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Bess Hagans

@bess_ever

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Women’s Health Activist
@thrivingbeyondbreastcancer @shopthriving
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I wish more Ohioans knew these numbers. Ohio has been under Republican control for decades, and today Republicans hold the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. And in the 2025 U.S. News Best States rankings, Ohio was 38th overall, including #34 in health care, #39 in the economy, #41 in higher education, #41 in the natural environment, #30 in infrastructure and 30 in education. But for me, these are not just numbers on a chart. It’s this. It’s Frank helping me through chemotherapy. It’s the people who kept us alive when cancer turned our entire lives upside down. It’s the nurses, doctors, pharmacists, researchers, social workers and countless people who made survival possible. I’ve spent the last five years learning that among all other things on that list, health care isn’t an abstract political issue. It is infrastructure for human life. And when you’ve had to fight to survive, you start paying very close attention to whether the place you call home is building a system that actually takes care of its people. I love Ohio. That’s exactly why I want better for it. We should be able to love where we live and still demand more from the people who govern it. taken in Columbus, Ohio by @bess_ever
27
13 days ago
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I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about what it actually costs to give a fuck. Not reposting. Not rage scrolling. Not having an opinion. Actually paying attention. Learning how things work. Getting boots on the ground. Having the hard conversations. Showing up when it would be much easier to stay home. And I’m tired…Especially after surviving cancer and everything that goes with it. This is about the exhaustion of caring deeply about people in a country that increasingly asks ordinary people to become activists, researchers, organizers and content creators on top of everything else they’re already carrying. I don’t want to stop caring. I just want us to be honest about what caring costs. by @bess_ever
3
21 days ago
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Thank you so much to everyone who made it out for The Sandlot movie night in support of @thrivingbeyondbreastcancer. Special thanks to @thirdcultureworks for sharing their space with us, @theafterschoolshop for pre-movie entertainment, @shapecleveland for equipment support, and Kate’s 74 year old father with setup. 😮‍💨 Each @shopthriving contribution, hotdog, Cracker Jack box, and Great Hambino cocktail purchased went towards shipping a chemo kit for those in need.🌭⚾️📦 We hope it was a night to remember “for-ev-er…” taken in Hingetown by @bess_ever
4
24 days ago
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Tomorrow, my miracle girl starts kindergarten. There are so many things I could say about this moment, but the truth is, I’m mostly just sitting here in awe of her. She is the greatest love of my life. My biggest pride. The little person who changed everything simply by arriving and somehow, in the blink of an eye, she is ready to walk into a world that is bigger than the one I have built around her. I am so proud of who she is. Of her wild heart, her curious mind, her tenderness, her humor, her perfectly Margot way of moving through the world. And if I’m being honest, I’m heartbroken, too. Because motherhood is this strange, beautiful exercise in learning to let go of the very things you would do anything to hold onto. So tomorrow, I’ll kiss her goodbye, try not to cry, and watch my baby walk toward the rest of her life. My miracle girl. My greatest gift. My forever girl. Go be you, Margot. The world is so damn lucky to have you. 🤍 by @bess_ever
11
a month ago
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I haven’t posted much here lately. Not because I haven’t had anything to say (you all know that lol) but because, honestly, I’ve been busy living my life. And, in a lot of ways, walking the walk. This summer has been full of family, hard things, good things, figuring things out, and continuing to advocate for the things I care so very much about. Last night, I had the incredible opportunity to open for @sherrod here in Columbus. I was asked to be the keynote speaker at his rally, and getting to stand on that stage and share my story was one of the highlights of my advocacy work. Not because of the stage, but because of what it represented. When I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at 32, I was suddenly catapulted into a world I never asked to be part of. 16 rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, losing both of my ovaries, 25 rounds of radiation, years of treatment and then somehow figuring out how to turn all of that into something meaningful. That’s what brought me to advocacy. Our Queen, Dolly Parton, once said, “If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” I’ve spent a lot of time in the rain the last decade of my life. And I think I’m finally realizing that the rainbow isn’t necessarily the part where everything becomes easy. Sometimes it’s the part where you realize you have a voice and you decide to use it. So maybe I haven’t been showing up here as much, but I promise, I’ve been showing up. And last night felt like a pretty beautiful reminder of why. ❤️ taken in The Stack by Cameron Mitchell Premier Events by @bess_ever
18
a month ago
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Having a voice has gotten me in trouble more times than I can count ~AND~ it has also built a community, grown a family, shifted policy conversations, and put a microphone in front of women who needed to know they weren’t alone. The same voice, both things. There have been so many times in life that I’ve been told I was too loud, too emotional, too honest, or simply, too inconvenient. What I know now is those were never criticisms, they were actually a description of exactly why it works! Today, I had the privilege of sitting face to face with members of the Ohio House, people with the power to act, and having real conversations in rooms that do not always make space for voices like ours. To be recognized alongside people I hugely respect for using my voice feels so meaningful. Turns out, the very thing people have previously tried to edit out of me and others was never the liability they made it out to be. ✨It was actually always the point! ✨ What an incredible day! Soooo much more to come!! taken in Ohio Statehouse by @bess_ever
21
4 months ago
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Some stories begin in a hospital room, some in a courtroom, but ours began with paperwork, months of trainings and contracts, and a love that didn’t wait for permission. We’ve spent the better part of the last several years surviving things that split our lives cleanly into before and after. Illness, loss, moving across the country, twice. The kind of years that harden some people and hollow out others. We came through them differently than we entered. And somewhere in all of it, we made room for someone we haven’t met yet but already speak about like they belong to us, because they do. Adoption asks for a particular kind of faith. The kind that asks you to love without proof, to trust timing that can’t explain itself, to keep opening your heart after life has already asked too much of it. We know that kind of faith. We’ve been practicing it for years. Somewhere, another chapter of our family is already unfolding. And after everything it took to get here, we know enough not to mistake waiting for emptiness. Thank you, @byhannahspencer, for capturing this moment for us.❤️ by @bess_ever
58
4 months ago
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Mother’s Day inside the cancer community carries a kind of tenderness that’s hard to explain. Some mothers are in remission. Some are newly diagnosed. Some are parenting through treatment right now with ports in their chests and fear sitting quietly at the edge of every ordinary moment. Some are grieving mothers they lost. Some children are grieving mothers they’re still supposed to have. Cancer changes the texture of motherhood. You start memorizing things you never noticed before, like the weight of your child asleep on your chest, the sound of laughter from another room, the smell of sunscreen and shampoo and home. There are women sitting at soccer games waiting for scan results. Women making dinner while wondering if their medication is still working. There are women smiling in photos their children will look at one day without realizing how much strength it took to stand there. Motherhood after cancer, or during it, is not soft focus inspiration. It is fierce and terrified and beautiful all at once. And today we honor every version of it. 💓 xo, TBBC by @bess_ever
4
5 months ago
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If your company makes a product that could bring comfort to someone facing cancer treatment, we are always open to suggestions and contributions of any kind. Bandages, chapstick, meal donations, discounts, activities of any kind. All can mean the world to a patient who is exhausted, scared, and just trying to get through the day. Your work has the power to do more than generate revenue — it can restore dignity and spark hope. 📧 amanda@thrivingbeyondbreastcancer.org by @bess_ever
11
5 months ago
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When I was going through chemotherapy, I planted five peony bulbs around our front yard. I remember needing something to believe in, something slow, steady, and hopeful. Peonies take time to establish themselves and it can be a few years before they’re strong enough to produce full, beautiful blooms. So I waited. Year after year, I watched for signs of life. Small shoots at first, then leaves… and eventually, this year, two of them finally bloomed. Big, soft, impossibly beautiful flowers that felt like they’d been gathering strength all this time. Yesterday, Margot and Frank came home with roses “just because.” And when I put them together with those peonies, it struck me how much this little arrangement feels like where I am in survivorship. Some parts of me are hard earned, years in the making, shaped by waiting, healing, and learning how to grow again. Other parts are unexpected, spontaneous reminders of love and joy that show up when I least expect them. It’s not all one thing. It’s layered. It’s still unfolding. And maybe that’s the beauty of it, learning to appreciate what’s blooming now, while trusting that there’s still more to come. 💓 by @bess_ever
0
5 months ago
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Sharing a short excerpt from my piece in the “Worth” issue. The words in this essay came from a place of hard won clarity and the decision to finally trust my own voice over the silencing of my intuition. Writing this has helped me unravel the pressure to minimize my own experience, something so many of us do in the face of others’ pain. That same journey of learning to trust my voice led me to create @thrivingbeyondbreastcancer so that no one has to feel invisible in what they’re carrying. It exists to help people feel seen, supported, and less alone and, ultimately, to honor their own intuition, too. I’m so grateful to @wildfire_bc_magazine for holding space for me and my story, treating it with such care. Physical copies of the magazine will be available to order through April 27 once the digital issue goes live. I’m so honored to be part of that, too. ❤️ Please purchase a copy to support my work! by @bess_ever
14
5 months ago
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Tax day is tomorrow. And while we’re told to carry on as usual, the world around us feels anything but.. We’re watching a war that makes no sense. We’re witnessing innocent women and children being pulled into detention centers. At the same time, millions in federal funding are being cut, leaving nonprofits—the very organizations holding communities together, more vulnerable than ever. It’s overwhelming. It’s infuriating. It’s human. But in the middle of all of it, we refuse to disconnect. We refuse to look away. We see you. We are you. This shirt is more than something to wear, it’s a wearable reminder. A reminder to stay aware. To stay grounded. To stay connected to each other when everything feels fractured. We’re wearing it for ourselves just as much as we’re wearing it for you. Shop the new release and more @shopthriving taken in Clintonville, Columbus, Ohio by @bess_ever
1
6 months ago
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