What does it actually mean to survive breast cancer as a young adult—and what happens when cancer comes back into your family in a completely different way?

In this deeply personal episode, I sit down with my mom to share our experience from both sides of a young adult cancer diagnosis. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 30s, and she was the parent navigating the fear, uncertainty, and reality of watching her child go through chemotherapy, treatment, and recovery. We talk honestly about the caregiver experience, the emotional toll of cancer, and what it takes to stay grounded when your life is turned upside down.

But Our Story Didn’t End With Survivorship.

After I finished treatment and entered life after cancer, our family was faced with another devastating diagnosis—my stepdad’s stage 4 cancer. In this episode, we open up about what it’s like to go from cancer survivor to caregiver, how we navigated advanced cancer, and the grief of losing someone you love after already fighting so hard to survive.

We Talk About:

• Surviving breast cancer in your 30s
• The reality of being a parent of a child with cancer
• The emotional and physical weight of the cancer caregiver journey
• Navigating stage 4 cancer diagnosis and end-of-life
• Anticipatory grief, loss, and coping after cancer
• The complicated truth about Cancer Survivorship

This episode is for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. The person holding it together in the parking lot after the appointment. It is for those supporting a loved one through treatment, or trying to understand what comes after.

Because surviving cancer doesn’t mean the story is over.

Meet Your Host & Guest:

• 🎙️ Bess Hagans — Host of TaTa For Now, breast cancer survivor, CEO of Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer
• 💛 Colleen Hawksworth — Bess's mother; caregiver, breast cancer survivor herself, and a woman who has walked through fire more than once

"It matters less if you say the wrong thing than if you say nothing at all."

— Bess Hagans, TaTa For Now

Support the show

🎁 Shop to Support Breast Cancer Patients

ℹ️ About "Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer"

❤️ Additional Resources & Support

When Surviving Isn’t Enough.

Breast cancer, mental Health & the unspoken reality of life after diagnosis.

Treatment ends and the world expects gratitude and “back to normal.”

But survivorship is where the silence lives. And this is the space where we tell the truth anyway.

In the debut episode of Ta Ta For Now, Bess Hagans (Stage 3 breast cancer survivor, women’s health activist and CEO of Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer) shares an unfiltered introduction to what this podcast is really here to name.

You can expect a grounded conversation about the mental health fallout, identity shifts and systemic gaps that show up when the sympathy casseroles stop coming. There's no polish. There's no pinkwashing. Just an amplification of the truths about breast cancer and the stories of those who have been through it.

This podcast is for anyone navigating breast cancer, healthcare trauma, a lack of medical advocacy, burnout, grief, anger or the confusing reality of life after diagnosis. It is also for supporters who want to understand what “healing” actually requires and what "thriving" really means.

Because surviving isn’t enough. And women deserve more than endurance.

Everything We're Covering:

• What happens after the diagnosis? After the surgery. After chemotherapy. After radiation.
• Why survivorship is where the real silence lives
• How cancer changes your relationship with time, trust and institutions
• The emotional whiplash of “treatment is over” and the pressure to move on
• Mental Health Fallout: Anxiety, grief, anger, loneliness and identity loss
• Body Changes & Disconnection: Intimacy, sexual health, fertility trauma, early menopause
• The hidden side effects of chemotherapy and hormone blockers
• The “You’re Fine” Problem: Medical gaslighting and being dismissed when you know something is wrong
• What we’ve learned listening to women navigating cancer alongside financial instability, caregiving, racism, poverty and survival
• Healthcare policy and how politics impact patient outcomes
• The pressure on women to “be strong” instead of be supported

Too often, women are praised for surviving — but not supported in healing.

Meet Bess Hagans, Host of the "Ta Ta for Now" Podcast

Stage 3 breast cancer survivor in her early 30s, women’s health activist and CEO of Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer, working daily with young women facing cancer alongside real-life barriers like financial strain, being a great mother and gaps in access to care.

Ta ta for now. We’re just getting started.

Subscribe to "Ta Ta For Now" for honest conversations about breast cancer, women’s health advocacy, healthcare inequities, motherhood after diagnosis, and building a more equitable medical system.

This podcast is for education and community support and does not replace medical advice.

Support the show

🎁 Shop to Support Breast Cancer Patients

ℹ️ About "Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer"

❤️ Additional Resources & Support