Tag Archives: Cancer

“There’s Good in the World”: Amber’s 3-Day Story

Breasties Forever at the 2025 Susan G. Komen 3-Day in San Diego.

Amber B. first heard about the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® from an acquaintance more than 20 years ago. At the time, she didn’t know anyone personally affected by breast cancer, but something about the 3-Day drew her in. She’s been walking and recruiting new people to join her ever since.   

Today, Amber leads Breasties Forever, a small but mighty team that has raised more than $206,000 for the 3-Day.  

“For such a small team, that makes me really proud,” Amber said. 

A Family Affair 

Amber B. and her mom at a 2006 fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day in Dallas.

Amber’s 3-Day journey began close to home in Dallas. In those early years, she walked alongside her mom. Soon, her aunt joined. Then some close friends.  

“It became a family affair,” Amber said. 

 In 2017, two women she had gone to high school with joined her in San Diego. One of them is the daughter of a seven-time cancer survivor. They’re still walking together in San Diego every year. 

Team shirts for Amber B.s team at the 2017 Susan G. Komen 3-Day in San Diego.

Her aunt, now in her 70s, walked for 15 years before recently retiring from the 3-Day. 

Amber said the 3-Day experience has been life-changing and credits the Pink Bubble community for bringing her back year after year. 

“Physically, it’s a lot of work. It’s very humbling,” Amber explained. “It makes you believe there’s good in the world to know we’re all there in the Pink Bubble for the same cause and the same fight.” 

Walking Through Pain 

Amber’s commitment to the 3-Day has come with challenges. She has fibromyalgia, but trains year-round. She focuses on keeping her feet healthy and even keeps a walking pad at her desk.  

In 2016, she broke her neck in a car accident, but she still wanted to walk in the 3-Day. She was placed in a halo brace and was incapacitated for several months. While most people would have taken the year off, Amber had already reached her fundraising goal and was determined to walk her first 3-Day in San Diego.  

Amber B. wearing a neck collar after she suffered a broken neck. She attended the Susan G. Komen 3-Day a few months after her accident.

“My doctor replaced the halo with a neck collar, and I think I walked 21 miles that year with my broken neck,” Amber explained. “But I loved San Diego and I’ve been walking there ever since.”  

When Cancer Hits Close to Home 

For many years, Amber walked the 3-Day in support of others. Then cancer showed up in her team. 

Breasties Forever at the 2024 Susan G. Komen 3-Day.

 In 2024, Michelle—her close friend and teammate—was diagnosed with breast cancer just one month before the Dallas/Fort Worth event but was able to walk 20 miles with Breasties Forever. By the next year, Michelle returned as a survivor and braved the 2025 San Diego 3-Day that was hit by an unprecedented storm, joined by her husband and the team. 

“It was hard for her, but we kept going and we made it,” Amber said. “We had already been doing the 3-Day so long that when she was diagnosed, she knew she had support and that was amazing.”  

Amber and Breasties Forever at the 2025 San Diego 3-Day.

Then last month, Amber’s mom was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain tumor, which further solidified her commitment to the 3-Day. 

 “I have always felt that if we can find a cure for one cancer, we can find a cure for all,” she said. 

 3-Day Fundraising 

A big part of Amber’s 3-Day journey is her dedication to fundraising. This year alone, she has contacted 76 local businesses asking for donations and is working hard to secure corporate matches from her network of family and friends. She has already collected several items for raffles to help her team meet their goal, and to help move the needle closer to a world without breast cancer.  

“I think we will find a cure eventually, but it’s going to take money and it’s going to take dedicated people to do it,” she said. “I plan to keep walking as long as I can and I hope more people will join me.”  

The Breasties Forever at the 2023 Susan G. Komen 3-Day.

In 2022, the friend who first introduced Amber to the 3-Day decades ago reconnected with her on social media, and they walked together again in San Diego. And this year, Amber’s 25-year-old daughter Danielle will walk with Breasties Forever at the 3-Day for the first time. 

To learn more visit the3day.org. 

Statements and opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not express the views or opinions of Susan G. Komen. This information is being provided for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as medical advice. Persons with breast cancer should consult their health care provider with specific questions or concerns about their treatment.

Memory of a Mother: Mary Beth & Nicole

How would you describe your mother in just one word? If Mary Beth Nardoni had to be described in just one word, it would be kind. “She was a Special Ed teacher, and she had a heart of absolute gold. She started a Brownie troop for Special Ed students, because nobody else had the time to put it together. She got all of the uniforms donated, because most of the parents couldn’t afford them. At Christmas time, she made sure others had before we did. She would give you the shirt off her back,” said her daughter, Nicole.

It was 1998 when Mary Beth found a lump in her breast. “My mom said to me, ‘Cole, I feel something. And the crazy part is, I know it’s cancer.’” Because she didn’t have health insurance, Mary Beth couldn’t go to the doctor until several months later, where it was confirmed that her hunch was right: Mary Beth had breast cancer.

A deeply private person, Mary Beth didn’t want to concern herself with numbers, stages, or statistics. By the time she received treatment and had surgery to remove the tumor and her lymph nodes, the cancer had spread to a stage four. Yet Mary Beth refused to let her cancer get her down. “It’s just cancer, it doesn’t matter,” she would say, continually battling the disease with her head held high. Mary Beth battled for years, going in and out of remission.

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Mary Beth, throughout the years. Photos courtesy of Nicole Hercules

When Nicole was getting ready to leave for a long awaited vacation in Cancun, she heard that her mother wasn’t doing well after a procedure and considered cancelling her trip. When Mary Beth got wind of this, she quickly checked herself out of the hospital, told Nicole she was fine, and sent Nicole on her trip. As soon as Nicole was out of the country, Mary Beth checked herself back in to the hospital. She refused to let her illness affect her daughter’s vacation, later saying, “Don’t worry about me. It’s just cancer, and I didn’t want you to miss your trip.”

In March of 2004, Mary Beth fell down in a parking lot and broke her arm. She had been told she was in remission, but didn’t continue receiving scans as she didn’t have health insurance. When she broke her arm, she had bone scans and it was discovered that the cancer was back. Nicole flew to Oklahoma on April 1, and that’s when she learned her mother was dying. “On April 19 at 7:30 pm, I told the doctors to administer the morphine. On April 20, she passed away and I was there to hold her hand. I told her that I loved her. She gave me the greatest gift that day – because she was there to see me take my first breath, and I was there to see her last.”

It took Nicole a few years to heal, and she participated in her first Komen event, the Chicago Race for the Cure, in 2009. In 2010, she did her first 3-Day walk in Chicago. In 2011, she walked the 3-Day in Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, and then in 2013, Nicole’s dad passed away of lung cancer. The tragic loss of both of her parents prompted Nicole to walk all seven 3-Day events in 2014, and she was invited to speak at the Opening Ceremony about how cancer has personally affected her family.

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Nicole speaks at Opening Ceremony in a 2014 3-Day

Nicole’s sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in January, 2015. Her sister was HER2 positive, and is now in remission. Her sister will now be tested for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 gene, and then Nicole can be tested, as well. (Insurance stipulations sometimes require positive test results from an immediate family member before the expensive test is covered.) Despite still waiting for the BRCA gene test, Nicole took preventative measures. “I became a previvor with a prophylactic double mastectomy on June 1st 2015. We lost an aunt to Ovarian cancer, and with my family, it was just too much.”

“It hasn’t been easy, choosing to have them taken off. I’ve had four surgeries, and necrosis, and a bunch of other stuff, but you know what? I’d take this any day over cancer.”

When faced with unimaginable loss, Nicole chose to stay and fight. In the past eight years, she has raised over $41,000 through the 3-Day, funding dozens of life-saving treatments and ground-breaking research. “I don’t do this because I think it’s fun or cute. I don’t do this to wear a pink tutu around town. That’s not why I do what I do. I do what I do so that my children will never have to hear, ‘you have breast cancer.’”

And that’s exactly why we do what we do, Nicole; so that you, your children, our children, our aunts, our mothers, our fathers, our friends, our sisters, or our brothers never have to hear, “you have breast cancer.”

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This Mother’s Day, make the commitment to helping us end breast cancer forever. If you’re a first-time walker, use the code BYB16 by May 9th to receive a free round trip plane ticket to the 3-Day. If you last walked between 2008 and 2014, you may also be eligible for free airfare by using code SPRING16. Check your 3-Day email for details. You can also change your profile picture on your social media accounts to support moms everywhere, via Susan G. Komen. Click here to try it now.