#YWMBC: Laura
Name: Laura Montgomery
Age: 32
Occupation: Stay at Home Mom to two littles and owner of a handmade children’s clothing business called Lilah Lane
Age when diagnosed with breast cancer: 30
Breast cancer type: Metastatic Breast Cancer that Metastasized to my liver. Oligometastatic De Novo.
Treatment: Two rounds of AC, 12 weekly rounds of Taxol, Herceptin and Perjeta Immunotherapies every three weeks starting with my first round of taxol. Those continue indefinitely. I had a mastectomy with expander placed in December 2019 and am currently waiting on my exchange surgery to remove the expander and place the final implant. However due to covid-19, I have no idea when that will be happening.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that has nothing to do with cancer
I was the in-stands announcer for the Hamilton Bulldogs Hockey team when they were part of the AHL. I also used to report for our local news station.
What’s your go-to pick-me-up song?
Butterflies by Dave Barnes
How did you discover your breast cancer?
I felt a lump myself while in the shower in September 2018.
What went through your head when you received your diagnosis?
By the time I got my official diagnosis I had already assumed it was cancer. From the moment I felt the lump I just knew.
What’s the craziest thing someone said to you after being diagnosed with MBC?
Aside from everyone telling me crazy things that would cure my cancer, it would probably be the person that reached out to me to tell me that their aunt has the same diagnosis as me, but that she is now dying from it.
Who is your biggest source of support throughout your experience with cancer?
My mom, sister and husband have all been the biggest supports for me during cancer treatments, appointments, and childcare. However, I have also made a lifelong friend, also with a metastatic diagnosis who just gets it. We talk all the time, and just understand each other when not many others do.
What is the most difficult part of being a young woman with MBC?
Having a terminal diagnosis at any age is no doubt hard. However, having it at the age of 30 with two young children under the age of five has been heartbreaking. Every single thought that could possibly run through your head, does. Questions like, will you see your kids start kindergarten, graduate school, get married, have babies? You see other people with a similar diagnosis who are sad about not seeing their grandchildren grow up, and that just feels like a punch in the gut because you just so desperately want to see your own babies start kindergarten.
What’s something unexpected you learned about yourself as a result of having MBC?
If you told me five years ago I would be advocating, informing and teaching others about something that was very important to me, I would never believe you. I am a non-confrontational person. I would often let things go to avoid a conflict. However, since my diagnosis in 2018, it has been my passion to inform people about metastatic breast cancer, even if it’s going to upset someone or make them feel uncomfortable.
What words of wisdom would you pass on to another young woman who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer?
This is not the end. It is scary and overwhelming right now, but that doesn’t last forever.
