Meeting the Need: ABCD Mentor Monique Morris Shares Her Story of Strength, Support, and Service

May 20, 2025

Monique Morris is an ABCD volunteer Mentor whose strength, compassion, and honesty have made a difference in many lives. Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 31, she was recently featured on NPR, where she shared her story and spoke beautifully about the power of one-to-one support.

During A Night Out for ABCD: Illuminate, ABCD’s signature annual fundraising event that took place May 1 at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Monique told her powerful story, leaving a lasting impression and moving everyone in the room, who gave her a standing ovation. Her words reminded us why connection matters — and shined a light on the critical gap we fill through our free emotional support services.

Here’s Monique’s story that she shared that evening:

Good evening, I’m honored to be here to share my story with you all and to celebrate ABCD’s vital work supporting women facing breast cancer.

On June 8, 2022, I became one of those women. I was 31-years-old, and just six weeks before, my husband Brandon and I celebrated two incredibly joyful occasions, our son BJ’s first birthday and our wedding. “Sickness and health” wasn’t the part of our vows we thought we’d experience first, but it’s where we found ourselves. I had many plans and ideas for what would come next for our little family. That was all changing quickly.

A few months before my diagnosis, I noticed a lump in my right breast. At my husband’s urging, I made an appointment to have it examined after our honeymoon. I expected my doctor to agree with my assumption that it was due to breastfeeding, but she ordered my first mammogram and an ultrasound instead. At my radiology appointment, I learned there were multiple suspicious masses in my right breast and at least one lymph node that, to quote the radiologist, “did not look normal.” The nurse scheduled my biopsy appointment, and I went home and did what so many can relate to: I obsessively checked the patient portal until the report became available and gave myself a crash course in mammography results when it was. I clicked the first result for the search term “BI-RADS 5”, which I’d seen on my results, and read the words “highly suspicious for malignancy” multiple times. My heart sank.

At that point, the biopsy felt like a dreaded formality, and the days leading up to it crawled by. I worked from home the day after my biopsy in anticipation of the radiologist’s call. My mom, who had come over to watch my son while I worked, was the first person I had to deliver the news to. Having lost two siblings to illness, this was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. My heart broke looking at the two of them and considering a reality where my mom could lose another child and my son could lose his mom before he was old enough to really remember me.

Over the next couple of weeks, we learned I had Stage 2 hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. I had multiple tumors in my right breast and confirmed spread to my lymph nodes. I needed to complete 16 rounds of chemotherapy before going on to have a mastectomy, 25 rounds of radiation, reconstruction surgeries, and up to 10 years of endocrine therapy that put our plans to expand our family on hold for the foreseeable future.

To say that processing all of this – while still working full time and being a new mom and wife – was overwhelming would be an understatement, but as I began to connect with others, especially those who shared some of my same experiences, I found a lot of encouragement, inspiration, and strength to persevere through very challenging times. I wanted to be part of helping other women find that as well.

My faith and my family – many of whom are here with me tonight – have been crucial in my ability to get through this experience, and early on, God placed the word gratitude in my heart.

Over time, it became clear to me that I needed to go beyond just appreciating what I’d been blessed with and what cancer couldn’t take from me and actively express my gratitude by helping others. I wasn’t sure exactly what that would look like, but I knew I wanted and needed to help. When the opportunity to volunteer as an ABCD Mentor came up, I was unsure of how *I* could help someone in such an intimate way as one-to-one emotional support.

Then I thought about how many times in life, but especially after my diagnosis, I’d spoken to someone who said just the right thing at just the right time, or more importantly, all the times when someone just let me say what I really needed to say AND genuinely understood me. I thought about how impactful and encouraging that was for me and how grateful I was that they chose to meet my need at that moment. I decided that if there were even a chance I could provide a listening ear or a word of encouragement that helped another woman get through her difficult moment, then it would be more than worth it.

I participated in ABCD’s Mentor training program in September, and I’m honored to be able to give that support as an ABCD Mentor.

As I come up on three years since my diagnosis, I’ve learned that until you open the door and make yourself accessible, you can’t know the need or how perfect you may be to meet it, even for the moment. You’re all here tonight because you’ve made yourselves accessible in recognition of the need. Hopefully, you’ve decided you believe in ABCD’s mission and the free critical support this organization provides to women like me and those very different from me. I encourage you to meet the need so ABCD can continue this important work. Thank you.