Before: Fitness instructor and owner of Fresh Air Fitness, Ginger Johnson taught classes outdoors to show women how to use their everyday surroundings to improve their overall health.

Her Diagnosis: At 31 years old and 5 months pregnant, Johnson received a breast cancer diagnosis on Halloween. “I never was one to ask, ‘why me’?” she said. “It’s called ‘life.’ If it’s not one thing, it will be something else. It’s what we do with the adversity we face in life that truly defines our characters.”

Her Reinvention: Johnson founded Happy Chemo, connecting patients, survivors, and caregivers with freebies, discounts and resources provided by pre-approved local and national companies and organizations. “When we choose to look outside ourselves and serve others around us, even though we may be in a very dark place, most people we serve will return that kindness in the form of love and support,” Johnson said. “We will find that our happiness is increased and our personal burdens are lightened.”

Before: Sandy Rabourne worked in advertising for a home/garden lifestyles magazine in San Diego. “I had a wonderful, supportive husband, and had no thoughts of being diagnosed with breast cancer so young in life,” she said.

Her Diagnosis: Rabourne was only 35 when she received her breast cancer diagnosis. After chemotherapy, she lost her long red hair. "I felt robbed of my youth when I went into premature menopause from all of the medication," she said. "I began to feel like at least I was young enough to handle the medicine and had faith that my body could rebound."

Her Reinvention: She began volunteering for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation in San Diego. “Having breast cancer helped me to revisit a dream I had for my life,” she said. “I had always wanted to work for a nonprofit or a charity and make a direct difference in the lives of people.” Shortly thereafter, she was hired by the organization as their Director of Development and Community Outreach. “I was honored this year and last year to be nominated as San Diego Magazine’s Woman of the Year, but that honor should be shared with all the brave women that our organization helps and all the staff and the many volunteers who are part of the organization.”

Before: Krista Davila worked as a director of information technology. “I always felt like I spent a very long time working hard for other people – but not for myself,” she said.

Her Diagnosis: Davila spent years in high risk breast clinics, and even turned vegetarian for a few years out of concern about hormones and chicken. “My mom died of bilateral breast cancer at age 53, when I was 29,” she said. But when Davila became pregnant unexpectedly at age 38, followed by an intentional pregnancy at 40, she felt she must have been spared. “But finally, the nagging feeling that maybe I should just check on my newfound “spared-hood” for validation pushed me into an appointment that would turn out to save my life,” she said. “I wasn’t spared at all.  To quote my oncologist, ‘I’m glad you’re here, you really need to be.’”

Her Reinvention: Davila had always wanted to run her own business. “Suddenly, it seemed like it was now or never,” she said. She called on FranChoice, an agency that educates entrepreneurs on franchise ownership, to help her sort through the maze of opportunities. Earlier this year, she opened Floor Coverings International in North Raleigh. “The fact that I could do all the work to open my own business while recovering from treatment and coping with surgical menopause really has made me feel like I can do anything,” she said. “I’m still a work in progress, not knowing for sure what the future brings, and now my business is, in a sense, reconstruction itself.  I’m living in the moment, loving it, and so glad I took the leap.”

Before: Barbara Hensley, an executive at a large Minnesota company, lived on a lake with her husband and two sons. “My job was fun and challenging,” she said. “I loved going to work and truly enjoyed the people I worked with.”

Her Diagnosis: While Hensley never had breast cancer, she lost her sisters Kathy and Patsy to the disease. “When Kathy called to tell me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I was in shock,” she said. “It never occurred to me that she might die from the disease.” Six months later, her sister, Patsy, called to say she had been diagnosed with breast cancer as well. “I knew enough to be really scared,” Hensley said. “It was like a kick in the stomach.” After Patsy died, Hensley decided to undergo a preventative mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Her Reinvention: Hensley became concerned about breast cancer patients who had small children to care for and support. How did they manage, she wondered. “I knew how awful the disease was,” Hensley said. “But I had never really thought about how bad it would be not to know where the next rent payment was coming from or how to feed the children.”

As a legacy to her sisters, she quit her job and founded The Hope Chest for Breast Cancer to provide emergency assistance to under-served and financially challenged breast cancer patients, paying rent, utilities, transportation, and child care while in treatment.  They also deliver Hope Chest Meals that Heal.

To fund the emergency assistance programs, The Hope Chest has independently owned retail stores that sell upscale furniture, decorative accessories and designer woman's clothing that is all donated.  To date, they’ve provided over $1,000,000 to local breast cancer patients.  “I am still so very sad that my sisters are not here with me and their families, and I always will be,” Hensley said. “However, I truly believe they are up there saying, ‘You go girl!’ and cheering me and the Hope Chest on.”

Before: Susan Sparks spent ten years as a trial lawyer before she followed a call to become a minister, and a stand-up comedian.

Her Diagnosis: While finishing seminary school, she received her breast cancer diagnosis. “I found myself quite angry at God,” she said. “Over time, I found that anger with God was just like working through anger in any relationship. Eventually there was a slow sense of rebuilding and personal reconnection.”

Her Reinvention: In her ministry, she gives presentations to both secular and religious organization, including hospitals as well as health and wellness conferences, on humor and healing. She also wrote a spirituality book, Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor. “Laughter can be found in the most unexpected places, from the operating room to the chemo waiting area,” Sparks said. “It empowers us to transcend the pain and see beyond our circumstances, to remember who we are and what we have.” 

Before: Showgirl Alisa Savoretti left Las Vegas to return home to Florida where she founded RetroHome.com, offering fine furnishings and collectibles from deco to disco, while working full-time as an event planner.

Her Diagnosis: She found a lump in her breast in August of 2001, but didn’t see a doctor until November when her friend insisted. “I had no idea of the roller coaster that was yet to come, what it was like to be sick and uninsured.”

Her Reinvention: Because she didn’t have health insurance, she couldn’t afford to have her breasts restored. “I was single, disfigured and depressed, yet because my new business wasn’t off the ground, I had to get a job,” she said. Five months after chemo, she returned to the Las Vegas stage with a padded costume, billing herself as, “The Lop-sided Showgirl.” And her group insurance policy covered her reconstruction surgery. “It was nearly three years from the time I lost my breast until the time it was restored,” she said. But her fight caused her to found My Hope Chest, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding breast reconstruction for uninsured breast survivors. “For me, cancer came with a job and I truly believe God has chosen me to do this work,” Savoretti said.  

Before: Catherine Cohen and her husband own Premier Barter, a barter exchange that allows companies to swap products and services, rather than spending cash for them.

Her diagnosis: When Cohen found her lump, she knew it was breast cancer. “I think I shocked the heck out of the surgeon when I said, ‘Alright, fine. Now I need to live to be 100 years old,’” she said.

Her Reinvention: Cohen had always thought the software Premier Barter used to run its barter exchange was terrible. ”Before my diagnosis, I would think and complain but now I was going out and taking the bull by the horns on everything,” she said. She and her husband launched a new additional company, BCL Soft, that develops barter exchange management software called Barter21. “Since my cancer, I am less tolerant of wasting time.”