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Welcome to The Breastcancer.org Podcast, the podcast that brings you the latest information on breast cancer research, treatments, side effects, and survivorship issues through expert interviews, as well as personal stories from people affected by breast cancer. Here’s your host, Breastcancer.org Senior Editor, Jamie DePolo.
Jamie DePolo: Hi, I’m Jamie DePolo, senior editor at Breastcancer.org. I’m podcasting live at the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Right now, I’m in the poster session and I’m joined by Whitney O’Connor from the Boobie Queen Company, and she has a poster here, so Whitney can you tell us what your research was about and what the poster shows?
Whitney O’Connor: Yes, for sure. So, we are trying to create a language. I’m a breast cancer survivor myself. I was diagnosed when I was 30 and so we focus on young survivorship. So, our poster is all about bridging the gap between the medical community and the mental health community.
And so we got a bunch of data from some retreats that we’ve done, we’ve done 14 retreats and so we’ve served 104 women, and out of that we have figured out that there are patterns. There are patterns that young survivors are experiencing and mental health challenges that are not being addressed. And the reason why they’re not being addressed is because we don’t know how to talk about it.
Jamie DePolo: You don’t know how to talk about it, meaning the survivor, the doctor, both?
Whitney O’Connor: Both, both. I’m a licensed professional counselor and you know I’m pretty in tune with the mental health world and I didn’t know how to talk about it, so when I was going through survivor — or I am going through survivorship, but entering in that world. And so what we have figured out is that we need a framework. We need a framework where we can all speak the same language. And so we have a phase framework where we have celebration, grief, and repair, and it is a cyclical process, not a linear process, and so it helps to empower the patient. It helps to empower the provider, so that they can treat their patient holistically, and really engage in the mental health conversation and not be afraid of it.
Because you know we go through medically induced menopause, we’re trying to have children, we’re trying to find partners, we’re trying to elevate our careers. We’re trying to do all these things and then we go through this breast cancer experience with all of the appointments, all the surgeries. I mean, I found out six weeks after I got married, so I basically created something that I needed myself. I created a retreat that we call BreastRest, where we get women from all over the country, fly them in, and provide a mental health experience where we give them space to talk about it, say things out loud that are hard to say. So, yeah, we’re super excited to be here and to be able to, like, have these wonderful mental health conversations. We’ve already had some beautiful conversations with providers that are like, yes, that sounds great. Can you give me the tools? And I’m like they’re coming.
Jamie DePolo: So, providers don’t go to the retreats right now?
Whitney O’Connor: They do not go to the retreats right now. So, our goal, with the things that we have figured out, is to use the framework, to use the tools that we’ve already created, to use the workbooks and all those things, and provide those things to the community and to the public. Because everyone should benefit from the things that we’ve figured out. And so we can’t provide everyone a retreat, but we can provide them all with tools, so that’s what we want to do.
Jamie DePolo: Whitney, thank you so much. I wish you much success and I look forward to hearing more about this.
Whitney O’Connor: Yes, thank you. Thank you for caring.
Thank you for listening to The Breastcancer.org Podcast. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts on Android, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, email us at podcast@breastcancer.org or leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website. And remember, you can find out a lot more information about breast cancer at Breastcancer.org and you can connect with thousands of people affected by breast cancer by joining our online community.
