Christine Sansone was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 at the age of twenty-five. She passed away a few days ago after battling bone metastasis for eight years. She recently had leg surgery and never recovered. I met Christine a few times at the Young Survival Conference held by LBBC and the YSC.

Christine was featured in The Beautiful Eight -- An educational video for women living with metastatic disease.

She was recently quoted in the March/April issue of MAMM magazine.

"Living longer and stronger - Women with metastatic breast cancer are bringing new hope and energy to their cause." -- Christine Sansone.

Christine's story..

When I was diagnosed in March of 2000, I had Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast. I had a lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy, a partial mastectomy and lymph node dissection and then a full mastectomy because my margins were unclear. Only the sentinal node was positive. I received 4 rounds of chemo. I thought I was finished and could now start my new life. I was going to finish grad school for occupational therapy and work from there. I had no idea what I was in for.

In March of 2001, four months after I finished chemo, I was told I had metastatic breast cancer or Stage 4. It had gone to my bones. I couldn't believe it, nor could my family and friends. I had a port put in my chest for my long-term chemo regimen and a pericardial window surgery for the sac around my heart, which had filled up with fluid from the chemo. Through all of the trials and tribulations, almost a year passed when I started to make a new life for myself. As I felt better physically, I began to do volunteer work to get back into the swing of things. I then started working part time as a therapist. This made me extremely happy because I now felt like I was back in the real world again, and I could talk to my friends about other things besides cancer. I now had more things in common with other people. I started to do some speaking engagements to raise awareness to the community about breast cancer and how young women are out there getting it. Like my first reaction when I was diagnosed, people had no idea that young women can and do get this disease. It is horrible for anyone to get breast cancer, but for young women like us, it is up to us to raise awareness and educate others on the facts of breast cancer and that there's so much research that still has to be done.

I am now turning 32 in 2006, and I am still here LIVING. You can live with breast cancer. I am. Through these past six years, I have met beautiful people who are willing to help me become more educated and to fight for more awareness and research. I am also surrounded by stories of women I know, and some that I do not, that have succumbed to the disease. I don't know what my future holds, but what I do know is that I will fight to the very end and try to help myself and other women deal with breast cancer and try to eradicate it. That is why I am so glad that I found the Young Survival Coalition.