Inspiration from a Resilient Cancer Warrior
- Former America's Got Talent contestant Nightbirde turns 31 today! In honor of her inspiring resilience amid her metastatic breast cancer battle, we've shared 10 of her most inspiring quotes.
- Metastatic breast cancer also called "stage four" breast cancer means that the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body. It most commonly spreads to the bones, liver and lungs, but it may also spread to the brain or other organs.
- A cancer battle, or any struggle for that matter, can lead to a whole host of complex emotions and it's okay to allow yourself to feel the negative ones too. Holding onto hope in the face of adversity can be a really powerful way to get through the toughest of times, and focusing on positive thinking is one way to try to do that.
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“It's my birthday, and it would mean the world to me if you'd pre-save my new song NEW YEAR'S EVE and buy it for $1. Available everywhere you can get music,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post.
And, it’s not merely her story that’s inspiring it’s also her words.
Here are 10 of our favorite Nightbirde quotes to give you all the inspiration you need for the year ahead:
- “Lots of highs and lows, but you know that's how it goes,” she sings in her original new song New Year’s Eve.
- “How rare a miracle it is to even be alive,” she wrote.
- “If we only take the miracles that taste sweet, I don't think we'll ever taste one. If we wait until we have the perfect song, I don't think we'll ever sing. Don't miss itit's now. We are in the miracle, we are in the dream,” she wrote.
- “If something so impossibly catastrophic and unimaginably awful can happen, then doesn't that also mean something impossibly beautiful and impossibly redemptive can happen?” she wrote.
- “Don't you wanna see what happens if you don't give up?” she wrote.
- “Some people will call it "blind denial" but I prefer to call it REBELLIOUS HOPE,” she wrote.
- “I'm pretty beat up but I still got dreams,” she wrote.
- “It's important that everyone knows I'm so much more than the bad things that happen to me,” she said during her America’s Got Talent audition.
- “We’re all a little lost, and it’s alright,” she sings in her original song It’s Ok.
- “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy,” she said after singing for her AGT audition.
Understanding Metastatic Breast Cancer
Metastatic breast cancer also called "stage four" breast cancer means that the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body. It most commonly spreads to the bones, liver and lungs, but it may also spread to the brain or other organs.
And while there is technically no cure for metastatic breast cancer, there are a wide variety of treatment options used to battle the disease including hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted drugs, immunotherapy and a combination of various treatments.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, an oncologist with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explained how she tries to management breast cancer when it has progressed to a later stage.
"With advanced disease, the goal of treatment is to keep you as stable as possible, slow the tumor growth and improve your quality of life," she said.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer, but there are so many breast cancer survivors and people living with the disease today. The American Cancer Society reports that there were more than 3.8 million U.S. women with a history of breast cancer alive at the start of 2019. Some of the women were cancer-free, and others still had evidence of the disease, but they also reported that more than 150,000 breast cancer survivors were living with metastatic disease, three-fourths of whom were originally diagnosed with stage I-III. And with ongoing advancements in treatments and options out there today that can dramatically reduce symptoms, there are many reasons to be hopeful.
Positivity during a Cancer Journey
Nightbirde’s uplifting messages are an inspiration to others facing cancer. But, as Nightbirde has reminded us, it's very normal to have negative feelings throughout your cancer journey and it's okay to express them too! Anger, shame, fear and anxiety are all to be expected. But doctors will tell you that people who find a way to work through the emotions and stay positive tend to have better outcomes.
"A positive attitude is really important," Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, previously told SurvivorNet. "I'm pretty good at telling what kind of patients are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life."
At SurvivorNet, we get to share many stories of positivity and resilience because there's no shortage of brave cancer warriors holding onto hope in the face of adversity.
RELATED: 6 Cancer Survivors Tell Us How They Stay Hopeful During Difficult Times
Take Danielle Ripley-Burgess for example. She's a cancer survivor who was first diagnosed with colon cancer in high school and then proceeded to beat the disease not once, but twice. Understandably so, Ripley-Burgess has had to work through a lot of complex emotions that came with her cancer journey. Even still, she's always managed to look at life with a positive attitude.
"As I've worked through the complex emotions of cancer, I've uncovered some beautiful things: Wisdom. Love. Life purpose. Priorities," she previously told SurvivorNet. "I carry a very real sense that life is short, and I'm grateful to be living it! This has made me optimistic. Optimism doesn't mean that fear, pain and division don't exist they do. Our world is full of negativity, judgment, and hate. Optimism means that I believe there's always good to be found despite the bad, and this is what my life is centered around."
She moves through life with a sense of purpose unique to someone who's been faced with the darkest of times. Happily in remission today, she's determined to, one day, leave the world better than she found it.
"We can choose to stay positive, treat others with respect and look for the light in spite of the darkness," she said. "This type of attitude and behavior will lead to the kind of legacies I believe all of us hope to leave."
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