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Jen's Story:

For as long as she can remember, our Founder, Jen Masket-Valenta has been waiting for the day that she gets breast cancer. Knowing she has an extensive family history of breast cancer on both sides of her family, she got genetic testing in 2017.  She found out that with her family history, she had a 36.7% chance of getting breast cancer. That's 16.7% higher than the 20% overall lifetime risk threshold that puts people with a family history of breast cancer in a high risk category in the United States. 

In March of 2022, Jen had a breast cancer scare. Going through that heartbreaking experience prompted her to have a prophylactic double mastectomy in October 2022. Once she decided it was time to start planning for surgery, she had no idea where to start. Where would she find all the information she needed to get through this? What items did she need to recovery from surgery? What questions should she ask her breast and plastic surgeons while interviewing them for the first time? What types of mastectomies and reconstruction options are there? Did she want reconstruction? How could she find other people who are going through this? The list of questions swirling in her mind were endless.

Over the next few months she planned and researched for countless hours to prep for surgery. She purchased or was gifted recovery items that became integral to her recovery. She talked to breast and plastic surgeons and slowly but surely she figured out what her journey would be. 

Now, she's on the other side and thriving. But, she knows there has to be a better way for people to get access to the information, knowledge, and recovery items they need. Thus, Breast Box Mastectomy Support was born. 

Amie's Story:

Just like Jen, Amie had been waiting for the day that she got breast cancer. That day came on December 21, 2022. Amie also had an extensive family history, so about 10 years ago she put a plan together with her doctor to have annual mammograms and MRIs alternating every 6 months to ensure that when she did get it, she would catch it early. The plan worked…her tumor was only 7mm and Grade 1/Stage 1. It was very treatable and the best possible scenario when getting a cancer diagnosis. 

Amie had a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction on January 17, 2023 that was successful with no surprises. Since the surgery was direct to implant, she will not need any additional surgery. Based on the pathology of her tumor, she did not need chemo or radiation but will need to take Tamoxifen (a daily pill) for the next 5 years. Having a plan in place and detecting her cancer early made all the difference…early detection really does save lives. 

Since her surgery was less than a month after initial diagnosis and just a week after her initial meeting with her breast surgeon, there was a lot she didn’t know she needed for recovery. She spoke to a friend that had a bilateral mastectomy 3 days before her surgery and was given a list of things she would need to aid in her recovery…and began frantically ordering items. It was during that time that she knew that she wanted to give back and support those going through similar situations, so they were empowered with information and they had the recovery items they needed. She learned of Breast Box Mastectomy Support through her oncology physical therapist and knew she needed to be a part of the organization.