Eleven years after a stage 4, metastatic breast cancer diagnosis, Annie dedicates her time to advocating for research
As a comedian, finding the humor in life came naturally to Annie Bond—even during life-altering health news. At just 26 years old, she received a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis, in between working a double shift as a waitress.
“The first thing I said was, ‘Huh. Figures,’” says Bond, now 37 and an ardent cancer advocate. “And then I asked how long I’d have to take off work.”
It was a head-spinning conclusion to the prior nine months, during which multiple doctors told Annie not to worry about the lump she found in her breast. One doctor sent her for an ultrasound—which insurance denied covering. As the lump grew, Annie noticed a slight numbness in her armpit area, prompting her to seek a third doctor’s opinion. This practitioner sent an appeal to Annie’s insurer, helping her get coverage for the scan. After receiving the results, doctors recommended Annie get a biopsy, which ultimately confirmed she had breast cancer. In fact, follow-up tests indicated the cancer spread to her liver, making her official diagnosis de novo stage 4 breast cancer, which means it had already spread outside the breast and lymph nodes by diagnosis time.
“I was told, ‘Oh, you have cancer, and it’s too late,’” she recalls. “You’ve got two to five years to live, if you’re lucky.”
But Annie did not just accept that news. Just like she didn’t waver when she first felt the lump, she went into action mode. Her family’s reaction to the diagnosis left a mark: “The sadness in everyone’s eyes—as a comedian, that was my worst nightmare,” she says.
She met multiple doctors, ultimately choosing one at City of Hope in California: Dr. Waisman. The comedian in her appreciated his name (pronounced “wise-man”). Annie first underwent ovarian suppression to stop her ovaries from producing estrogen because the type of cancer she had—hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative—feeds on it. Dr. Waisman then recommended an innovative treatment called Ibrance, a CDK4/6 inhibitor that targeted her cancer based on its molecular properties, which meant she could skip chemotherapy. On the medication, her tumors shrunk so much that she was able to get the surgery she needed on her liver, effectively keeping her cancer from progressing. And he supported her freezing her eggs, giving her hope for a family down the line.
Her treatment regimen also included a lumpectomy, radiation, and an oophorectomy, or ovary removal, to help prevent recurrence. She remains on Ibrance, which BCRF researchers and others played a role in bringing to fruition, to this day.
Annie’s treatment plan serves as a critical reminder on the importance of research and raising awareness regarding stage 4 breast cancer. In fact, BCRF is the largest private funder of stage 4 breast cancer research worldwide.
“People who are dying of breast cancer are those of us with metastatic disease,” Annie says. “[But] we don’t need to be viewed as hopeless or depressing. Research is saving my life and my friends’ lives. And that’s what I’m always pushing for. We need to eliminate breast cancer death, and the only way to do that is to fund metastatic research.”
Support groups for young adults with cancer help her cope, she says—more so than ones just for breast cancer patients, which she says tend to skew older. Over the years, she has grown close to fellow metastatic patients who ultimately succumbed to the disease—which she says never gets easier.
So she channels her pain into advocacy: “I don’t think, as survivors, we get a choice,” she says.
Annie’s social media account serves as a way for her to interact with fellow thrivers. It’s where she shares her experience as a young person with metastatic breast cancer, and she also speaks nationally at conferences and events, like last year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference. She jokes that upon returning home from any of these gatherings, she gets “a hangover just from being understood.”
Despite a weighty diagnosis, Annie practically oozes light, and finds energy in helping others. “It’s really incredible to me now, how even though I had all these horrible things happen in the initial part, they drove me into learning how to be an advocate,” she says. “I quickly realized, the system has missed me. It’s set up to miss me, and I could have died if I hadn’t fought so hard to just be diagnosed.”
Having a humorous approach helps make her messages stick.
“I love finding the silly thing,” she says, “because if I can make you laugh, then you’re comfortable. And then you’ll listen to me when I tell you the important thing.”
Annie is currently in what she’s calling her Eat, Pray, Love era of self-discovery and planning a trip to New Zealand, something she plans to share with her social media followers and those in her life.
“My story is not unique,” she says. “The fact that I’m now able to provide the representation that I was so desperate for when I was first diagnosed, especially being young and metastatic, is everything to me.”
