People Profiles

Residence: Palm Beach Gardens Occupation: Vice president of business development, Palm Beach group, Tenet Healthcare Age: 37 Diagnosed: December 2016, age 35 Treated at: Good Samaritan Medical Center, West Palm Beach The Discovery “I went in to my [gynecologist’s] office for my annual physical, and I expected to walk out with a prescription for birth control

Residence: Tamarac Occupation: Stay-at-home mother Age: 39 Diagnosed: June 2017 Treated at: Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale The Discovery “I had a botched breast reduction surgery in 2004, which left me with monstrous amounts of scar tissue. So, I’ve always had lumps and bumps. When I got pregnant with my daughter, the lumps moved all over

Residence: Fort Lauderdale Occupation: Lawyer/sports radio host, 790 The Ticket (WAXY-AM) Age: 35 Diagnosed: November 2016 Treated at: Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa The Discovery “I was sitting on the couch with my then-boyfriend (now, fiancé). He was trying to get my attention, joking around, and he poked the side of my breast by accident. He goes,

Residence: Boca Raton Occupation: Clinical sales representative, Cranial Technologies Age: 38 Diagnosed: February 2015 Treated at: Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital The Discovery “It was the week I was due to deliver my daughter, Saylor. I felt a lump that I assumed was a milk duct, so I showed it to my

Residence: Coconut Creek Occupation: Owner, UnBRCAble Boutique Age: 35 Diagnosed: January 2004, age 21, as BRCA2-positive Treated at: Broward Health Imperial Point, Fort Lauderdale The Discovery “My aunt passed away at 30 of breast cancer, so we knew we had to do checks early. In my first self-breast exam [at 18], I found a lump. The

• A week before my interview at the University of Chicago for a plastic-surgery residency, I received an email saying I needed to prepare a five-minute presentation about myself. One of my slides showed a photo of me as a child, holding a stethoscope and listening to my dad’s heart. That was the picture that

By the time he was 15, Anthony Gonzalez knew what his gifts were and how he could use them. His interests in science and the human body, combined with his strong hand-eye coordination, led him to want to become a surgeon. With this young resolve, it’s no surprise that he eventually became chief resident while

Jamie Katz knows what it feels like to be frantic over the loss of a pet. When she was a child, her beloved cat Blackjack escaped from her home near Boston. Katz rode her bike across town for days but came up empty-handed. Blackjack was gone. The feelings of helplessness that follow the realization that

Even as a youngster growing up in Houston, I knew I wanted to be a professional athlete. I didn’t know what avenue it was going take, but that was my goal. Never in a million years did I think it would be in professional wrestling. The overall confidence that I’ve always had came from playing

Jane Bark Barrellier is living proof that the world is becoming smaller—figuratively speaking, anyway. Born to an American-Lebanese mother and a Danish-German father, she lived in Paris, where she was born, for 35 years and visited her godmother in Pinecrest during the summers. Bark Barrellier’s job gave her even more exposure to world cultures. In

A stack of 100 T-shirts sits on a shelf inside Nicole Markus’ bedroom. The Miami Palmetto Senior High School student, who is starting her sophomore year, has collected colorful tees for as long as she can remember. Some have humorous slogans, and others were given as keepsakes from school clubs and summer camps. “It’s funny,

Though tutor Marcus Sousa has helped hundreds of students achieve academic success, few stand out in his mind as much as the fifth-grader he helped about a year ago. The boy was crying and his mother, close to tears herself, asked Sousa for help. “She said, ‘Marcus, I don’t know what to do with my