At 14 weeks pregnant, a Florida woman was confronted with an impossible decision.Thirty-seven-year-old Alicia Harris from Tampa had just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of early breast cancer, and doctors told her that ending her pregnancy would allow treatment to begin immediately.But Harris wasn’t ready to give up on her baby. She chose a different path, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy while still carrying her baby.Alicia Harris and her daughter Journi.”The first doctor I spoke to said it was grade three cancer, and so they recommended I terminate the pregnancy,” Harris told Newsweek. “I decided for myself that I wanted to see if that was true and get other opinions to see what was right for me and my family.”Harris, already a mom of two boys, went searching and eventually found a doctor who had previously treated a pregnant woman a few months prior.After carefully weighing her options, her doctor ultimately decided to place her on the same treatment regimen he had previously used for the other patient.”Knowing that the woman ahead of me went through it, and her baby was fine, we did what was best for us,” Harris said.Undergoing cancer treatment while in her third trimester of pregnancy was far more challenging than Harris had anticipated.Alongside the physical demands of pregnancy, chemotherapy left her feeling severely unwell, with persistent nausea and vomiting that made it difficult to keep food down.She also experienced frequent nosebleeds, headaches and a series of health concerns that required close medical monitoring and repeated trips to doctors and the emergency room.The challenges intensified when she contracted COVID-19 during treatment, forcing her to temporarily pause chemotherapy while she recovered.”It was very hard on me and my family, but we got through it,” Harris said. “Thankfully, I had family members that rallied around and tried to help out as much as they could.”Going through treatment was also a lonely time for Harris. She found it challenging to find anyone going through pregnancy and chemotherapy.”Even the doctors that I spoke with… some of them didn’t even know what to say,” Harris said. “They were like, ‘Oh, pregnant with cancer? Let me get back to you.’ A lot of them just didn’t know how to deal with that.”Searching for support, she found an online community for pregnant cancer patients, where women shared experiences of undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments while expecting.The group became an important source of emotional support. Harris said connecting with others who understood the fear, uncertainty and unique challenges of cancer during pregnancy helped her feel less alone.While she always relied on her medical team for treatment decisions, the friendships and shared experiences she found through the community provided reassurance during one of the most difficult periods of her life.Years later, Harris is now an oncology nurse at the same hospital where she once received treatment, helping patients navigate the challenges she experienced firsthand.Her journey has also fueled her advocacy work.Inspired by her daughter, Journi, now 4, Harris founded Journi for Two, a nonprofit organization supporting pregnant women facing cancer diagnoses.She is also involved in the About Damn Time campaign, which focuses on an often-overlooked stage of the cancer journey: survivorship.Alicia Harris is now an oncology nurse in the same hospital where she received treatment.Harris believes much of the attention is placed on active treatment, while the long-term realities of recovery, including ongoing medications, reconstruction surgeries, emotional healing and rebuilding relationships, receive far less support.”You ring the bell, everything’s okay, you’re back to normal, but actually there’s another layer to it,” Harris said. “Survivorship is a forever thing. All of a sudden, you’re left with all of those feelings… and I just felt like everybody kind of disappeared. Thankfully, I had my daughter there.”Contact Newsweek editors on this story:Kara Dolman and Gray R. ThomasRelated ArticlesStart your unlimited Newsweek trial
