“You have breast cancer” were not words Katie Rader ever expected to hear. With a family history of colon cancer, she was was more concerned about making sure she was having colonoscopies than mammograms, even though both were difficult to obtain during the COVID years.
It happened days after she had her first mammogram in Nov. 2022 at the age of 43.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Rader. “I was at Watson Clinic having a 3-D scan and immediately felt the lump when the machine squeezed my breast.”
A more comprehensive 4-D breast ultrasound was performed the same day and she learned of the dreaded breast cancer diagnosis, which was definitively detected in her right breast and possibly her left one too.
Driving home, she tried to process the news. “I was just crying and praying for God not to take me from my kids,” she said. “I also called my husband during the drive home and he left work and met me and I just lost it.”
The diagnosis was confirmed at 10:45 a.m. on Dec. 5 following a biopsy. With the assistance of two close friends who work at Moffitt, at 1 p.m. she was at an appointment with an oncology surgeon at Moffitt Cancer Center. An MRI showed not one but three tumors. She had stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma. Treatment would include a double mastectomy, which was performed, along with reconstruction, in Jan. 2023. She is now cancer-free.
It was at the biopsy appointment that she met a woman who was also battling cancer who encouraged her to start journaling as therapy. She began a journal in the Notes App on her phone the same day. Eventually, she started sharing her journal entries with friends and family. She soon received comments from her friends that her posts, filled with not only her daily journey but her trust in God, were encouraging to them.
“During that time my faith was growing by the minute,” said Rader. “I’d have moments when I’d open my Bible and a verse would just stand out to me and then that’s what I’d journal. As a child I had also memorized a lot of Bible verses and they’d come to my mind, comforting me and reminding me I could get through this.”
Soon, her friends were asking if they could share her journal entries with other people and encouraging her to publish a book.
“I’m a hairdresser so the book thing was far out of my league but I prayed that if God wanted me to do this he needed to drop a publisher in my lap,” she said.
Plop.
One year from the day of her diagnosis, she’s at a restaurant and ran into an old friend, who was with a woman who was promoting her new book. She handed Rader a flyer with her publisher’s contact information on it.
Rader emailed Lucie Dickenson, owner of Starlight Books, her journal, who reached out the next day.
“I normally only accept completed manuscripts but when I read her journal on the Notes App I knew it was something that needs to be out in the world,” said Dickenson. “It’s going to have a ripple effect and help so many people.”
The book, “Titty Tales,” will be released Oct. 1, with pre-sales starting in Sept, and sold everywhere books are sold. “My book is a journey of my cancer, motherhood and faith all wrapped into one,” said Rader.
For more information about Rader or “Titty Tales” visit www.starlightbooks.net or scan the QR code to link to Rader’s website.