A Survivor's Story: Jennifer Johnson

  • Family Life: She has a husband, Matt; her son, Parker, 7; and daughter, Emma, 4
  • Her Source of Support: Her husband, parents and her fellow authors of "Nordie's at Noon" helped her deal with her disease.
  • Life After Breast Cancer: "I appreciate each day and do things that I couldn't do before, such as speaking publicly and publishing a book that makes a difference in people's lives."
  • Message for Women: Breast cancer can happen to young women. Early detection is key — and do breast self-exams.
  • Nonstop Advocate: She's an active participant in six different breast cancer organizations.
  • Honored for Her Work: Elizabeth Edwards presented her with the Natalie Davis Spingarn Writer's Award at the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship Rays of Hope Awards Gala in Washington, D.C.
  • Nominated to be a Lifetime TV breast cancer hero by: Zeta Tau Alpha
When Jennifer Johnson was planning the biggest event of her life, the birth of her first child, she got the biggest shock of her life — she had breast cancer. Only 27 years old and five months pregnant, Johnson found a lump while performing a breast self-exam. After a visit to her obstetrician, an ultrasound and a biopsy, her fears came true. "Since I was pregnant I was hoping my doctor would tell me not to worry, that the lump was related to pregnancy, but instead she took it seriously," says Johnson, who had no family history of the disease. "I was almost in my third trimester and wound up with a mastectomy and four rounds of chemotherapy. It was an aggressive tumor, so my oncologist thought we had to move forward right away. At that time, there were only about 40 cases in the national registry of women who were treated with breast cancer while pregnant, and all the babies were born healthy."

Her baby boy, Parker, now seven, was born the day after she completed her treatment. "He was five weeks early and we had a swarm of doctors around us, but we were both fine," says Johnson, who has been cancer-free ever since.

Although the ordeal was behind her, Johnson wanted to meet with women who shared similar experiences. At a breast cancer survivor luncheon, she ran into Jana Peters, who had attended the same high school. "Jana had been diagnosed at 27, and invited me to join her and Patti Balwanz, who had been diagnosed at 24, for a monthly support luncheon at Nordstrom's Café in Overland Park, Kansas," says Johnson, who gave birth to a daughter in 2003. "About six months later, Kim Carlos, diagnosed at age 30, joined our group. We called ourselves ‘The Nordie Girls.'"

They all agreed that there wasn't enough information for younger women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, so together they wrote "Nordie's at Noon: The Personal Stories of Four Women Too Young for Breast Cancer," published by Da Capo Press.

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The feedback has been very rewarding. Survivors and family members have said that learning about the women's journey has been inspirational and helpful. And college girls have written them to say that they have started doing breast self-exams.

Sadly, both Jena and Patti have passed away. "This is the bad part of this disease — it does take women away from us," says Johnson.

But Johnson's mission to educate young women continues. She speaks to college girls on the importance of taking control of their own health. When she was earning her degree at Baker University, her sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, adopted Susan G. Komen for the Cure and breast cancer awareness as their philanthropy, which is how she learned to do a breast self-exam. "I want to get the message out to young women that breast cancer can happen to them and that they should know their bodies," says Johnson, who is also counselor with the Pregnant With Cancer Network.

"I want them to know that I found the lump myself — and it saved my life."