Yana

My Squat Challenge for breast cancer research

In 2022, I walked past an NBCF stall and was handed a breast cancer risk checklist. I ticked “no” to every box. Three weeks later, I was diagnosed with stage 3C bilateral breast cancer.

Nothing prepares you for those words. But what carried me through was the knowledge that I wasn’t facing the cancer of 20 or 30 years ago. I had access to new targeted therapies, new radiation techniques, and treatments that exist only because of research. Research gave me options. It gave me hope.

I’m here today because people before me funded research that changed what was possible.

This month, I’m taking the Squat Challenge as a small way to give back. To honour the science that saved me.

If you choose to support my page, thank you. Your donation goes directly into the research that saves lives, including mine.