Beautiful Abigail Johnston joins us this week on In Her Lane Podcast to share about her journey with Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC), which started as a stage two diagnosis, and then she found out she had over 1000 metastases in her bones. A lawyer by trade, Abigail used some of her skills and knowledge to advocate for herself--practically making it a full time job to get the help she needed for through her cancer treatments. During that journey, Abigail realized there are so many other cancer overcomers who could use help navigating medical paperwork, insurance needs and knowing their rights as a patient. This inspired her to create a nonprofit; Connect IV Legal Services, which seeks to help connect overcomers with free legal representation. Abigail has taken her journey with cancer and transformed her gifts into a source of strength for other people, helping others find hope in places it’s hard to come by and changing one life at a time. 

Links/Products/Resources Mentioned

Compassionthatcompels.org

Compassion That Compels Facebook

Compassion That Compels Instagram

Kristiannestewart.com

www.breastcenter.com

Center for Restorative Breast Surgery Facebook

Connect IV Legal Services Website

Connect IV Legal Services Facebook

In Her Lane Podcast was funded by a grant from the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery.

Quotes

“In the process of really having a lot of the fluff stripped away, because of my diagnosis with stage four metastatic breast cancer, all the hardship and the changes that have happened—I do feel like [I have] a lot in terms of coping mechanisms.” —Abigail Johnston

“As much as I previously was focused on learning the law, now my focus is on research. My focus is on learning everything I possibly can about the biological processes that are relevant to my disease.” —Abigail Johnston

“When I was practicing law, we always used to say to our clients, ‘You bring the facts, we bring the law. We have to work together to make this possible.’ And I think that's the same in the medical field, except that patients don't always feel empowered to behave that way.” —Abigail Johnston

“What I have learned about carrying this different weight of a terminal diagnosis is that my normal coping mechanisms were not up for the job. What I would normally do to deal with hard things and I've dealt with a few hard things in my life, nothing like a terminal illness, but a few hard things. And it just wasn't enough.” —Abigail Johnston

“While I don't embrace the idea that cancer is a gift or that cancer has somehow made my life better, I think that cancer has crystallized certain things in my life. And one of those things was that I wasn't taking very good care of myself.” —Abigail Johnston

“Everything that I've been through in my life has brought me to this point, to be able to have compassion for the people who are going through something similar or just suffering.” —Abigail Johnston