April knew at an early age that her calling was to be an oncology nurse.
Without the research, where do we go? Where do we end up? I believe, and I feel, that cancer research should continue. It has kept me here. It’s kept patients that I take care of here.
She was captivated by the gentle and loving care her aunt provided as a nurse. It is that same care April continues to provide each patient she’s seen in the over 14 years of taking care of cancer patients.
April was at the hospital when she received her cancer diagnosis in June 2022. She had just delivered her second child, and she and her husband, Leo, were waiting for the biopsy results.
Throughout her pregnancy, April felt something that at first felt like a blocked milk duct. By her 39th week, the pain felt like a sharp sting and she alerted her doctor. Approximately 24 hours after delivering a healthy baby boy, she heard that she had stage II hormone-positive breast cancer.
The diagnosis left her in shock. She and her husband had wanted to have more children, and her cancer was hormone-positive. Her oncologist shared information about a clinical trial that could offer them a chance to pause her therapy to conceive. In July 2025, three years after her diagnosis, April and Leo have been given the green light.
In April’s voice, you can hear the gratitude for cancer research – it has allowed her to be a mother, it helps the patients she cares for, and has kept her family’s hope for another child possible.