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For more than twenty years, Tara Warner has stood at the bedside of people facing cancer.

As an oncology nurse, she’s walked thousands of patients through diagnosis, treatment, fear, and hope — always reminding them that the mental battle is at least fifty percent of the fight.

But everything shifted when Tara crossed the line from caregiver to patient… when she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.

In that moment, she saw what the system doesn’t have time to hold — the emotional fallout, the identity loss, the quiet unraveling that happens when life splits in two. Bodies are treated. Diseases are managed. But the mind and spirit are often left to carry the weight alone.

What followed wasn’t just illness — it was awakening.

In her Story Crafting piece, Becoming, Tara shares a life shaped by eruption and rebuilding — storms, loss, and the moment she made a powerful decision:
“I will not rebuild what broke me.”

Not the patterns.
Not the silence.
Not the version of life that required her to disappear to survive.

This is a story about choosing a new blueprint.
About becoming truer instead of tougher.
About honoring the mind and spirit with the same urgency we give the body.

This is Tara’s rise.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com

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Once upon a time, in a quiet land of shifting skies and whispering winds, lived a girl named Denise.
In her village, children didn’t build houses from wood or stone — they built them from beliefs.

Denise learned early how to build.
Be small.
Be silent.
Keep the peace.
Don’t shine too brightly.

So she built carefully. Brick by brick. Approval by approval.
A house that looked strong on the outside — but never quite felt like home.

She grew, succeeded, achieved… and then one day, a storm arrived.
A breast cancer diagnosis that shook the foundation and asked the questions she could no longer avoid:
Am I living the life I want?
And who am I, really?

In the rubble, Denise heard her own voice for the first time — quiet, steady, true — whispering,
“There’s another way.”

This is the story of rebuilding.
Of choosing alignment over applause.
Of learning that worth is not earned — it’s remembered.

Welcome to Still I Rise —
where storms become awakenings,
healing becomes a choice,
and coming home to yourself is the bravest thing you can do.

Welcome to my guest, Denise Whittaker.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com

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Today on Still I Rise, you’re going to meet a woman who describes herself through the image of a firefly—small, steady, and lit from within, flickering even when everything around her feels dark.

Our guest, Dawn Freret, was stepping into a new chapter: rebuilding after a painful divorce, raising her boys, and finding love again—ready to turn 50 and see it as the beginning of the second half of her story. But then a routine mammogram became a biopsy… and in February 2025, Dawn was diagnosed with Stage 2 HER2-positive breast cancer.

Before treatment could begin, her oncologist ordered a standard echocardiogram—just to make sure her heart could handle the drugs. What it revealed stopped everything: an ejection fraction of only 20 percent. Dawn felt fine. She was active. No symptoms. And yet she was in heart failure.

In an instant, she was carrying two diagnoses—breast cancer and congestive heart failure—and her cancer treatment paused before it ever started. For six long months, she had to wait as her heart became the priority, learning a new kind of bravery: trusting her doctors, trusting timing, and allowing people to hold some of the weight.

And along the way, Dawn learned to look for what she calls “glimmers”—tiny sparks of joy, gratitude, and peace that still appear in dark seasons.

This is Dawn’s story entitled "Dancing through the Darknesss". It's a story of resilience, vulnerability, and hope—of not just surviving the darkness… but learning to light it up and dance through it.

Support the show

Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com