Holding Space for Yourself (with Marissa Thomas)

Our guest on today’s episode is Marissa Thomas, breast cancer survivor (stage 2 estrogen positive) and founder of For the Breast of Us, a breast cancer community for women of color.

You know, after I received my diagnosis, it took a few weeks before I texted my doctor, “wait, do I have cancer?” It was after that I started to search for online cancer forums - of any kind, to help make sense of my experience. And, let me tell you, ah - it provided so much relief. Well, up until a point. Being a woman of color is always the lens through which I experience the world and I just couldn’t find anything - anything at all, that could meet me there. I’m so glad For the Breast of Us exists now, because I for sure could have used it back then. A space, similar to this podcast, to be in community with other folks of color grappling with the intricacies of grief, support, and needing to be seen in a system that wasn’t designed to see us. Where else but on our platforms can you engage in a conversation about how lotion saves lives? You’ll have to wait for the last third of the show to get that!

P.S. There’s a story at the end where I basically admit that I”m a terrible human being. Don’t come for me. We all have our journey towards growth and enlightenment.

Highlights from our conversation:

• Figuring out whether to disclose racial microaggressions with your providers (10:25)
  
• Marissa shares about meeting Cristina, another young mother battling cancer (40:59)
  
• Navigating her cancer journey with a teenaged son (1:04:53)
  

More from this episode:

• For the Breast of Us: https://breastofus.com/
  
• For the Beast of Us - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forthebreastofus/
  
• Baddies Talk Back: The Burden of Being Strong - https://www.facebook.com/forthebreastofus/videos/baddies-talk-back-the-burden-of-being-strong/327166672043188/
  
• Vanessa Bryant’s Instagram Post on Grief: https://www.instagram.com/p/B77K8XWDY7O/
  

Follow Black Cancer at blackcancer.co and on Instagram at @_black_cancer. Learn more about creator and host Jodi-Ann Burey at jodiannburey.com.

Transcripts will be available on the website a week after the episode airs.