The Burn

We all want to know where we belong, where our people are: where are the ones who understand us and accept us completely? Since her diagnosis at 34 and in the 20+ years she’s lived with metastatic breast cancer, Laurie Ratliff has navigated many communities within breast cancer, searching for others like herself. At last she found her place in the so-called pink sisterhood.  When she found he...

Today, Jasmine Souers is here to read a piece she wrote for Wildfire Magazine’s “Social” issue. We are going to hear about finding one’s place in the aftermath of being diagnosed young, when no one else you know has experienced what you have. How do you find others like you? Jasmine found her people at a breast cancer conference one weekend in Jacksonville, Florida. And from there began the work o...

April wants to tell you a story from her own breast cancer survivorship. It’s a story that will shed light on why she focuses so much energy on the younger breast cancer community with her work with both Wildfire Magazine, her writing workshops, and this podcast. As always, she'll tie this together with a writing prompt at the end to help you use writing to heal your own story. Today, April shares...

When Meghan Koziel was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was dating and knew she wanted a family someday. She was diagnosed at 26 with stage II, estrogen and progesterone positive breast cancer. Like many women diagnosed in their childbearing years, Meghan underwent fertility preserving measures. There are few heartaches like the one of holding space in your heart for a child that hasn’t yet, or c...

Kira Hodgson was diagnosed at 31 with Stage III, estrogen and progesterone positive breast cancer.  Kira writes about what happens when you are literally the only one in your friend group that has had to deal with something as serious as cancer.  Kira came face to face with what this new reality looked like one day at Dolores Park in San Francisco.  She asks, can we still be friends...

Erin Weiss was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) following her very first mammogram at 42.  She’s a mom and a psychotherapist and she’s been living with breast cancer since August 2019. Erin’s story takes us right to the day she received this devastating diagnosis, and shows us what it’s like to not only bear that weight on a very real, very day-to-day level, but also how to shift...

Kristen Carbone was young when her mother was diagnosed with the early-stage breast cancer that would eventually metastasize to her organs. At 31, in a step that allowed Kristen a measure of control, a step in healing her grief for her mother, she had a preventative bilateral mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer herself. In the process of this surgery, Kristen learned that her...

Sara Olsher is intimately aware of how hard -- but also how necessary and ultimately rewarding -- talking to small kids about adult challenges affecting them can be. Sara believes facing mountains like a cancer diagnosis gives us a chance to show our kids how to handle the hard stuff head-on, with grace. Today, Sara is here to read a piece she wrote for Wildfire Magazine’s 2020 Changemaker issue,...

When Katie Murray was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was surprised to discover that old traumas she thought she had dealt with were reawakened within her. She turned to writing to ground herself - quite literally on the gurney going into and emerging from surgery - and make sense of all she'd been through, prior to cancer, and then during her cancer treatment. Katie is reading for us today a st...

Introducing The Burn, your weekly dose of transformative storytelling from the writers behind Wildfire Magazine. We are the ones "too young for breast cancer," but facing a life after diagnosis nonetheless. Hosted by the founder and editor-in-chief, April Stearns. April's belief is that telling your story can be the difference between a difficult cancer experience being traumatic and a difficult c...