Berlin Woman With Terminal Cancer Shares Her Story

BERLIN, CT — A young Berlin resident is making her struggle with stage 4 incurable metastatic breast cancer public, in the hopes of spreading awareness of the disease and the dream that a cure may one day be found.

Larissa Podermanski, 31, who with her husband Martin has lived in Berlin since Jan. 2015, has for several months been posting updated information and messages of inspiration on a web page entitled, "Metastatically Speaking."

On the site's home page, Larissa gives a background account of events leading up to her diagnosis with breast cancer.

"In 2015, my life was starting to come together!" she wrote. "My boyfriend and I moved into our first house, later that year we got engaged at my favorite artist's (Mariah Carey) Christmas show, and in 2015 I quit my job to build a non-profit to help individuals with intellectual disabilities become included in their communities."

At the time, she said "the only thing I was struggling with was the reality I was turning 30 on Jan. 19, 2016."

In February, just six months after she and Martin founded Community Navigators, Larissa felt a lump in her left breast, underwent a biopsy, and received the dreaded news about cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy but continued to experience pain, and a subsequent diagnosis indicated she was suffering from incurable stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

When cancer metastasizes, it has spread beyond the part of the body where it originated. In the case of breast cancer, receiving a stage 4 diagnosis may mean the cancer has reached organs outside of the breasts, such as bones, lungs, liver, or even the brain. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate after diagnosis for women and men with stage 4 breast cancer is 22 percent.

"After I heard the news, my fiancé asked what I wanted to do," she wrote. "I said, 'All I want to do is marry you.' He said let's get married next week. My family and friends rallied to organize a small dream wedding in just six days!"

On their honeymoon, Larissa fractured her collarbone and learned cancer had destroyed that bone, as well as a hip and liver.

"I started off scared to turn 30; now I hope to see 40," she wrote.

Carey's voice and words continue to be an inspiration to Larissa.

"Her voice has the power to lift me up in the darkest times," she wrote. "Her song "You Can't Take That Away" has always helped me remind myself that even when life tries to bring me down, no one (not even cancer) can take the light inside me away. When I get reminded that my cancer is incurable, or sad my long hair is gone, I think of that light. I might not beat breast cancer in the end, but I sure can live brightly while battling it!"

Since February, Larissa has periodically written blog entries on the site, covering topics ranging from chemotherapy and medications to finding her biological family to Carey's dedication of the song "Hero" to her at a concert in Seattle in September.

Though she readily admits in her blogs that she knows she will die ("medically I’m grouped into the terminally ill classification because there is not a cure"), Larissa remains upbeat in continuing to convey her message to others.

"I strive to spread awareness that woman and men with metastatic breast cancer need a cure! And that metastatic breast cancer can affect young women like myself."

Photo courtesy of Larissa Podermanski
Video credit: Grillucho via YouTube