Fictional Florence - Mother with Cancer

Demographics:

Name: Fictional Florence

Age: 42

Location: Los Angeles, USA

Job: Marketing Manager

Income: $92,000/year

Family: Two kids and her husband.

Personality:

Goals: treating cancer, reducing impact on her family, reducing disruptions to routines.

Challenges: fast-paced treatment, mental health issues, feels alone.

Fictional Florence is a middle-aged mother of tween kids that lives in the Los Angeles, USA. She was diagnosed with a rare, late-stage type of cancer three months ago. Before her treatment started, she worked as a marketing manager at a medium-sized local business. She doesn’t have health issues and isn’t too old, so she wasn’t expecting the diagnosis.

As a mother with cancer, I want to reduce the impact of my diagnosis on my family so that they have a bright future ahead and aren’t in pain. I’ve tried to follow my doctor’s advice as much as possible. But I’ve had to learn too much too quickly, am anxious about helping my family, and feel like I’m facing this challenge alone.

“We were thrust into this world with all this vocabulary that we had to learn. I’d never been unhealthy before so being in a hospital and just navigating just all of the procedures and everything was really challenging to learn.”
“On the weekend we told the kids... that was the hardest conversation probably of my life.”
“I was just really glad that my kids were cared for well. And had so much support from friends who brought us meals and came to [my daughter’s] birthday party.”
“At first, I was very embarrassed when I was diagnosed with anxiety, but it’s real and it’s okay.”
“I wanted to be normal... I wanted to look normal, I wanted to be normal, I wanted to feel normal. But I wasn’t. I was sick.”
“I said to my husband: ‘I’ve never felt so alone.’ And he said: ‘But we were in a big group.’ And I said: ‘I felt so different... I felt like damaged goods.’ “
“I felt very ambandoned [when I saw pamphlets about every type of cancer except mine]”
“The clinical trial - that was such a great privilege and opportunity... I had extra tests done, I had really personalised care where people would ask me about all my side effects and how I was feeling and they really watched over me.”
“I spend probably 4, 5 hours a day mentoring patients and I absolutely love it!”

About all the new medical jargon, symptoms, and treatments she has to quickly learn about.
About how her diagnosis hurts her family
About her kids’ future and the time she has with them.
About how she can continue to meet her responsibilities.
About how she can help others avoid the pain she went through.

Went from first scan to surgery in 3 weeks.
She’s had 4 recurrences, 30 hours of surgery, and 50 chemotherapy treatments.
Tried to go back to work twice, but had to stop due to treatment.
She started to volunteer at this nonprofit focusing on her type of cancer. She’s supported over 400 patients in 9 years and spoken at research events / conferences about cancer.