Powerful Smart Choices After Diagnosis at Age 38
Author Kia Lee Shares Her Transformative Journey in Episode 47
Treatment ends, the calendar clears, and that is often when the real questions begin: Who am I now? What do I actually want my life to look like?
In this episode, I sit down with Kia Lee, a stage three breast cancer survivor, author, speaker, and patient advocate. Kia knows this terrain from both sides. She has lived it, and she now walks alongside other women finding their way through life after diagnosis.
The Shock of “Doing Everything Right”
Kia was diagnosed at 38, after doing many of the “right” things for her health. She speaks openly about that shock and about how quickly everything changes. As she puts it, “You’re not the same person the moment you get the news that you were two hours before.”
We also talk about how chronic stress, survival mode, and hypervigilance affect the body, particularly for African American women and women of color who are so often expected to stay strong and keep pushing through.
Survivorship Is Not Going Back
One of the most powerful threads of our conversation is Kia’s insistence that survivorship is not about returning to who you were before. It is about meeting who you are becoming. That includes making space for grief, the grief for the woman you were before diagnosis, which Kia describes as the hardest part and one many women don’t recognize at first.
She also offers a gentle but firm reminder for anyone who feels they’ve fallen behind: “I’m not behind; I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
Advocating for Your Own Body
Kia shares how self-advocacy shaped her treatment and recovery, from researching her options to using scalp cooling and compression boots to fighting insurance for proton radiation. Her advice to others facing that same fight is to keep appealing, do your own research, and get second opinions.
Becoming a Lighthouse
Today, Kia supports women in recognizing when they’re running on empty and in doing deeper healing work, including through a free reflection guide she created. She sees her role not as rescuer but as guide, someone who helps women ask the right questions so they can find their own way forward.
This is an honest, grounded conversation about healing, alignment, and moving forward with presence and purpose.
🎧 Listen to the full episode here or where ever you get your podcasts.
Love Letters to Our Bodies is a production of Moyo Institute, Inc., dedicated to holistic healing, wholeness, and the lived experiences of African American women.
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