MBC webinar series with Stephanie Walker and Christine Hodgdon

The experience of living with MBC changes every aspect of life and finding purpose while living with terminal cancer can be daunting.  Stephanie Walker and Christine Hodgdon presented during the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium about those people in the MBC Community who are moving mountains and changing the lived experience. We asked them to share with the SBC Community their findings so that each of you can learn more about opportunities to give back.

Stephanie Walker

Living with MBC de novo since July 2015, Stephanie is a retired registered nurse with almost 40 years of experience, which includes both pediatric and adult critical care as well as emergency department experience in hospitals ranging in size from critical access all the way to Level 1 trauma centers. Her last 14 years in nursing were spent in Hospice/End of life care. She is married and has adult children and grandchildren and lives with her husband John and rescue dog Rex in eastern North Carolina

She now volunteers with many breast cancer organizations after realizing the scope of MBC in 2018. She serves as an independent advocate with the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance (MBCA) and as the project lead of the BECOME (Black Experience of Clinical Trials and Opportunities for Meaningful Engagement) initiative. She was instrumental in the planning and participation in Black Wo(men) Speak Symposium held in conjunction with SABCS 2022.

She is also a Hear My Voice participant with Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) and a helpline volunteer. She is a Project Lead graduate of 2022. She is also the co-chair of the working group focusing on removing barriers to the standard of care and quality of life.

Stephanie isn’t defined by cancer and wants others to be their own light and to shine brightly. She will answer any question  — even the hard ones regarding her own mental health.

Christine Hogdon

Christine Hodgdon was a conservation biologist before her metastatic breast cancer (MBC) diagnosis in April 2015. Her advocacy career began when she launched TheStormRiders.org, an educational resource for MBC patients that includes a searchable clinical trial database. She later co-founded GRASP - Guiding Researchers & Advocates to Scientific Partnerships which empowers patients, clinicians, and researchers to exchange ideas and learn from each other.  She spearheads the MBC Alliance-sponsored Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis (BCBM) Initiative: Marina Kaplan Project with the goal to address the unmet research needs of breast cancer patients living with central nervous system (CNS) metastasis and was a founding committee member of MBCBrainMets.org, a resource hub for breast cancer patients living with brain metastasis. She also collaborates with leadership at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center to innovate the INSPIRE (Influencing Science through Patient-Informed Research & Education) Advocacy Program. Her advocacy work is inspired and driven by the loss of many friends to MBC.