When you work as a travel agent, life is full of journeys. Appointments often fall in between destinations, but that didn’t stop Milla Cassidy from making sure she had her annual mammogram in 2023. She was fresh off a trip to Jamaica and jetsetting to Mexico when she got a call asking her to come back in for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound.
Milla has dense breast tissue, so she is used to supplemental imaging. This time, she got a second call – it was cancer – stage II invasive lobular carcinoma. A detour she didn’t see coming.
“The C word was very scary. I couldn’t say it for a very long time. I didn’t share that with my husband or my kids for about two weeks. I thought it was a mistake.”
When Milla’s doctor scheduled her surgery, she knew it was really happening, and just as she would for them, her family rallied around her.
“My daughter said she was going to be my nurse. My son said ‘I’m going to be your personal trainer. We’re going to do exercises,’ and he would take me with my walker to walk around the kitchen table. My husband was pretty much like my manager. He managed a huge spreadsheet with doctor’s appointments, notes, medications. My oldest son was mentally taking care of me – sending me quotes, playing me music. I was really surprised and proud as a mom.”
Milla calls herself one of the lucky ones because her cancer was caught early, not often the case with lobular breast cancer. At first she was expecting a lumpectomy, but Milla’s doctor recommended a bilateral mastectomy for her diagnosis. She had three surgeries in all including reconstruction.
“During my treatment, I looked around my community and I couldn’t find someone that looked like me that was going through breast cancer and there was a disconnect. I was a little lost.”
A friend invited Milla to an event called the Ta-Ta Trot in Sunbury where she met longtime PA Breast Cancer Coalition volunteer and Northumberland County Captain Cheryl Delsite.
“I didn’t talk to her. I just cried. At that point it became real that I was a breast cancer patient.”
Milla says Cheryl was so kind and told her about “our whole community” at the PBCC. She invited Milla to the PA Breast Cancer Coalition Conference in Harrisburg and she attended for the first time in 2024.
“In the lobby there were a lot of women and a lot of them were wearing pink and I immediately felt seen. I was like ‘I think I found my people!’ They invited me to a share session and it was a circle of women. Everyone was going through their stories and I was just listening. I realized that – 1) I’m not alone, and – 2) Survivors come in all sorts of colors and shapes and ages. I was so, so happy.”
From that point on, Milla said she decided she was going to help as many women as she could. Fast forward to 2025, Milla was a Conference volunteer and workshop moderator. She also represents Union County as a PBCC County Captain. This year, she hosted a community conversation called Pink Warriors Fight Club which connects young women in her surrounding communities with the resources they need about early detection and breast cancer.
“Now it’s a journey. A journey that I was chosen for. I changed my mentality from a victim to an empowered survivor and I am going to let everyone know to get their mammograms done.”
A journey Milla never booked, but one she’s navigating with remarkable grace and hope.
