ABOUT

She was thirty, fit, and thriving! Down 25 pounds, in her third year of teaching full time, halfway through a master’s degree program in education, enjoying summer vacay with her hubby – everything going her way. Ever diligent about her monthly self exams, that August 2016 her fingers rolled over a lump in her right breast that appeared almost overnight and threatened to change everything.

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Not if Leah Cohn had anything to do about it.

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Yeah, she’s me. I took the sour, grabbed those two lemons, and made Big Ol’ Lemonades.

I wrote the book detailing the experience I was looking for when I was diagnosed, the book I couldn’t find when I needed it most. A book by a woman in her thirties who had “grandma” cancer, wanted kids, didn’t want chemo, and had to self-advocate around every corner to make it happen. Sharing my own decision-making process and tips along the way, this is a story of hope, quality of life, and survival that is predicated on life after breast cancer and the joy that is coming.

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When I’m not surviving breast cancer, I teach at a local Orange County high school, raise my fiercely independent and chatty two-and-a-half year-old girl with my hubby and cancer caregiver, and engage with and advocate for women who are experiencing a diagnosis about decisions, options, and whatever else they wish someone would speak openly and vulnerably about. This website serves as a channel through which I hope to expand my engagement and advocacy by building up and championing a post-trauma thrivership community.

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I believe in surviving beyond cancer, planning your survival on your terms, listening to the experts, firing them when they don't hear you, and fierce care of your body and mind as the top avenues to a long and healthy, cancer-free life.