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Stephanie Whitehead, 40, is photographed on moving day in her and her family's new home in South Yarmouth, MA. Two years ago, Stephanie was experiencing extreme hip pain and sought medical attention. Doctors couldn't find the cause of the pain and so she went to a chiropractor. When, a few weeks later, she found she couldn't get out of bed due to pain, she was transported to the hospital by ambulance and after a catscan, she learned she had stage four metastatic breast cancer. "Metastatic cancer means the cancer has already moved to other parts of my body," she explains. "I was told I had a 22% chance of making it five years". Stephanie was treated with radiation, chemotherapy and endochrine therapies to try slow further metastasis. "Dying isn't an option for me. I've always been the one that takes care of my family so I have to keep going, My children lost their father at the age of 5 and 8 so I have to be here for them," she explains. Stephanie and her now husband, DJ, were recently able to purchase the house in Yarmouth through an affordable housing program. "I had two things on my bucket list--owning our own home and going to California and both them are being accomplished this summer. I guess I need to make a new bucket list," she says, laughing. Stephanie has signed releases for her tissue and data to be used by "The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project"--a research project seeking to better understand and find therapies for this virulent form of cancer. "It may not save me but it could save someone else," she says.

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Julia Cumes
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Rise Above: Exploring the Many Faces of Breast Cancer on Cape Cod
Stephanie Whitehead, 40, is photographed on moving day in her and her family's new home in South Yarmouth, MA. Two years ago, Stephanie was experiencing extreme hip pain and sought medical attention. Doctors couldn't find the cause of the pain and so she went to a chiropractor. When, a few weeks later, she found she couldn't get out of bed due to pain, she was transported to the hospital by ambulance and after a catscan, she learned she had stage four metastatic breast cancer. "Metastatic cancer means the cancer has already moved to other parts of my body," she explains. "I was told I had a 22% chance of making it five years". Stephanie was treated with radiation, chemotherapy and endochrine therapies to try slow further metastasis. "Dying isn't an option for me. I've always been the one that takes care of my family so I have to keep going, My children lost their father at the age of 5 and 8 so I have to be here for them," she explains. Stephanie and her now husband, DJ, were recently able to purchase the house in Yarmouth through an affordable housing program. "I had two things on my bucket list--owning our own home and going to California and both them are being accomplished this summer. I guess I need to make a new bucket list," she says, laughing. Stephanie has signed releases for her tissue and data to be used by "The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project"--a research project seeking to better understand and find therapies for this virulent form of cancer. "It may not save me but it could save someone else," she says.