Lindsay Menard: Helping Other Young Moms Feel Less Alone

— By Megan Brown, ABCD Marketing Manager

July 30, 2026

As a pediatric critical care pharmacist at Children’s Wisconsin, Lindsay Menard loves caring for young patients. At home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, she and her husband are raising five children while filling their days with hiking, sports, and time outdoors. When life gets busy, Lindsay enjoys one of her favorite hobbies: baking.

“It’s always been something that makes me happy or relieves stress,” she says.

When it comes to her career and her family, helping others has always been part of who Lindsay is. But in 2024, she found herself on the other side, becoming the one who needed support.

Being Diagnosed as a Young Mom

Months after giving birth to her fifth child, Lindsay discovered a lump while breastfeeding. At first, she assumed it was related to nursing. But after weeks passed and it didn’t go away, she made an appointment with her doctor.

“I think deep down, I knew it wasn’t related to breastfeeding,” she recalls. Lindsay was 35 at the time. “I thought, ‘There’s no way I have breast cancer, right?’ I didn’t realize how many young people get breast cancer, that it’s not just something older people get.”

But after a mammogram, ultrasound, and biopsy, Lindsay was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.

“My world was turned upside down in a moment,” she says. “We went from play dates to learning who oncologists were, planning chemotherapy, and wondering, ‘How will treatment make me feel?'”

Beyond that, Lindsay and her husband had built their lives in Wisconsin while both of their families remained in Pennsylvania.

“It was quite overwhelming,” she says. “I had phone calls to make and a lot to figure out.”

Parenting During Treatment

While chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation brought their own challenges, Lindsay says one of the hardest parts of breast cancer was continuing to be a mom.

“We still had diapers to change and school drop off. We were trying to keep routines as normal as we could for the kids while also taking care of myself and carrying the weight of what was happening.”

Trying to balance everything was difficult, especially on days when treatment left Lindsay physically and emotionally exhausted. “I was putting on a smiling face for my kids so that they weren’t super scared. But I was also allowing them to see the tears and telling them that mommy is scared too, that these are normal feelings.”

Like so many parents diagnosed with cancer, she also felt the weight of guilt.

“I would think, ‘What milestones am I missing and would my youngest remember me if the worst happened?” With her youngest son, she stopped nursing to go through treatment and admits that “felt like a failure.” There were also times when she didn’t have the strength to hold him and feed him his bottle, which left her wondering if bonding with him would be the same as it was with her four other children.

The loneliness of navigating motherhood during treatment led Lindsay to later realize how meaningful it would have been to talk with another mom who had experienced breast cancer.

Discovering ABCD’s Unique Support

While Lindsay found support through online communities during treatment, it wasn’t until after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation that she learned about ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis.

She attended an event hosted by a group called Breast Cancer Chronicles where she met ABCD Mentor and Match Specialist Megan Stier and one of Megan’s Participants. Listening to them talk about their relationship stopped Lindsay in her tracks.

“I was blown away by the connection they had,” Lindsay says.

In that moment, everything clicked. “I wish I had found out about ABCD earlier than I did,” she says. “I wish I would’ve had this, but now I want to be this for other people.'”

Learning about ABCD also transformed the way Lindsay thought about her own breast cancer.

“I wanted something positive to come from my suffering,” she says. “If I could make one person’s path a little easier or make them feel less alone, then something good came out of all of this.”

Looking back, Lindsay realized that while her family and friends loved her deeply, there were moments that only another person with a similar lived experience could truly understand.

“Sometimes you don’t want advice,” she explains. “You want somebody to say, ‘I’ve been there, I understand, and what you’re feeling is normal.'”

Healing Through Helping Others

After she discovered ABCD, Lindsay completed New Mentor Training in January 2026. As an ABCD Mentor, she is now the source of support she once wished she’d had.

Through ABCD’s personalized matching process, Lindsay has been paired with four Participants whose experiences closely mirror her own, from young mothers balancing treatment with raising children to people facing a breast cancer diagnosis at a young age. Their shared experiences help create an immediate sense of openness and trust.

“They’ll ask, ‘How did you tell your kids?’ or ‘How did you get through chemo with little kids?’ or ‘How did you decide about surgery?'” she says. “Things you won’t know unless you’ve lived it.”

Rather than offering perfect answers, Lindsay offers understanding. Sometimes that means sharing practical advice. Other times, it simply means listening without judgment.

Although Lindsay became an ABCD Mentor to support others, she never expected how much the experience would give back to her. “It fills my cup.”

Today, Lindsay continues to find fulfillment in her job, raising her five children, and pursuing new challenges, including training for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Endurance Walk in San Diego later this year.

But she’s particularly proud of her role as an ABCD Mentor and hopes every person diagnosed with breast cancer knows about ABCD.

“ABCD Mentors are here to make people feel less alone,” she says. “We’re here to help them through the good and the bad.”

In November 2024 at the age of 35, Lindsay Menard was diagnosed with Stage 2 ER- PR- HER2+ invasive ductal carcinoma. Her treatment included a bilateral mastectomy with implants, chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy.