Introducing Our 62nd Issue!
11th Annual Metastatic Breast Cancer Issue
LOVE & INTIMACY
Vol. 11, Issue No. 5
October / November 2026
Love, it turns out, refuses to be reduced, even in the glare of metastatic cancer.
It shows up in a husband who busts through the bathroom door because he knows that's where she went to cry. In a best friend who arrives at chemotherapy with a camera. In a dating app with no checkbox for "metastatic but currently doing pretty fucking well." In a love letter written to a son not yet born, by a woman who was told she might never have one. In a grandmother's photograph that slips out of a box and finds its way home.
This issue asks what it means to be loved and to love — in a body that has been examined, scheduled, and discussed by strangers. In a marriage tested by years of treatment. In a friendship that says: I can't make the scan say something different. But I can know it with you.
Seventeen writers. Every kind of love. No tidy endings.
“My body could coexist with disease and still be a place where beauty, pleasure, and connection lived.”
Our unique storytelling and thoughtful design put us in a category of our own.
The MBC - Love & Intimacy issue is for you if...
You've carried all the realities of cancer privately because you didn't want to burden anyone with the real thing.
You've wondered whether anyone will still want you — or whether you'll still want anyone — after everything treatment has taken.
You need hope that intimacy can exist in unexpected places and people.
You've been loved by someone who showed up in ways you never thought to ask for, and didn't know how to receive it.
You live with MBC and you're tired of love being framed as something you're lucky to still have, rather than something you're actively, daily negotiating.
You've grieved the version of physical intimacy you had before — and are still figuring out what it looks like now.
You want to believe that love is not a reward for surviving; it's part of how you do it.
You love someone living with MBC and want to understand more about their experience.
Wildfire Journal is not your typical cancer magazine. Below you’ll find a sampling of real pages from within this beautiful book-ish issue.
Read The Issue Now
METASTATIC BREAST CANCER - LOVE & INTIMACY, October / November 2026 (Vol 11, No. 5)
We offer limited print runs of each of our issues. Print orders for this issue will remain open until the end of the day on Monday, October 26th. Orders will be shipped at once in mid-November.
Intimacy is not just physical or romantic—though it can be that too. It is closeness. Presence. The experience of being fully known by someone or something: a partner, a friend, a child, your own body. Living with metastatic breast cancer complicates every one of those relationships, not just the sexual one. For this theme, we asked our community how MBC has changed the way they inhabit themselves, how they have let people close, and how they want and allow themselves to be wanted.
Within this issue, you will find 17 writers on the topic of love and intimacy in the glare of MBC, representing these diverse diagnosis details:
- Diagnosis ages: 20s, 30s, and 40s
- Breast cancer types: IDC, ILC, and Inflammatory
- Metastatic recurrences and de novo diagnoses
- Receptors: ER/PR+, HER2+, TNBC, and Triple Positive
Contributors:
Guest Editor and Cover Star Wren Morrobel, Founder & Producer, Living Our Breast Lives
Cancer Doesn’t Get to Come on the First Date by Deborah “Deb” Blake-Ontiveros | The Woman Beneath the Diagnosis by Alexis Desai | Borrowing Stable by Sheila Dowd | Two Truths I Hold At Once by Alea Giles | Reflections by Cheri Henderson | The Untold Story of My Intimate Life by Heather Jose | Take the Picture by Elissa Kalver | The Beauty and Beast of Love by Teckla King-O’Connor | The Space Between Us by Gillian Lichota | The Days Between Living by Frances Malinis | The Possibility of You by Wren Morrobel | Please Keep Asking by Nina Poletti | Already Golden by Kate Rowbotham | Practically Newlywed by Margaret Strong | Blooming in My Body by Rachael Taylor | Laughing Together by Sara Vieira | Alive, Not Available by Avamarie Warden
Dimensions:
115 full-color pages printed on premium paper, book size: 4.25” x 5.5”
Discount automatically applied on orders of 11+.
METASTATIC BREAST CANCER - LOVE & INTIMACY, October / November 2026 (Vol 11, No. 5)
Intimacy is not just physical or romantic—though it can be that too. It is closeness. Presence. The experience of being fully known by someone or something: a partner, a friend, a child, your own body. Living with metastatic breast cancer complicates every one of those relationships, not just the sexual one. For this theme, we asked our community how MBC has changed the way they inhabit themselves, how they have let people close, and how they want and allow themselves to be wanted.
Within this issue, you will find 17 writers on the topic of love and intimacy in the glare of MBC, representing these diverse diagnosis details:
- Diagnosis ages: 20s, 30s, and 40s
- Breast cancer types: IDC, ILC, and Inflammatory
- Metastatic recurrences and de novo diagnoses
- Receptors: ER/PR+, HER2+, TNBC, and Triple Positive
Contributors:
Guest Editor and Cover Star: Wren Morrobel, Founder & Producer, Living Our Breast Lives
Cancer Doesn’t Get to Come on the First Date by Deborah “Deb” Blake-Ontiveros | The Woman Beneath the Diagnosis by Alexis Desai | Borrowing Stable by Sheila Dowd | Two Truths I Hold At Once by Alea Giles | Reflections by Cheri Henderson | The Untold Story of My Intimate Life by Heather Jose | Take the Picture by Elissa Kalver | The Beauty and Beast of Love by Teckla King-O’Connor | The Space Between Us by Gillian Lichota | The Days Between Living by Frances Malinis | The Possibility of You by Wren Morrobel | Please Keep Asking by Nina Poletti | Already Golden by Kate Rowbotham | Practically Newlywed by Margaret Strong | Blooming in My Body by Rachael Taylor | Laughing Together by Sara Vieira | Alive, Not Available by Avamarie Warden
Print Copies: Available for order only until October 26th, 2026.
Expected Shipping Timeline: Late November 2026.
Meet the “Love & Intimacy” Writers
The storytelling approach we take in each issue of Wildfire is deeply community-driven. Our contributors are young survivors, thrivers, and fighters, writing from inside the experience—not looking back from a comfortable distance. Each piece is curated to foster connection, validation, and a sense of belonging, ensuring that when you pick up Wildfire, you see reflections of your own fears, hopes, and transformations.
“Two truths I hold at once: I want to be wined, dined, and maybe 69’ed... And I also want you to leave me the fuck alone. Not because I don’t want love. Because I have learned the difference between being alone and being lonely.”
-
Deborah “Deb” Blake-Ontiveros
Community health worker. Diagnosed at 37. IDC-L (ductal carcinoma with lobular features), Stage IV, Triple Positive.
-
Alexis Desai
Medically Retired Educator. Diagnosed in 2023 at 37. IDC, Stage IV, ER+, PR+. Current Lines of Treatment: Letrozole, Kisqali, Lupron, Zometa.
-
Sheila Dowd
Marketing director. Diagnosed in 2012 at 39. Stage II, DCIS, ER+, PR+. Then, diagnosed in 2024 at 54. Stage IV, PIK3CA. Current Lines of Treatment: Kisqali, Exemestane, and a whole host of exciting supplements meant to force sleep.
-
Alea Giles
Diagnosed in 2019 at 40. IDC, Stage I, ER+, PR+. Diagnosed in 2024 at 45. Stage IV with metastatic malignant pleural effusion. Current Lines of Treatment: Arimidex and Lupron.
-
Cheri Henderson
Diagnosed in 2019 at 39. IDC, Stage IIIA, ER+, PR+. Diagnosed in 2021 at 41 with Stage IV, ER+, PR+, HER2-low. Current Line of Treatment: IV chemotherapy (Enhertu) every 5 weeks.
-
Heather Jose
Podcast host, speaker, advocate. Diagnosed in 1998 at 26. DCIS, Stage IV, Triple Positive. Current Line of Treatment: Faslodex since 2004.
-
Elissa Kalver
Founder and CEO of WeGotThis.org. Diagnosed in 2021 at 34. Stage IV de novo, IDC, HER2+. Current Lines of Treatment: Herceptin and Tucatinib.
-
Teckla King-O’Connor
Medically retired. Diagnosed in 2016 at 37. IDC, Stage IV, ER+, PR+. In 2024, tumor expression mutated, currently ER-, PR-, HER2-low. Sadly, Teckla passed away during the production of this issue.
-
Gillian Lichota
Marine biologist turned founder of the iRise Above Foundation. Diagnosed at 35 and 40. IDC, Stage III ER+, PR+, and then Stage IV. Current Lines of Treatment: AI and six repurposed medications to block the metabolic pathway of dormant breast cancer cells.
-
Frances Malinis
Diagnosed in 2023 at 39. IDC, Stage I, Triple Negative, BRCA2+, and then Stage IV in 2025. Current Line of Treatment: Enhertu.
-
Wren Morrobel
Retired elementary school teacher. Diagnosed in 2018 at 29. IDC, Stage IV, Triple Negative. Current Line of Treatment: Atezoluzimab immunotherapy.
-
Nina Poletti
Diagnosed in 2025 at 40. IDC, Stage IV de novo, ER+, PR+. Current Lines of Treatment: Kisqali, Letrozole, Zoladex, and Zometa.
-
Kate Rowbotham
Professor and assistant dean. Diagnosed at 47. Inflammatory, Stage IV, HER2+, BRCA2, VUS.
-
Margaret Strong
Former high school science teacher, now stay-at-home mom. Diagnosed in 2026 at 29. IDC, Stage IV, ER+. Current Lines of Treatment: Kisqali and Letrozole.
-
Rachael Taylor
Psychology, social work. Diagnosed in 2024 at 39. IDC, Stage IV de novo, Triple Positive. Current Lines of Treatment: Herceptin, Perjeta, Ibrance, Anastrozole, and Lupron.
-
Sara Vieira
Writer, trainer. Diagnosed in 2016 at 38. Stage 1, ER+, PR+. Diagnosed in 2023 at 45. Stage IV. Current Lines of Treatment: Ribociclib, Letrozole, Denosumab, and Goserrelin.
-
Àvamarie Warden
Model. Diagnosed in 2022 at 34. IDC, Stage IV, Triple Positive. Current Lines of Treatment: Perjeta, Kanjinti infusions, and Tamoxifen.
-
-
-
-
Meet Guest Editor & Cover Star
Wren Morrobel
It is an incredible honor to be the Guest Editor for Wildfire’s 11th annual Metastatic Breast Cancer issue this Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To be entrusted with helping shape a space that holds the stories, experiences, grief, resilience, and hope of people living with metastatic breast cancer is a responsibility I feel deeply. These stories deserve to be handled with care, honesty, and the understanding that there is no single way to live with MBC.
In the pages of this issue, you will find stories that are deeply personal and have the ability to reach someone who is sitting in an infusion chair, wondering what their future holds with love, heartbreak, intimacy, motherhood, and no longer recognizing who they see in the mirror.
These stories can make someone feel less alone. They can provide a roadmap, a sense of possibility, or simply the comfort of knowing that someone else understands. Metastatic breast cancer asks us to hold so many hard truths at once. Loss and gratitude. Fear and hope. Anger and acceptance. The life we imagined and the life we are still learning to build.
As you read this issue, I hope you allow these stories to meet you wherever you are. I hope you find pieces of yourself in them, but also glimpses of lives and possibilities you may not have considered yet. Because sometimes, another person’s story can become the reason you believe in your own.
Underwriter Support For This Issue Provided by:
After Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD) | AnaOno | AstraZeneca Beyond Pink | iRise Above Foundation | Living Our Breast Lives | Pink Warrior Angels | Roots & Wings Foundation | The Busted Tank | Triage Cancer
Read The Issue Now
METASTATIC BREAST CANCER - LOVE & INTIMACY, October / November 2026 (Vol 11, No. 5)
We offer limited print runs of each of our issues. Print orders for this issue will remain open until the end of the day on Monday, October 26th. Orders will be shipped at once in mid-November.
Intimacy is not just physical or romantic—though it can be that too. It is closeness. Presence. The experience of being fully known by someone or something: a partner, a friend, a child, your own body. Living with metastatic breast cancer complicates every one of those relationships, not just the sexual one. For this theme, we asked our community how MBC has changed the way they inhabit themselves, how they have let people close, and how they want and allow themselves to be wanted.
Within this issue, you will find 17 writers on the topic of love and intimacy in the glare of MBC, representing these diverse diagnosis details:
- Diagnosis ages: 20s, 30s, and 40s
- Breast cancer types: IDC, ILC, and Inflammatory
- Metastatic recurrences and de novo diagnoses
- Receptors: ER/PR+, HER2+, TNBC, and Triple Positive
Contributors:
Guest Editor and Cover Star Wren Morrobel, Founder & Producer, Living Our Breast Lives
Cancer Doesn’t Get to Come on the First Date by Deborah “Deb” Blake-Ontiveros | The Woman Beneath the Diagnosis by Alexis Desai | Borrowing Stable by Sheila Dowd | Two Truths I Hold At Once by Alea Giles | Reflections by Cheri Henderson | The Untold Story of My Intimate Life by Heather Jose | Take the Picture by Elissa Kalver | The Beauty and Beast of Love by Teckla King-O’Connor | The Space Between Us by Gillian Lichota | The Days Between Living by Frances Malinis | The Possibility of You by Wren Morrobel | Please Keep Asking by Nina Poletti | Already Golden by Kate Rowbotham | Practically Newlywed by Margaret Strong | Blooming in My Body by Rachael Taylor | Laughing Together by Sara Vieira | Alive, Not Available by Avamarie Warden
Dimensions:
115 full-color pages printed on premium paper, book size: 4.25” x 5.5”
Discount automatically applied on orders of 11+.
METASTATIC BREAST CANCER - LOVE & INTIMACY, October / November 2026 (Vol 11, No. 5)
Intimacy is not just physical or romantic—though it can be that too. It is closeness. Presence. The experience of being fully known by someone or something: a partner, a friend, a child, your own body. Living with metastatic breast cancer complicates every one of those relationships, not just the sexual one. For this theme, we asked our community how MBC has changed the way they inhabit themselves, how they have let people close, and how they want and allow themselves to be wanted.
Within this issue, you will find 17 writers on the topic of love and intimacy in the glare of MBC, representing these diverse diagnosis details:
- Diagnosis ages: 20s, 30s, and 40s
- Breast cancer types: IDC, ILC, and Inflammatory
- Metastatic recurrences and de novo diagnoses
- Receptors: ER/PR+, HER2+, TNBC, and Triple Positive
Contributors:
Guest Editor and Cover Star: Wren Morrobel, Founder & Producer, Living Our Breast Lives
Cancer Doesn’t Get to Come on the First Date by Deborah “Deb” Blake-Ontiveros | The Woman Beneath the Diagnosis by Alexis Desai | Borrowing Stable by Sheila Dowd | Two Truths I Hold At Once by Alea Giles | Reflections by Cheri Henderson | The Untold Story of My Intimate Life by Heather Jose | Take the Picture by Elissa Kalver | The Beauty and Beast of Love by Teckla King-O’Connor | The Space Between Us by Gillian Lichota | The Days Between Living by Frances Malinis | The Possibility of You by Wren Morrobel | Please Keep Asking by Nina Poletti | Already Golden by Kate Rowbotham | Practically Newlywed by Margaret Strong | Blooming in My Body by Rachael Taylor | Laughing Together by Sara Vieira | Alive, Not Available by Avamarie Warden
Print Copies: Available for order only until October 26th, 2026.
Expected Shipping Timeline: Late November 2026.
At Wildfire, we are challenging the sterile, pink-washed narratives of traditional breast cancer media.
Each issue is a beautifully designed, book-quality collection of raw, moving, and visually rich personal essays, reflecting the reality of survivorship in all its complexity. By elevating the stories of those who have been marginalized in mainstream cancer conversations, we foster connection, advocacy, and a lasting legacy of truth-telling.
Our design philosophy is artful, immersive, and editorially rich. We blend evocative photography, bold typography, and modern layout design to create a reading experience that is both literary and visually compelling. This attention to aesthetics elevates the deeply personal narratives, reinforcing that breast cancer stories deserve the same level of artistry and care as any major literary publication.
Happy reading (and writing!).
— April Stearns, Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Get This Issue Now!
Choose Your Reading Preference
-
Subscription Option 1: Print + Digital Lush, print copies arrive on your doorstep every other month, starting with the current issue. In the meantime, you get to enjoy full access to our decade of accumulated beautiful digital archives.
Subscription Option 2: Digital-Only
True instant gratification: full access to our decade of accumulated beautiful digital archives including the current issue.✨ Either subscription option offers the most value-add and provides savings over the newsstand price.
A portion of each new subscription is donated to organizations that fund research to end the deaths from metastatic breast cancer.
-
Each issue we publish is available for individual “newsstand” purchase.
Select from instant-gratification digital downloads, or order a lush print copy to be sent to your mailbox (while copies last).
