How Guerdy Abraira Is Embracing ‘Guerdy 2.0’ Following Breast Cancer Journey

The wedding planner and Bravo television star was diagnosed in March of 2023, and was declared cancer-free last November.

Guerdy Abraira / Courtesy of Guerdy Abraira

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes. Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common skin cancer among women. For more information and ways to support, click here.

Guerdy Abraira was planning a tenth wedding anniversary party for a friend in St. Barts in March of 2023 when she got some unexpected and devastating news. She saw an incoming call from her gynecologist, and she immediately knew something was wrong.

Having just been in for a routine mammogram, the 46-year-old wedding planner and Real Housewives of Miami star patched her husband, Russell, into the call and received the results of her scan from her doctor. A noninvasive, Stage 0 tumor had been found in Abraira’s left breast, and a minor surgery would be required to remove it, according to her physician. But following an MRI, a second tumor was found in her breast, this one invasive, that resulted in a new diagnosis of Stage 1B estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer.

Abraira’s journey and treatment

Following her diagnosis, Abraira underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation and chemotherapy. While she was initially planning to undergo radiation only, chemotherapy was added to her treatment plan after Abraira learned her potential reoccurrence rate for breast cancer by testing to learn her Oncotype DX score.

“[My cancer] was a mutation, meaning that no one in my family had it, but my reoccurrence rate was a 36% chance of me getting breast cancer again,” Abraira explains. “So once I learned that, [my doctors] said, you do chemo and radiation, it goes down to under 9%.”

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Following her lumpectomy surgery and radiation and chemotherapy treatments, along with a hysterectomy, Abraira was declared cancer-free in November of 2023. This August, she had her breast implants removed and when we spoke, Abraira was eight weeks out from reconstructive breast surgery, which she elected to do in order to repair damage done to her left breast during her lumpectomy surgery.

Embracing ‘Guerdy 2.0’

Prior to her breast cancer diagnosis, Abraira was always on the go and in high-stress situations as as the founder and CEO of Guerdy Design, a luxury event planning company based in Miami. However, these days, she’s embracing the little things in life, like finding solitary moments to meditate, luxuriate in her skincare routine and enjoy time with her family, including her husband and two children.

“I definitely realized my full strength as a woman,” Abraira says of her breast cancer journey. “ ... I realized that actually exuding all emotions was a good and healthy thing for me to not withhold stress. So the thing that I’ve learned now is to be way more outspoken than I already was, just to kind of make sure I release and detox of any negativity that I’m bearing on the inside. So that was really my main takeaway. Guerdy 2.0 doesn’t play that.”

Guerdy Abraira / Bravo/Getty Images

Throughout her treatment, Abraira was unafraid to be “selfish,” surrounding herself with only her husband and sons at home and rejecting visits from other family members and friends.

“I didn’t want to do anything but sit in my bed and just focus on my recovery and so I had to be selfish and hurt some feelings because I needed to,” she says. “My husband is my other half, like he's my heartbeat, and that’s really the rock I needed.”

These days, she focuses on maintaining a healthy diet (Abraira loves cold-pressed juices, sticks to a strict meal plan and doesn’t drink alcohol often) and limiting stress by protecting her mental health.

“I’m speaking my peace as I see it, call it like it is. You like it, you like it. You don’t, you don’t. Keep it moving,” she says. “That’s the most important thing is to protect your peace and protect your health.”

Being an outspoken breast cancer awareness advocate

From chronicling intimate moments from her journey with breast cancer online (including her decision to have her husband shave her head prior to chemotherapy) to speaking out the impact radiation has on those with darker skin tones, Abraira is using her platform to inform and engage women of color in particular.

“We need to start sharing more resources, sharing more tips and advice with each other so that no one [gets] left behind,” she says. “I became a voice for [the breast cancer] community and I really want to have a bigger platform to speak on it because [more] Brown and Black women are going to die versus their [white] counterparts because of lack of education and or access to medical resources.”

Guerdy Abraira / Courtesy of Guerdy Abraira

According to the American Cancer Society, Black women have a 40% higher mortality rate than white women of dying from breast cancer, despite a 4% lower incidence rate.

By sharing her story, Abraira hopes to encourage women to take charge of their breast health. She urges women to not only be aware of their physical health, but to be proactive instead of reactive. In fact, she credits her mammogram with the reason why she’s still here today. As for her advice for those currently going through a breast cancer diagnosis, Abraira encourages women to focus on themselves and know that your journey is different from anyone else’s.

“Keep your eye on that light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. “It is extremely important not to give up and not to lose focus and to find peace around you.”