Amy Austin returns to The Burn for a second visit. Amy was diagnosed with Stage IV de novo breast cancer at 34 after initially being misdiagnosed with a complex benign cyst.
In this episode Amy reads her poem “In Praise of Quiet Advocacy” from the 2024 “MBC: Advocacy” issue of Wildfire Journal. Her poem is about the role of “quiet” advocacy in supporting individuals living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). April and Amy will discuss what quiet advocacy means, the importance of being seen and seeing other young breast cancer patients, and the impact of friendships when sharing an MBC diagnosis. Amy will also share how her poem came to be with the support of another MBC friend, and the writing prompts that are all around us.
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More From The Burn
Today’s storyteller reflects on receiving a breast cancer diagnosis at 28 and the lasting emotional imprint of survivorship more than a decade later. Moving between past and present, she explores the survival mindset that carried her through treatment and the gradual return of feeling after years spent simply trying to stay alive.
This conversation explores memory, identity, inner resilience, and the relationship between who we were before cancer and who we become afterward — revealing how pain and love can coexist in the same story.
Today’s storyteller reflects on her relationship with her grandmother against the backdrop of a family deeply marked by cancer. As relatives fall ill and pass away, truths are hidden and grief moves quietly through generations.
This conversation explores memory, cultural silence, substitution and survival, what it means to be mistaken for someone who is gone, and how presence itself can become an act of love. It’s a meditation on mortality — and on what it means to remain.
In this episode, today’s storyteller, Hannah Morales, shares a vivid account of the days surrounding her mastectomy and the moment she first saw her changed body in the mirror. Expecting grief and resentment, she instead discovered pride, relief, and a deeper sense of identity that extended beyond appearance.
This conversation explores body image after cancer, surgical loss, motherhood, scars as story, and what it means to define boldness, beauty, and confidence on your own terms — not society’s.
