“Hope. Strength. Courage for the Future.”
That was the message printed on the t-shirts UDC’s Office of Student Life and Services gave out to students, faculty and staff this October to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month. At their Oct. 26 “UDC Goes Pink” event, there were giveaways, games, music and activities that included designing tote bags and beaded bracelets with affirming messages. The afternoon ended with a group photo of community members proudly wearing their shirts. Two days later, the Office of Human Resources’ Oct. 28 “Pink and Boo” pop-up featured more treats and additional resources. The wave of pink across campus is meant to be a visible reminder of the importance of education, regular screenings and early detection in the fight against breast cancer, especially for Black and brown women. The words on the shirts are also intended to be a hopeful reminder to anyone at UDC who has faced a breast cancer diagnosis that they are surrounded by supporters and are not alone.
For community members like Director of Communications Priscilla Lalisse-Jespersen, a two-time survivor of breast cancer, both kinds of messages are deeply personal. In May 2014, Lalisse-Jespersen was in the final stages of preparing to move back to the United States with her husband and young children after spending more than 15 years living in Paris. The day before her flight, she went in for what she expected to be a routine first screening mammogram just to check one more item off her long to-do list before leaving. She was startled when the doctor asked her to return later that afternoon for a biopsy. She was even more stunned when she called in for her results two weeks later and learned they showed what turned out to be stage 3 breast cancer.
Lalisse-Jespersen remembers that her first instinct after hanging up the phone that day was to scream. As a parent of three children ages 11, 6, and 1 at the time, the unknowns loomed impossibly large. But as a novelist and journalist, one of her next instincts was to start writing everything down as she underwent months of extensive treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital that profoundly changed her life. In 2022, Lalisse-Jespersen published “From Paris With Love: A Practical and Supportive Guide to Breast Cancer,” drawing on her own experience and her perspective as a writer, Black woman, Christian, mother and wife to offer a well of practical advice and encouragement to other women navigating a diagnosis and treatment. As she says in her note to readers: “My goal? To make the fight against breast cancer just a little bit easier.” “From Paris With Love” is now used by Johns Hopkins as a resource for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.
Today, Lalisse-Jespersen is considering adding a “part 2” to the book that would focus on her second breast cancer diagnosis in 2025. That led to another round of successful treatment, but only after extensive self-advocacy for the right testing and prompt care. According to the American Cancer Society, Black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, despite being slightly less likely than white women to develop the disease. The disparity reflects a combination of factors, including differences in access to timely, high-quality care, later-stage diagnoses and higher rates of certain aggressive forms of breast cancer. All these inequities make education, early detection, regular screenings and self-advocacy even more important for women of color, emphasizing that key takeaway for the UDC community.
But that is not the only takeaway from Breast Cancer Awareness Month or from Lalisse-Jespersen’s book. The concept of “breast cancer awareness” has a very different meaning for those who have experienced the disease firsthand. Even after treatment ends, the effects of cancer can remain, and whether a survivor was diagnosed ten days ago or ten years ago they are likely well aware that they continue navigating challenges to their health, emotional well-being and sense of security. But survivorship is also about reclaiming life beyond the diagnosis. A cancer diagnosis may change a person’s life, but it does not have to define everything that comes afterward, and this was ultimately one of the most important lessons Lalisse-Jespersen learned and strives to share.
During her 2014 treatment, Lalisse-Jespersen took deep inspiration from the late ESPN broadcaster Stuart Scott’s emotional speech at that year’s ESPY Awards, where he told the audience, “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.” She wrote in her book, “That last piece of advice in particular changed my breast cancer life and has become one of my mottoes today,” and added, “Take your life by the horns, whatever that looks like for you right now, and keep it moving. You are the author of your own story, and how you decide to live from this day forward is up to you.” This is a word of wisdom for anyone, not simply for cancer survivors. And as Lalisse-Jespersen says now, “One thing I have learned is that cancer doesn’t simply disappear from your life when you’re told you’re in remission. The experience stays with you, sometimes in ways others cannot see. But I also want women facing this disease to know that there is life beyond cancer, and it can be a full, beautiful and joyful life.”
(For more screening information, treatment guidance and resources for patient support from the American Cancer Society, visit cancer.org.)