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Erin Lee Perkins

@erinleeperkins

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Author 👇🏻| Cancer survivor | friend
Young Breast Cancer Your Story and Mine: A Compact Guide
@youngbcorg board of directors
#youngbreastcancer

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5 years cancer free.

Deserves a place on the grid. This photo of me in my old man era, with my tube top and drains. I am her. She is me. We are everyone else.

#youngbreastcancer
#ayacancer
#tnbc
#mastectomy
#aestheticflatclosure by @erinleeperkins

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2 months ago

2 out of my 3 post-cancer "somedays" occurred in 2025...

My book Young Breast Cancer Your Story and Mine: A Compact Guide was released in March, and I did some promotion. On the @chemoglow podcast
@drteplinsky 's podcast Interlude
And @wildfire_bc_magazine 's podcast The Burn
I donated books to my cancer center, and my Oncologist called to let me know the impact a free copy of my memoiresche guide had on the newly diagnosed young person who came in to see her directly after me that day.
Some folks have also donated to their friends, their cancer centers, and helped me with ideas, writing a press release (dont worry I'll finish it in 2026!) And my book has been featured in @thrivingbeyondbreastcancer 's new chemo kits!
While I still experience imposter syndrome, and I get tired and take breaks from trying to get my book into more places, I feel so grateful that I did the thing, somehow before I started meds for ADHD, and im so grateful to everyone who had been a part of it, and helped me celebrate it this year. In 2026, LETS GET IT IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND YOUR ONCOLOGY CENTER, AND ALL THE TBBC CHEMO KITS, AND ON THE NEWS, AND IN THE HANDS OF MORE PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BENEFIT FROM IT!!! You with me?

The other of my somedays was participating in @mothstories and I got to do it in Phoenix this year. And I did okay! Grateful for all my attempts previously at the @the.monti in the last few years.

A lot more happened in 2025, of course. Some of it so heavy, and lately more so, and then of course the state of the things in the country/world. Still, I wanted to highlight these two things, and give myself permission to remember that intertwined in the hard, is so much beauty. And that for me, things happened that mattered and changed me, and brought joy this year.

Jan. 2026 has been a goal for me to get to since Jan 2021. Almost there. Wild. I am excited to see many friends. And celebrate big in 2026, and still I recognize my new year anticipatory anxiety. That things will happen that I dont now know. It's scary and hard to hold. And I also remember friends and community members that will not go into '26 physically with us, still they are us, and we are them. by @erinleeperkins

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10 months ago

I woke up on January 28, 2021 anticipating news around 1145am. My daughter was 6 and in online kindergarten due to the pandemic. My son was 2. It had snowed. We got on all our snow gear and went to play outside with neighbors. I believed the news would be good. Around noon my phone rang. I came inside and fell directly to the floor as the surgeon who biopsied the lump in my breast said the words, "I'm sorry but it is cancer." High pitched ringing followed. As the days went on, I learned slowly, I had triple-negative invasive ductile carcinoma. It was staged 2b for its size of 3.6cm. I learned tumors are graded for how different they are from normal cells. Mine was the highest grade. The most different. It was fast growing. The most aggressive type of breast cancer. The most likely to recur.

But, they said it's aggressiveness has a plus! At 5 years from diagnosis there is every reason to believe the cancer is gone and won't come back. Close to 100%. I dreamt of January 28, 2026, and hope felt so slippery. No day is promised. No one's good outcome is a given. No one deserves it more than the other. I knew anything could happen. Triple-negative occurs 10% of the time in breast cancer diagnoses. And even as I received pCR (pathology complete response) after chemo, I had a 10% chance of metestatic or stage 4 recurrence. See how statistics can start to offer less hope?

I got connected in the community of young breast cancer, and all adolescent/young adult cancer. I met so many beautiful souls, online and in person. 14 of those souls have passed after a young breast cancer diagnosis. They are all represented in the collage at the end of this reel. I hold them close. Their lives. Their families. Their memories. The dreams they dreamt.

Today I woke up to my 7-year-old son coming to snuggle me a long time in my bed. And my 11-year-old complaining because she thought there was school today. There is snow on the ground. School is closed. I'm flying to california to celebrate. And I am filled with gratitude. Because today is January 28, 2026, and I woke up alive.

#youngbreastcancer
#tnbcsurvivor
#ayacancer
#breastcancer
#NotTooYoung by @erinleeperkins

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9 months ago

#breasthealtheducation @southlinebrewing Cary THIS Saturday October 3rd from 2-5pm!!

I will have the signature @youngbcorg boobie booth where you can learn to do and practice doing a proper #selfbreastexam and I will have information on the signs and symptoms of #breastcancer as well as merch to sell, opportunities to donate to our work in elevating young survivor stories to forge alliances with the medical community to reduce missed and delayed diagnoses and help save lives!!

- Free stickers!
- The book I wrote about #youngbreastcancer will be available to buy to donate so I can give them to newly diagnosed folks!
- South Line will donate a portion of the proceeds of their blonde ale: Nice Bluebs to the Young Breast Cancer Project
- you can bring your family and there are snacks and non-alcoholic drinks for sale as well! And @ncbulkogi
Food truck will be there!

Let's start #bcam out right with education!
Hope to see you there! Cary location on old apex road!

✌🏼💜 by @erinleeperkins

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17 days ago

#breasthealtheducation for #bcam at @southlinebrewing in Cary, NC:
Saturday October 3rd from 2-5pm

Come hear from the Young Breast Cancer Project working board of directors President @erinleeperkins as she provides information about how to #knowyournormal , how to do a #selfbreastexam with our signiture BoobieBooth, what the 12 signs of breast cancer are, and what a lump could feel like.

You'll have the opportunity to donate to our programs that elevate young breast cancer stories to form alliances with the general public and the medical community to reduce missed and delayed diagnoses and help save lives, buy our signature XX shirts, sweatshirts, hats and crops, and buy/donate copies of Erin's guide to young breast cancer!!

We would love to see you at this informative and fun event October 3rd at the Cary location! Let's turn awareness into action together!

XX taken in Cary, North Carolina by @erinleeperkins

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23 days ago

@theboobiequeenco knows how to party...
And how to hold pain, how to heal, how to share, how to grow together, how to be community.
The Boobie Queen Company is changing the face of #mentalhealth after a cancer diagnosis, and collecting a gaggle of humans willing to/and excited to wear bra crowns on their heads, dress up, and dance alongside other humans they may not have even haven't met. No matter. We are each other. And the Boobie Queen Company gets that.

So grateful for @boobiequeenchronicles Whitney's vision and the ways everyone involved in Boobie Queen retreats and the creation of a breast cancer mental health curriculum have cultivated space for us all to feel held, known, loved, and not alone.

It is a gift to my soul to wear a bedazzled bra on my head and call you all my friends.

💜✌🏼

#youngbreastcancer
#breastrest
#community
#cancer by @erinleeperkins

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23 days ago

From Glenwood Springs to Longmont, Colorado my sinuses were angry but my heart was happy. Got to hang with old friends and got to present on behalf of @youngbcorg to the @skyridgeim residency program at their retreat and got to see some of the beauty of Colorado along the way.

When I get to elevate #youngbreastcancer stories and photos, and share with the medical community from a patients perspective the impact they can have on our real lives when a prompt definitive diagnosis is made, I feel most in tune with myself. It is an honor to be a part of this work with the Young Breast Cancer Project- to reduce instances of missed and delayed diagnoses and help save lives.

💜✌🏼

#breasthealtheducation
#breastcancer
Since it is almost October, a reminder to change
#breastcancerawarenessmonth ---> #breastcanceractionmonth by @erinleeperkins

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24 days ago

Graduation day...

I am 5 years and one month out from Stage 2b, Grade 3 #triplenegativebreastcancer treatment and my oncologist has released me to the wild. This is where the sidewalk ends.

I elected to still visit her once a year anyway because it will give me peace of mind to check in and stay connected. (Plus I like her, and I give my book to her to give to newly diagnosed folks).

Remembering my friends, continuing to share breast health education with the general public and elevate survivor stories and research with the medical community to reduce missed and delayed diagnoses, advocating for patients and for research (#stagefourneedsmore ), I'll continue on into a life I can't believe I get to have, even just for today, and even the hard parts, immeasurably grateful, and carrying grief because to be here is beautiful, and that so many aren't will never leave my mind, soul, heart.

It would be cool if people reading this would go to @wearecancerculture and donate if you can.

100% of the donations go to research for Stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer. And many of my friends in the community will be walking in #newyorkfashionweek to raise money this weekend!!

💜✌🏼
#youngbreastcancer
@youngbcorg
#ontolive
@loreleicolbert by @erinleeperkins

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a month ago

@chelseakimlong happy pub day!!

Today my friend's much needed book comes out into the world. On the same day that is also the anniversary of me becoming a mother. I find that meaningful, and wanted to share a few words from Faithfully Dissident Daughters that I needed to hear 12 years ago, and am so grateful to hear now...

On page 15 Chelsea says, "My first birth wasn't the first time I disconnected my body from my Self. In fact, this is a protective skill many of us unconsciously value. Depending on your life and experience, you might have a lot of practice in dissociation. In fact, you may have been directly taught by the church to 'take up your cross and deny yourself' (Matt 16:24) and considered this kind of disconnection to be holy. In this version of faith, we are often asked to deny parts of ourselves in favor of following Christ. But what if splitting off parts of ourselves, separating our bodies or our emotions from our spiritual life, was never what Jesus had in mind for his followers?...

I have come to see the spiritual life as a journey toward wholeness, calling home all the parts of ourselves we had previously exiled. This is an important key for us in our journey to becoming Faithfully Dissident."

I love everything about this book. The ways it calls us home to ourselves and shows us that we (all of us as we are) are reflected in the Divine, and we can trust ourselves. Our selves embody the Divine.

Thank you for trusting the world with parts of your story, Chelsea. I know I am not alone in saying we needed to hear it.

Love you friend! by @erinleeperkins

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a month ago

Tell me this. 👇🏻

#drivers
#drivingetiquette
#tellmewhy by @erinleeperkins

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a month ago

On what a body can endure...
What my body has endured and what it has been able to do often stops me in my tracks.

Little me had no idea that her body would allow her to bike across the united states at 22, and up the west coast at 24. Or that it would allow her to be pregnant and give birth at 28 and immediately have to have reconstruction done in the aftermath of the birth. Or that she would get pregnant and give birth again at 32 and breastfeed both babies a total of close to 4 years between the two children. Or that even still cancer would grow in her body.

Little me, pregnant me, nursing mama me, had no idea she would be diagnosed with Triple negative breast cancer at 34, or that 16 rounds of chemotherapy would be administered through a port in her chest, or that her body would experience a double mastectomy with aesthetic flat closure at 35. Little me had no clue she would have no nipples when she grew up, and instead a tattoo across her chest, or that she would one day take her shirt of so easily in public, and often upon meeting a fellow flattie.

This body is a good body. My body is a good body. It has no breasts, it has a soft, stretchmark laden stomach, and it has many scars. My body has held and sustained life and it has been poisoned, poked, cut, and stitched. And it has held on. And it has endured.

Do you ever find yourself thinking of what your body has endured? And/or in the young cancer community i know there are possibilities cancer took from your bodies and I am holding space for you here always. Feel free to share in the comments anything that comes up for you. 💜

*check out @ericarobinsonphoto project "under the pencil"*

#pregnancy
#ayacancer
#aestheticflatclosure
#breastcancer
#roadcyclingpics by @erinleeperkins

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2 months ago

This issue of Wildfire asks big questions about what it means to live beyond a cancer diagnosis.

As always, I’m proud to be one of the contributors and to stand alongside so many brave, thoughtful writers.

My piece "Daniel Tiger and Cancerland" explores the myriad of feelings I feel and have felt at the same time during diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, and it gives the reader permission to listen to and feel their feelings- even when there are many at once and all across the spectrum of feeling possibilities.

If this speaks to you, I hope you’ll spend time with these pages. The issue is available for print order now & digital starting Saturday. Print orders end August 31!

@wildfire_bc_magazine
@rethinkbreastcancer
@anaonointimates
@irise_above
@abcdafterbreastcancerdiagnosis
@livlet_hub

#thriving
#youngbreastcancer
#ayacancer
#breastcancer
#cancer by @erinleeperkins

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2 months ago