Episode 5: A Young Breast Cancer Survivor Who Advocates for Survivorship

Hil Moss is our guest on Season 2, Episode 5 of the DiepCJourney Podcast. A young breast cancer survivor (diagnosed at 28), Hil is an active patient advocate, mentor, and writer in the cancer community, and dedicates her time to raising awareness around the importance of early detection and longitudinal survivorship care. She is also an MBA/MPH Candidate at Yale University, with a focus on entrepreneurship & innovation in cancer care. She made the choice to leverage her own tissue to reconstruct her breasts having DIEP flap breast reconstruction.

Hil shares her story from diagnosis, breast reconstruction, and through to her recovery. She shares her connection to the Breasties community and the advocacy work they share.

Our call to action is to begin doing breast self-exams at an early age. A breast self-exam for breast awareness helps you understand at an early age the changes in your breasts tissue that includes the look and feel of your breasts. Breast cancer does not discriminate, even for young women. Beginning BSE (breast self-exams) at the age of 20 is recommended especially because younger women's breasts tend to present with more dense tissue, making it difficult to see lumps on a mammogram.