Kathleen Duppler: In the Face of Metastatic Breast Cancer, Encouraging Others

— By Gina Rich

February 19, 2025

Kathleen Duppler first heard about ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis in January 2021, shortly after learning she had breast cancer. When her healthcare team referred her to ABCD, Kathleen reached out and was matched with a Mentor.

But Kathleen’s breast cancer experience was far from over. In the fall of 2022, she learned her disease had spread to her bones, resulting in a new diagnosis of Stage 4 (also called metastatic) breast cancer. Kathleen thought about contacting ABCD again, but she wasn’t sure at the time that customized support for metastatic patients existed. Ultimately, she navigated the difficult diagnosis with the help of friends and family.

A Stage 4 diagnosis has a way of shifting a person’s perspective, Kathleen has found. When it comes to everyday stressors and problems, “I am so much more tolerant,” says Kathleen, who lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two daughters, and a mischievous puppy named Einstein.

Motivated to Help Others

With treatment, Kathleen’s disease stabilized, and she wanted to give back. Over the years, she had helped regularly at her children’s schools. But after her Stage 4 diagnosis, due to side effects from her medications, “I couldn’t do as much volunteering as I wanted to, just because I didn’t always have the energy,” she says.

Kathleen realized that serving as an ABCD Mentor could be a meaningful way to help others while allowing for the flexibility she needed. In January 2024, she completed ABCD’s Mentor training, joining a small and growing group of Mentors who provide essential support to others with metastatic disease. Being a Mentor enables Kathleen to provide support to Participants in different ways, from a quick text to a longer phone call. “I still feel like I’m helping others, but it’s not a physically demanding job,” she says.

Mentoring can present other challenges, though. Holding space for Participants’ emotions is often difficult, but Kathleen has learned to set boundaries with her time. She also declines potential matches if she doesn’t feel she’s in a good place to support a Participant.

Following her Stage 4 diagnosis, both Kathleen’s mother and grandmother were diagnosed with breast cancer. Kathleen has been able to offer support by sharing her experience, while also recognizing that how cancer progresses – even within the same family – is often a mystery.

Staying Positive, Keeping Busy

During her first year as a Mentor, Kathleen was matched with eight different Participants. She recalls one Participant asking, “How do you stay in such a positive mood and not think about dying all the time?”

Reflecting on her mindset, Kathleen reasons that there’s no point in dwelling on things she can’t control. She’s followed closely by her medical team and undergoes regular scans to assess how her treatment is working. “I just don’t think about dying,” she admits. “Maybe it’s because my kids are younger.” Most days are busy with family activities, from making sure kids get to dance practice and volunteering for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop to training her puppy.

Kathleen appreciates how being a Mentor enables her to connect with others diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. She enjoys meeting and talking with other Mentors and Participants at ABCD events. In the summer of 2025, Kathleen will travel with her family to New York City, where she hopes to meet one of her Participants in person.

Because Stage 4 patients will be in treatment for the rest of their lives, the need for support is long-lasting. Kathleen encourages others with metastatic disease to consider becoming Mentors. “[ABCD’s] Match Specialists do such a good job placing people with each other,” she says, noting that the matching process takes into account not only diagnosis and treatment but also personality and life circumstances.

Although everyone in the metastatic community shares a general diagnosis, “we’re all so different,” says Kathleen. Each person has a unique experience and perspectives – and those insights could be the key to helping someone else navigate their breast cancer experience.

Kathleen was diagnosed with hormone positive, Stage 2, invasive ductal carcinoma in 2021 – and in 2022, it metastasized to her bones. She is currently taking Trodelvy ©.