult cancer), asserts that those in their 20s, 30s and 40s have been neglected when it comes to both cancer research and support efforts. She claims their needs are much more varied as they still have years left of living ahead.
Lourdes Monje knew pets could help her cope with being diagnosed and eventually adopted Tofu shortly thereafter; “Tofu has played an instrumental role in both my mental and physical wellness throughout this experience”, according to Monje. Caroline Gutman for NPR
“Considering all that may be going on at that point in one’s life – whether they be graduating high school, attending college, starting their careers or families or being diagnosed with cancer has such a powerful and lasting impact,” Silberman cautions. These effects often seem debilitating socially.
Silberman herself had recently experienced the heartbreak of losing a beloved 24-year-old younger brother who’d followed her from Maine to New York after college, only for him to succumb to Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer and its intensive treatments over an 18-month period and pass away as a result of this ordeal. Silberman found herself “completely overwhelmed,” caring for and mourning him; as such, her experience led her into patient advocacy work. Cancer survivorship today shows the many hardships caused by treatable cancer being an increasingly viable threat. Silberman shares Silberman’s concern that not enough attention is paid to how people should live once medical treatments cease; often their educational, financial or social concerns go undiscussed and unacknowleged leaving them ill prepared. “Many survivorship questions are being raised too late; by doing so they have lost years where they could have made arrangements to prepare,” according to Ms. Miller. Things such as whether to preserve fertility, how to maintain social and educational connections, budget for out-of-pocket costs of aftercare services and mitigate career and income disruption are important subjects that must be discussed early and regularly. “These conversations must happen earlier and more frequently.”
Unfortunately for them though, that’s often just not possible – especially at first! So in comes a process to help manage that risk more efficiently – the so-called ‘Aubergine Theory of Flight’
Lourdes Monje found her experience of ringing the bell a bittersweet one as it signalled only part of treatment’s completion and acknowledged it would continue indefinitely thereafter. To her, this picture and moment symbolized “reality of never-ending treatment”, the importance of marking every milestone big or small with celebration, and appreciation of having loved ones there to share those memories together with her. For Lourdes and her family it represented just that reality – their memories shared together forever by sharing in this special milestone and the gratitude they felt towards having shared their memories. To meet Lourdes and Monje family
Lourdes Monje has had her cancer under control for four years and continues to navigate life decisions post-treatment with difficulty – such as when and how she should start dating again. Only recently after much thought and deliberation has she felt ready to “dip her toe in the water,” says Monje. For a long time she felt unworthy to pursue relationships “I was worried I would just cause pain or traumatize someone”. So she kept thinking to herself “why take on another burden? Why put more burdens onto other people?”
Monje explains how being nonbinary helped them accept infertility from treatment easier; unconventional families felt familiar to them, yet that has not provided an answer to an existential question Monje has had trouble answering internally: Would I want to form a family knowing my child may see me die young?” “So much happier with my life”. Monje’s teaching career took longer to start than expected due to sudden hormone shifts which brought on bouts of fatigue or other side effects brought about from maintenance treatments they are receiving causing fatigue or other side effects brought on by sudden hormonal shifts brought on by sudden hormonal shifts caused by maintenance treatments they receive that caused bouts of fatigue or other side effects brought on abrupt hormonal shifts caused by sudden hormonal shifts brought on by sudden hormonal shifts from treatment maintenance treatments they receive due to sudden hormonal shifts which abrupt hormonal fluctuations caused by sudden hormonal shifts which resulted from abrupt hormonal shifts brought by maintenance treatments caused fatigue brought on abrupt hormonal shifts brought about side effects from sudden hormonal shifts which caused fatigue from abrupt hormonal shifts due to sudden hormonal shifts caused by sudden hormonal shifts; nonetheless their new teaching career took longer due to fatigue from maintenance treatments they were receiving as side effects due to abrupt hormonal fluctuations from sudden hormonal shifts caused by sudden hormonal shifts caused by sudden hormonal shifts due to sudden hormonal shifts caused by abrupt hormonal shifts due to abrupt hormonal fluctuations from sudden hormonal shifts which caused fatigue from this disruptions from rapid changes induced from hormonal fluctuations from this cause by sudden hormonal shifts due sudden hormonal shifts which caused abrupt hormonal fluctuations caused from abrupt hormone changes caused abrupt hormonal shifts brought about abrupt hormonal fluctuations caused from sudden hormonal shifts caused due to launch later due delays caused due maintenance treatments causing fatigue as soon as these abrupt hormonal shifts caused abrupt hormonal fluctuations which delayed launch also; as did their teaching career launch which hindered;
Monje has recently began teaching computer skills to immigrants as an act of giving back, much as his parents took classes when first coming from Peru two decades earlier with him at eight. “My parents benefitted from programs similar to what I work in now – it seems worth my while!” says Monje. Cancer puts some things into sharp relief such as family dinners or spending time with nieces; as she states: “Cancer makes me appreciate those good little moments even more, making my life feel fuller even though on paper it means having less.”