[00:00:00] Adam Walker: This episode of the Real Pink Podcast is brought to you by AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca is leading a revolution in oncology with the ambition to provide cures for cancer in every form, following the science to understand cancer and all its complexities to discover, develop, and deliver life changing medicines to patients.
Learn more at AstraZenecaUS.com.
From Susan G Komen, this is Real Pink. A podcast exploring real stories, struggles, and triumphs related to breast cancer. We’re taking the conversation from the doctor’s office to your living room.
Welcome to another powerful episode of the Komen Health Equity Revolution podcast series. Each month, we invite patients, community organizations, health care providers, researchers, and policy advocates to spark conversations about strategies and solutions that drive the health equity revolution forward for multiple populations experiencing breast health inequities.
On today’s episode, we have two special guests, Kristina Guerrero, journalist, TV host, lifestyle expert and author, along with three time Emmy award winning journalist, TV host, author, and speaker, Gaby Natale. Both are Latinas in the public eye who were diagnosed at young ages with breast cancer. We’ll talk with them about navigating their breast cancer diagnosis as a Latina, how it changed them as storytellers and what they want to share with the Latino community having gone through this experience, ladies, welcome to the show.
[00:01:38] Kristina Guerrero: Thank you so much. Adam.
[00:01:41] Adam Walker: I appreciate you both being here. I think it’s so important to have these conversations. And so just upfront, thank you for being willing to share your story because I know that’s not always the easiest thing to do.
So I’d love to start with, to have both of you share your personal experience with breast cancer and how it’s impacted your life, especially related to the Latino community. So Kristina, let’s start with you first. Can you give us your story? Tell us your background.
[00:02:09] Kristina Guerrero: Yeah. It’s interesting that you say it’s sometimes difficult to talk about.
And certainly there was a time for me where I could barely even process, but I, what I had found in this last year, is that it actually helps to talk about it. It helps
to, bring my story to the forefront a for people to hopefully learn from, but also because I’m still processing the gnarliest experience of my life. I was diagnosed, about a year and a half ago. I went in for my routine mammogram and never in a million years thinking that I had anything to worry about. It doesn’t run in my family. I’m fairly young. I’m pretty healthy. So these are all things that I just assumed that maybe one day, I might have issues with diabetes or heart disease.
That’s the kind of, those are the kind of diseases that affect the Hispanic community, affected my family. And never did I think that breast cancer would be, for me. And, was diagnosed with a very rare form of breast cancer, an angiosarcoma. A breast cancer that is not seen very often, so much so that my team of doctors just walking on this path with me because it’s so rare, and I was dumbfounded.
I was floored. I was speechless. I was, confused. I was terrified. I have two little boys, that I’m raising and I was like, I’m going to die. And, I’m so grateful for my team who, fast tracked it who said, okay, we’ve got to get this out of you, we’ve got to get this cancer out of you. It will kill you and time is of the essence.
And so I had my marching orders a very tape type a personality. What do you need me to do? Where do I go? What time do you need me to be there? I will be there and I just marched through the whole experience I was told that I would have to have a mastectomy, a unilateral mastectomy. So I lost my right breast.
And I went through six weeks of radiation for my treatment. I didn’t have to go through chemo, but I did do six weeks of radiation. And, on the other side is when I took a breath and he was like, is that, was that real? Did that just, happen? And my doctor said to me, my only job is to make sure that you are here.
As for as long as possible to watch your boys grow up and I said then what do I have to do? You tell me what I have to do and I will do so that’s my process. That’s what happened to me.
[00:05:06] Adam Walker: And Kristina, you’re a public figure what motivated you to share your diagnosis publicly and how did the community respond?
[00:05:16] Kristina Guerrero: Like Gaby I’m a journalist. It’s in my it’s in my bones and so I even though I was going through the motions and walking through molasses is how I like to, is how I like to describe it where everything is moving very quickly, but I’m just moving very slowly and everything’s hazy.
And, I was living in these two kind of different realities, but still in my bones, I’m a storyteller. And so early on, I started recording my experience, not really knowing what I was going to do with this video. It was just like these moments when I was getting my MRI or waiting in the doctor’s office where I would just talk to my phone and record what I was feeling. And I thought maybe I would just use it to process one day, but I probably know deep down that a story is a story and this was a story and, and so once I came on the other side and really could start accepting what had happened to me, I took all the video footage, gave it to my husband, who is a filmmaker.
And I said, I need you to help me tell my story. And he, he did a beautiful job on this documentary that I, a short documentary of my cancer journey. I just knew the reason I got into journalism is because I love telling stories. I love to inform people. I love to, tell people about something that they didn’t know before.
And so this was, my story. And, I wanted to bring that awareness to anybody who needed to receive it at that time.
[00:06:50] Adam Walker: So, earlier you, you made a comment that you expected to face a different type of health dilemma that’s more common to what Latinos face. So, can you talk a little bit about what unique challenges you believe the Latino community faces when it comes to breast cancer awareness and diagnosis and treatment?
[00:07:08] Kristina Guerrero: Yes. Look, my the health ailments that all of my family, most of my family has gone through from my grandparents on both sides, aunts and uncles is usually diabetes. That’s a health challenge that a lot of Latinos face don’t hear about breast cancer very often. I don’t see our faces as the faces of breast cancer very often, right?
So there is a, I think that there is a lack of understanding that this happens to us as well. I also think, and this is, this runs, this is across the board, for women in general, but I can speak also to my hen, that my people, women are caretakers in our culture. Everybody else is taken care of first.
Kids are taken care of first, the grandkids are taken care of first, the grandparents, the great grandparents, and mom is always the last one. The woman is always the last one. And it’s not martyrism, it’s just who we are, and so I don’t know that we, I’m talking to my, sister and my mom, and I’m, like, you guys have to go get your mammogram.
And they’re like, oh, yeah, one day, okay. It’s almost we don’t think it’s going to happen to us, or that’s for another, I don’t, there is a, disparity there within our people. Either we don’t think it’s going to happen to us or we are too busy taking care of everybody else to know that we need to also be taking care of.
[00:08:44] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. I love that perspective. I appreciate you sharing that. So did your role as a public figure, influence in any way your navigation of your breast cancer journey?
[00:08:56] Kristina Guerrero: I kept it very quiet for just to just begin only because I didn’t even know how to process it myself.
I was going through this, these two, I was, not only working. but I was also raising two babies, two little, two little boys, and trying to understand. So I didn’t really share it at first. And then when I did, I realized that I had a very unique platform, not only because I’m a journalist and a public figure, that I could tell the story and that I had reach, but also because I’m a Latina, That also can share my story in a way that maybe has never been seen before. So I understood very early on, even though I took some time to process it on my own. I understood very early on that my experience was meant to also influence or reach More women and that I had that unique responsibility to do that.
[00:09:47] Adam Walker: Love that. I love that. So so last question before I ask Gaby some questions. What advice would you give other latinas that are considering sharing their health journey publicly and what benefits or challenges? Would you say they should expect to experience?
[00:10:03] Kristina Guerrero: I think the key is to share our story boldly and unapologetically because the reason we don’t think maybe it’s going to happen to us is because we don’t see our faces as the face of this disease.
And so I think it is our responsibility to educate and to bring awareness, not to, just all women and everybody that we come in contact with, but specifically that Latina woman. Who looks like us, who has hair like us, who has skin color like us, so that she can be aware, Oh, this is something that I need to pay attention to.
This is something that if caught early, that if I don’t ignore, I can survive. And that’s life, literally, that is life saving information. And so I say, share your journey. Speak it boldly and speak it proudly to anybody who will listen.
[00:11:04] Adam Walker: That’s great advice. I appreciate you sharing that. so Gaby, let’s talk a little bit about your story. Can you share your breast cancer experience with us and how it’s affected your life, especially as a Latina?
[00:11:15] Gaby Natale: Absolutely. So the number one thing, if I can say anything to anyone listening today, is that early detection saves lives. It saved my mother’s life when she was diagnosed 15 years ago and I was her caregiver and I have her with me still to this day, and it saved mine when, on Valentine’s Day, I had my appointment to, to have my annual mammogram, and I was this close to canceling it because I said it’s Valentine’s Day, I can just eat chocolate and chill out. Maybe it’s not like what I want to do. But I said, you know what?
This is a day all about love. Maybe this could be an act of self love that I can make on Valentine’s day. And I’m so happy that I have that act of self love because that was what changed the trajectory and that was the mammogram. Where somebody said, something’s not working here. And that led to new analysis, new things and the diagnosis of breast cancer.
And as Kristina said, it’s a news that when you receive it, you have to make a lot of decisions. But you’re processing it at the same time. And in my case, as I am a speaker, I already have, for example, dates in my calendar to be somewhere at certain times, certain cities, delivering a message, motivational, and I was processing at the same time.
So in the beginning, many consultations that were so private and so important were done in an airport. Was asking in a virtual conversation, like what is my life expectancy? What does this, what does this analysis mean in a lobby surrounded with people? Sometimes you have those situations where you don’t know if you want to cry or you’re going to laugh because it’s so surreal, and it’s happening so fast.
But then once I got the diagnosis. And being a journalist, you have this knowledge about telling stories and breaking the news. And I think like nothing prepares you to breaking this type of news because first you have to break it to yourself when you receive the diagnosis and process it.
Then you have to make the choice of, if you can, because some people are too sick, but if you can, you have to make the choice of when and how to break it to your loved ones. In my case, the first person that knew was my husband, but then my parents live far away and I didn’t want to just break the news if I didn’t have a solid diagnosis around good news to share.
They’re not getting any younger and they don’t live close by, so for me, I wanted to wait a little bit more until I shared it with them. So there was a period where I had a double life, where I was pretending everything was fine. And, I was not sharing that I have the biopsy or that I was waiting for dates for my double lumpectomy.
So that was like a little bit of a secret agent life that I got to experience, so to speak. And then I told it to my parents and my family. And it was a huge relief in a way because carrying a secret like that takes a lot of energy. And then I think the third, breaking the news for me is breaking it publicly.
And, right now you don’t need to be a public figure to have to break it, break the news publicly. Facebook post, Instagram post is everyone’s version if you’re going public of telling the world that you are going through it or that you have been through it.
Yeah.
[00:15:00] Adam Walker: And when you did break the news publicly, what kind of response did you get?
[00:15:05] Gaby Natale: I think people should get ready for a giant wave of love.
[00:15:12] Adam Walker: That’s so encouraging. I’m glad I love the way you phrase that a wave of love. That’s a great way to phrase it. And has your personal experience with breast cancer changed your approach to advocacy and storytelling within the Latino community?
[00:15:27] Gaby Natale: I think there are many things that we can improve as Latinos when it comes to breast cancer. First, Some people in the Hispanic community are still very old school, so they don’t talk about it, or it’s a taboo to talk about it. Then the second thing is that, a lot of us, not everybody, but a lot of us grew up with, you have to go to the doctor when something’s wrong.
You have to go to the doctor when you feel wrong. We need to make a better job to instill in our community that you don’t have to be sick to go to the doctor that there are annuals that are there, and they have to be there. You have to do them. Even if there are some Valentine’s Day or whatever day they fall in and you have to be, I have the experience of my mom.
So that’s why I think I was so strategic and so disciplined with my own annuals, but that’s not everyone’s case. And then I think there are aspects of the treatment
we have to discuss more openly because in the Hispanic community we are very proud about our beauty. We’re very proud about how the way this is a community that always brags about winning the beauty pageants.
This is a community that always brags about their women. And our femininity is not tied to gender, to our breasts. Our femininity does not have to be tied to our hair. So even if you lose your breast, if you lose your hair, you don’t have to think that you’re less of a woman. And that’s a conversation that for me is very important.
It’s something that we’re starting to push with common now that I joined as an ambassador, that there’s beauty in resilience and that we can incorporate all these talks that we talk about inclusive beauty in different sizes, in different colors, in different ages. We could incorporate these women who are going through this process because they can be part of the discussion and have this beauty and resilience concept.
[00:17:32] Kristina Guerrero: Gaby, your one, two, and three were so good. I was like, yes, and yes. You were talking about my people.
[00:17:39] Adam Walker: I love it. I saw you clapping, Kristina. That’s what I like to see. That’s what I like to see. I love that you said there’s beauty in resilience. That’s such a statement that really resonates with me.
And you’re right, there really is. And Gaby, you also mentioned your mom. Now, at one point, were you also a caregiver for your mother? As I understand, she went through, diagnosis and treatment. Can you talk about supporting her and what lessons you learned along the way?
[00:18:04] Gaby Natale: Yes. So 15 years ago I got a call from my mom.
I knew she was waiting for the exams off a biopsy and she told me over the phone, Gaby, the exams came back and I could feel in her tone of voice. Something was not right. But she said, Gaby, I have carcinoma. And the fact that she couldn’t even articulate the word cancer because I hung up and I said what the hell is carcinoma?
And I googled carcinoma, and then I called my mother back and I said, Mom, but I’m googling this and it says that you have cancer. Is that what you have? Yes, I have cancer. And I remember we’re both crying at the end, at each end of the line figuring out what were the next steps. And the fact that she couldn’t even say the word, it meant volume.
So that’s why we need to be able to say the words. We need to be able to say cancer and breast cancer. And we need to know that the fact that you’re diagnosed does not, is not equivalent with death. That there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of treatment that it’s not about panicking and just, thinking that everything is finished.
That there’s a lot of, possibilities right now, especially with early detection. So I caught a plane and I was there for her lumpectomy. She didn’t have, chemo, she had radiation. So I was there throughout the journey. And, sometimes I think about what was more stressful or more difficult for me being the caregiver or the patient now that I got to experience both things. And in my, it’s in my case, I feel like the caregiver is harder because you want to do everything. You would go to the moon and back to make that person feel happy, to make that person feel satisfied or to make them not feel scared. But when you are the patient is different because, at the end of the day, it’s you, it’s your choices.
It’s your fear. It’s, of course, a different experience, but in my case, I felt like it was. harder to be the caregiver. So I have at most respect for all caregivers and for my husband who is my caregiver, she championed me.
[00:20:30] Adam Walker: I love that. I love that. And, Gaby, how have your roles as caregiver and survivor, affected your view on the importance of early detection, specifically within the Latino community?
[00:20:42] Gaby Natale: It’s everything. It’s everything. That’s why I say that I have my mom and I get to enjoy my mom because of early detection. And I am here because of early detection. And, that’s why we need to be more open to discuss all these things because it does save lives. It changes the trajectory of families that otherwise would not have family members here.
Sometimes people get scared because they say so many people are being diagnosed. Yes, there’s a lot of people being diagnosed because we have better tools because we have better tools and that’s why I stress that so much.
[00:21:21] Adam Walker: All right. So I want to go back to the beauty and resilience, which I think should definitely be a t shirt of some sort.
Like I would buy that in a heartbeat. So I’d like, I’d love for you both to answer this. So tell me about the role resilience plays when you’re facing a breast cancer diagnosis or when you’re supporting someone through it.
[00:21:38] Gaby Natale: So there’s many aspects on the beauty and resilience. First, I always say la peladita, which means the baldy.
So I call myself the baldy, which is the one that is like my alter ego who has been carrying me, during this journey. And I feel like in my 46 years of experience, that baldy has been my better bet, my best version, because that when the regular Gaby sometimes would be harsh on herself, the Baldy was loving, the Baldy took care of the family.
The Baldy knew the right timing to share the news so that it would be more digestible for them. The Baldy made sure that I was active in my professional life as well, so that when these journey transitions, I still have my business in place. The Baldy took care of, so many things. She was so much wiser.
I’m not, all of the Baldy because she was wiser than my regular self and I think that’s, beauty and resilience. And then there are moments in which you don’t control anything. You have to trust medicine, spirituality, whatever you trust in, and there are moments when you want to take action.
For me, when I learned that I had to go through chemo, I wanted to take action, so I shaved, I had my head shaved before, starting the process. My husband surprised me with the same look, he started shaving as well. so those are the moments, where you’re going to go through these, you’re going to receive a wave of love, but also there’s, you’re going to see some friends who are not up to the challenge and that’s fine.
You’re also going to have those moments and that’s real life. It happens to everybody who is going through the journey. Sometimes you’re surprised by strangers who are so thoughtful and so loving, and sometimes people that you’ve known and trusted for a long time, crickets. And I want to say it because I don’t want anyone who’s going through this to feel like they are the only ones that are going through that.
[00:23:58] Adam Walker: That’s right. Yeah. Kristina, how about you? What about the role of resilience?
[00:24:02] Kristina Guerrero: It’s so interesting because I’ve gone through a lot of adversity in my life, but nothing quite like this. And being able to not only go through it, but also going through it in, as far as I’m concerned with, strength and race and faithfulness.
I have found a part of myself that I never realized existed. People will often say to me, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Or I’m so sorry that you’re going through it. I’m so grateful. I am so grateful. I am up for it. A stronger person. I am a more compassionate person. I am a more present person than I think I ever could have been.
Had this, had I not gone through this, I always say the sky is blue or the grass is greener. There is a, an appreciation, that I’ve never experienced before until going through this and that kind of resilience makes you think, gosh, if I can get through that, I can get through anything.
[00:25:13] Gaby Natale: And Kristina, don’t you think that once you start sharing, everybody has a story, whether it is a caregiver, survivor, it’s like, we’re all part of a community that you didn’t know quite as much that was there. But once you say this happened to me, everyone else starts to share.
[00:25:34] Kristina Guerrero: I do feel like, and to your point earlier, when I did finally share my story, what I was most surprised about is the amount of support that I received.
But also the amount of people, this is people who I’ve gone through it. My mom’s gone through it. My aunt’s gone through it. My daughter is going through it. And it, does, it becomes this kind of strength in community. and support that you didn’t know you needed until.
[00:26:04] Adam Walker: Wow. That’s beautiful. On that note, one final question for each of you today.
What messages of hope empowerment each of you h that might be facing a breast cancer diagnosis either as patients or as caregivers?
[00:26:19] Kristina Guerrero: I’m going to go first because Gaby is so great, I hate following her. Lhave to follow her again. What I said before is the kind of appreciation for life on the other side of this is greater than I’ve ever known before.
And you stop sweating the small stuff, the stuff that used to bother you, the stuff that really ruined your day, all of a sudden it’s so much smaller. And like I said, the world is so much brighter afterwards. You’re just like, survived breast cancer. I survived cancer. Nothing’s going to keep me down.
[00:27:07] Adam Walker: Gaby?
[00:27:09] Gaby Natale: To me, there’s, I love art. So to me, there’s a painting and an image that I really like, and it’s from Frida Kahlo. So she went through a lot of physical pain because she had a car accident, automotive accident, and then many diseases. So she has this concept of transforming the physical pain and the pain int
bol de la Esperanza Mantente Firme, and you can see in the painting where she’s the self portrait of her in the bed of the hospital with all the scars and then her glorious self on the other side of the same painting. And the translation of that painting is Tree of Hope, Stay Strong.
And I think for all this journey, we have good news, we have bad news, we have good days, bad days. Whether we are caregivers or patients. So that would be my message. That message that I learned from Frida Kahlo and from Art, arbol de la Esperanza, mantente firme. Tree of hope, stay strong.
[00:28:21] Adam Walker: That is fantastic advice.
Kristina, Gaby, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
[00:28:28] Kristina Guerrero: My pleasure.
[00:28:29] Gaby Natale: Thank you.
[00:28:31] Adam Walker: And thank you for joining another episode of the Komen Health Equity Revolution podcast series. We’ll continue to galvanize the breast cancer community to support multiple populations experiencing breast health inequities.
To advance and achieve breast health equity for all, because ending breast cancer needs all of us. To learn more about health equity at Susan G Komen, please visit Komen.org /health equity. And if you need resources and support, please contact the Komen patient care center. at 1 877 465 6636 or email helpline at Komen.org.
This episode of The Real Pink Podcast is brought to you by AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca is leading a revolution in oncology with the ambition to provide cures for cancer in every form, following the science to understand cancer all its complexities to discover, develop, and deliver life changing medicines to patients. Learn more at AstraZenecaUS.com
Thanks for listening to Real Pink, a weekly podcast by Susan G. Komen. For more episodes, visit realpink. komen. org. And for more on breast cancer, visit komen.org. Make sure to check out @SusanGkomen on social media. I’m your host, Adam. You can find me on Twitter @AJWalker or on my blog, adamjwalker.com.