- Welcome back everybody.
We are right in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It's a cause particularly close to my heart
and I love shining a light on women
helping women stay positive
while battling this awful disease.
Our next guest is doing just that
building an entire community
of young women supporting each other.
Let's welcome the creator
of the Too Young for This (beep) podcast.
Rosalina, give it up.
(Audience cheers) (Audience applauds)
Love the title of your podcast.
It's amazing. - Yes, thank you.
Yes. - So you are doing better now
but can you take us back to your diagnosis?
- Yes, so last year in February, I was diagnosed
with breast cancer, actually a month after
my birthday.
So I was 28 years old.
I just turned 28 and I was actually
the first in my family to have this illness.
And I didn't have anyone in my circle
that went through this.
So I was pretty much, felt like really isolated.
- Sad. - Scared.
- [Rosalina] Scared and angry.
(Rosalina laughs) - [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Rosalina] Really angry of like why this happened to me.
But I was trying to find a community online
and at that time I didn't really see one.
And so it was just a day after my mastectomy surgery
is when it just like clicked with me
and I was like, well, I should create my own community.
I should start my own podcast
to like share my story.
And for women out there who feels alone,
making sure that they don't feel isolated or alone.
- And the, - Therapeutic for you,
but also them. - Yes, absolutely.
And the other part about it is that there's a stigma
in the Latino community about talking
like the topics
of cancer or just life threatening, like health issues.
And I believe that if we talked more about these things,
we'll be more educated and,
- Lives could be saved if you, knowledge is power.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- And so that's what I wanted to do.
- [Kelly] Yeah. (Audience cheers)
Of course like telling your story, having your testimony
to help somebody else as well.
That's incredibly powerful. - Yes, yes.
- So you connected with another young woman
like going through breast cancer.
So tell us about Shauna.
- Yes, so I actually found Shauna
through a Facebook support group.
And right when we just got on Zoom
and just talked to each other,
like I felt that there was an instant connection.
So I'm really thankful to have her.
- [Kelly] I love that. - Yeah.
You connected like, - Yes.
- Spiritual in that sense, that's cool.
- Yes. - You've met Shauna
physically though, right?
- Yes. - Okay.
- So we met once. (Rosalina laughs)
- I was like 'cause you weren't always on Zoom
or podcast, but yeah. (Rosalina laughs)
- We met once, but I felt that like, you know,
we've Face Timed each other so much,
we called each other.
But meeting in person is completely different.
And we happened to be in Florida at the same time,
we had a wedding and out of our busy schedule
we just carved out an hour just to meet with each other.
And it was so great.
Like it felt like she was like a friend that I met,
that I have known for the longest time.
- Yeah. - I just knew that like
it was fate.
- Yeah, It was meant to be.
- Yeah, it was to be. - Yeah, I love that feeling.
It's overwhelming in a good way.
- Yes, yes. - Yeah.
So well you're gonna get to be together in person again
'cause she's here.
So everyone say hi to Shauna!
(crowd cheering)
(upbeat music playing)
Hi Shauna!
(crowd cheering)
- Hi!
(crowd cheering)
- Have a seat.
Oh my gosh.
So, okay, so Shauna, you say that this podcast
and friendship have helped navigate
through your diagnosis, right?
- Yes, it has.
So, I mean, I had amazing support
from my family and friends,
but having Rosalina was just
like the icing on the cake almost.
You know, we had gone through,
we started chemo the same week,
we, yeah, we went through radiation together
we had our reconstructive surgeries legit a week apart.
So we had gone through all of these things together
and you know, we were in the
trenches of breast cancer together, you know.
And it was so nice to have somebody to rely on
throughout our entire experience.
And you know, I find myself like
I use humor as a defense mechanism.
- Amen, yeah, that's me too!
- Yeah.
Like sometimes very much inappropriately.
- Me too!
- It was nice for Rosalina to kind of check me at times
and be like, you know, this really isn't funny.
Like, be a little serious. (Rosalina laughs)
And then, you know, at times where she was struggling
like I was able to bring some humor to her.
So I think, you know, we are so different
but we really have like, I don't know,
we balance each other out so well
and it shows so much in our podcast.
- And like, I can only imagine
that's a very isolating time
when even though you have support and love from your family,
no one gets it.
- Yeah. - Like, no one gets exactly
what's happening.
- Yeah, but she does. - And that's remarkable.
I know, that's what I'm saying.
It's remarkable that you found each other
because that's incredibly empowering
to have like some kind of network, some kind of buddy,
something that can really like call on you and go, I get it.
Like that's a different kind of vibe.
So I'm so happy that y'all found each other.
To you both, like, you're now in the second season
of the podcast in a new phase of your cancer journey.
So how have things changed?
- So survivorship is hard.
I mean, people think that once you complete treatment
it's like over, you can just live on with your life.
And that's not essentially it.
I have to take medication for the next five years
where I feel fatigue.
I feel tired sometimes, I have joint pains,
sometimes I don't even wanna get out of bed.
So it's
really difficult.
- What about you?
Where are you at?
- Survivorship's really hard
and I feel like nobody talks about it.
You know, every doctor's appointment, scan, and blood work
you know, after treatment is done creates
like a ton of anxiety.
It's, you know, there's just the fear of recurrence
is always there.
- The fear of every time you go back in
they might find it again.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
You know, every ache and pain, you know, is my cancer back?
So I think that that's just kind of always there
and you know, you're really never the same person again
once you've been diagnosed with cancer.
So, you know, I think it's just like really
important to give yourself some grace
and to just kind of remember that, you know,
there's no timeline for healing.
- [Kelly] Yeah, and it's different for everyone.
So the podcast hasn't just had a profound impact
on Rosalina and Shauna.
It's given support to thousands
of their listeners as well, which was the point.
And they don't know this
but one of those listeners is here today.
So everybody welcome Andrea.
Come on up Andrea.
(crowd cheering)
Come on over, you look so cute in your pink.
Come on over.
Have a seat.
So can you tell us a little bit about your diagnosis
and discovering the podcast?
- Sure, okay, so,
- [Kelly] Oh, here you go.
Wait, look, you have come to the right show.
Look at all these Kleenexes,
it's like so overly prepared. (crowd laughs)
Yep.
- So I actually had a lumpectomy a few years ago,
but at the time it wasn't cancerous, it was benign.
So they just removed the tumor,
they said nothing to worry about.
But I actually felt it come back.
And this time they said
it's probably nothing but we should remove it again.
And you know, they said, you're young,
you don't have a history of breast cancer in your family.
And I thought, okay, it's probably nothing to worry about.
When they removed it, they said it's actually, it is cancer
so you have to have a mastectomy and radiation.
And I thought, well, it's a mistake.
I mean, I don't understand.
You said it was probably nothing
and I don't have a history of breast cancer in my family
- And you're so young.
- So yeah.
And I'm just, I thought it was for older women.
I'm young, I don't understand.
So I actually, I said, I think you're actually wrong.
So I took my medical records and I went to someone else.
(Andrea laughs)
- [Kelly] That's smart though.
You should get second, third opinions, all of that, yeah.
- So I went to another doctor
and they told me the same thing.
They said you need a mastectomy and radiation.
And I went to another doc,
it took me four doctors to actually,
I just couldn't believe it.
That's how shocked I was.
And so I did have, I had a double mastectomy
with reconstruction and radiation
and
I didn't know anyone at the time
who had gone through that.
So I went on social media
and I found Too Young For This.
And I thought, oh my God, they're like me.
They're going through the same things.
They understood exactly what I was going through,
you know, and so,
it just, it felt like they were talking to me.
- Yeah. - And I don't know
if you know the impact that
that had and how
amazing it was
and how (indistinct) it was.
- [Rosalina] Thank you.
- Yeah, thank you.
(audience cheers)
But I think, - Just like passing that down.
Yep. - And I also just
wanna say thank you because it's so inspiring
also I think for not just me,
but for the other people who listen to also be advocates.
And I think how you were saying to have a conversation
and to say, hey look, you know, after my mastectomy
I also had, I said to myself, you know,
we need to talk about this,
about how it's affecting young women
and you know, to know your body and to know your risk
and to know your options.
Because I think as you've become advocates
I think we can all become advocates for ourselves.
And I think that's how you've also been really inspiring,
to be advocates for change.
- For your own body.
- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah.
Well, just like Rosalina and Shauna
Sugarbear Vitamin Care is dedicated
to the breast cancer community.
In fact, for the next year when you buy
the Sugarbear hair vitamins good cause kit
you're helping raise money for breast cancer research.
And today Sugarbear is giving $25,000 to the breasties.
- Wow, oh my god. (Audience cheers)
- More importantly though, it's so great
that you're bringing awareness especially as younger woman.
I don't think people realize the impact
that it's having on younger woman.
So, more importantly the awareness today is so important.
So thank you for being like brave enough
to get out here and talk about it.
- Thank you so much, yes. - It's a hard time.