Due in early June, Isabel Wise O’Gara was already preparing for her 25th summer on Southport. With her parents just down the road, she and her husband, Rob, had visions of daily activities with their newborn son, 3-year-old daughter, and extended family and friends. Those plans suddenly vanished when Isabel was unexpectedly diagnosed at 30 years old with pregnancy-associated triple-negative breast cancer during her 29th week of pregnancy. Instead of visits to see the trolls at CMBG or boating with the grandparents, Isabel’s reality morphed into two rounds of chemotherapy while still pregnant, an induced delivery at 35 weeks, chemotherapy and immunotherapy through the summer, and breast surgery in the fall, all at Yale-New Haven Hospital, near where she lives in the off-season. For the first time since in utero, there would be no summer fun in Maine.

Eleven weeks after giving birth to a healthy baby boy and still in active treatment for her PATNBC, Isabel walked at New York Swim Week for Post Swim and The Chemo Club on the weekend of July 25. She walked to raise awareness for the rising rates of pregnancy-associated breast cancer as well as the rising rates of breast cancer in the AAPI (Asian American/Pacific Islander) community.

New York Swim Week is a global swimwear and resort wear show held in NYC every summer that highlights independent, international emerging designers. Post Swim is a women-owned brand based in California that designs supportive and comfortable swimwear for women who are in every phase of the cancer journey. The founder of Post Swim, Lauren Yerkes, is a breast cancer survivor herself. The Chemo Club is a digital cancer support community and resource platform that was founded by Alexandra O’Brien after cancer caregiving for her mother.