“How am I going to tell my mom?”
That was the first question Nicole Seagriff asked her oncologist moments after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Nicole could barely process the information herself, much less the fact that she’d now have to share the news with her family. It didn’t seem real. She was only 26 years old and had started a nurse practitioner residency program a few months prior. Nicole took care of patients—she wasn’t supposed to be one.
“I was at work in my white coat and stethoscope when my oncologist told me I had cancer,” Nicole said.
She thought about breaking the news to her parents in that moment because cancer had already taken such a toll on their family. Her mom had had the disease and so had her mother and sister—Nicole’s grandmother and aunt. And it tended to strike early: Her mother and aunt were only in their early 40s when they were diagnosed. Sadly, Nicole’s aunt and grandmother died of their cancer, but her mom had survived thanks to early detection. Nicole’s dad, too, had survived cancer.
Given her strong family history of breast cancer, Nicole had long known she was at increased of developing the disease. Just a few months earlier, she had undergone genetic testing and learned she carried a mutation in the BRCA2 gene, which is responsible for about 25 percent of hereditary breast cancer cases. She then met with an oncologist, who ordered a baseline MRI that showed a mass in Nicole’s breast. Two mammograms and a biopsy later, the mass was confirmed to be cancer.
Thanks to Nicole’s diligence, the disease had been caught early and hadn’t spread to nearby lymph nodes or other organs. But because the risk of recurrence is so high in patients with a BCRA2 mutation, Nicole had to consider more aggressive treatment than most other women with early-stage disease. Not wanting to take any chances, she opted to get a bilateral mastectomy.
The thought of losing her both breasts at such a young age was painful. Nicole wanted to have children someday, and the ability to breastfeed them meant a lot to her.
“As part of my medical training, I had to memorize the many reasons why ‘breast is best,’” she said. “Not breastfeeding might not be a big deal to some, but to me, my breasts were organs that now no longer had a chance to function.”
Still, Nicole found reasons to feel positive.
“My surgeon turned out to be the same one who had operated on my mom 10 years earlier,” she said. “Seeing how well my mom did after her surgery was very comforting to me. I didn’t feel like I was going to die of breast cancer.”
Recovering from the mastectomy wasn’t easy, of course. But ultimately, Nicole felt blessed to have her health, and her desire to make a difference in the lives of present and future breast cancer patients grew stronger than ever.
Her aunt’s struggle with the disease—particularly the devastating fact that she lacked access to medical care because she didn’t have health insurance—inspired Nicole to focus on primary care as a nurse practitioner and to work for Community Health Center, Inc., an organization that provides healthcare to underserved communities across Connecticut.
Now, she would also be a strong advocate for breast cancer patients, particularly those who were diagnosed at younger ages. She got involved with BCRF The Pink Agenda (TPA), a nonprofit for young professionals that’s dedicated to raising both awareness of breast cancer and funds for research through BCRF. She joined the foundation’s Board of Directors and, in 2016, became TPA’s president.
“I feel like working for The Pink Agenda is part of my identity,” she said. “It played a tremendous role in my healing process, and I’m so grateful for that.”
Ideally, Nicole’s breast cancer story would have ended here. After all, her doctors had told her that by having a bilateral mastectomy, there was a less than 1 percent chance the cancer would recur. That’s why she was stunned when, in June 2020, she felt a lump in the same area where her cancer had first appeared. Tests confirmed that the lump was malignant.
“I remember sobbing to my dad, saying, ‘I don’t how to do this a second time,’” Nicole said.
Her fears were compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had taken hold in the U.S. a few months earlier. Doctors would be treating the recurrence with chemotherapy, dampening her immune system and placing her at much higher risk of contracting the virus.
“I was so scared that I would get COVID and not be able to get my chemotherapy treatments,” Nicole recalled. “At that time, there wasn’t a vaccine or even at-home testing. Everybody was petrified.”
Her parents took turns isolating so one of them was always available to take her to her treatments and help her with daily tasks.
“My whole family really sacrificed for me,” Nicole said. “My grandmother collected gloves, Lysol, and Purell for me and my parents so we wouldn’t run out.”
Following 14 rounds of chemotherapy, Nicole underwent radiation and began hormone therapy. Today, she’s cancer-free and continues to do everything in her power to make sure other families don’t experience the pain and loss of breast cancer like hers did.
As president of TPA, she sees the power of breast cancer research up close — and feels an “immense sense of gratitude” that groundbreaking advances in screening, treatment, and more helped her not just to survive but thrive.
“There’s a quote, “To whom much is given, much is expected,’” Nicole said. “And I feel like I have been given so much. Raising funds for breast cancer research is a way I can try to make things better for the future—because the only way to move things forward is through research.”
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