Meet the Inclusive Community Empowering Breast Cancer Thrivers, Survivors and Caregivers

The Breasties is a nonprofit organization that helps individuals connect, share resources and tell their stories.

The Breasties / Courtesy of Allie Brumel

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, one in eight women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes. Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among U.S. women. This October, SI Swimsuit is committed to providing resources for breast cancer patients while sharing the stories of warriors who have been impacted by the disease. For more information, click here.

When planning her 2016 wedding, Allie Brumel had a to-do list that encompassed the usual bridal musts. She also wanted to check off her annual visits to the dentist and OB/GYN before saying “I do.”

During the latter appointment, Brumel learned she had dense breast tissue during a clinical breast exam, but was given a clean bill of health and sent home. Two weeks later, she felt a lump in her left breast. While she initially brushed it off, about a month later, the lump had grown larger and was painful with her menstrual cycle. Brumel immediately went back to her OB/GYN but was dismissed regarding her findings. She had to push for imaging and was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer two weeks after her 28th birthday.

Just a few months after getting married, Brumel quickly had to pivot from newlywed bliss to finding a breast surgeon and medical oncologist. Her breast cancer treatment consisted of chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy and radiation, as well as genetic testing and, after learning she was a BRCA1 carrier, fertility preservation.

The power of intuition

Up until that point in her life, Brumel had complete faith in her medical team, believing since they were the experts, they had her best interest at heart. Following her breast cancer diagnosis, however, she learned the power of self-advocacy.

“ Your intuition is something that you have to listen to, I’ve learned,” Brumel shares. “And I’ve also learned that we as people, we as women, we are the experts in our own bodies and understanding what’s normal for us, only we know that. And so feeling that lump and realizing, ‘Oh, this wasn’t there a couple months ago and it’s changed in the last few weeks,’ like that’s something that I had to listen to so I’m really proud that I was able to do that.”

Allie Brumel / Courtesy of Allie Brumel

Brumel believes being an informed patient is incredibly important when it comes to taking charge of your health. She wants women to be comfortable pushing back with providers in order to learn about alternative surgeries and treatments, for example, in order to weigh all the options and make the best decision for you personally. It’s also O.K. to change providers in order to find one whom you feel at ease with, just as she did.

“Everyone’s entitled to finding a doctor who you’re comfortable with and finding a second opinion,” Brumel adds. “That’s something that you should be able to do that isn’t a luxury, that isn’t hurting your original provider’s feelings. Everybody deserves quality healthcare and deserves a provider that they’re comfortable with. So if that’s finding a second opinion, if that’s finding a new doctor and firing your old one, that’s totally allowed and everyone should feel empowered to do that.”

Creating The Breasties

Following her diagnosis and treatment, Brumel took to social media, seeking out community in others who could relate to what she was going through. What began as a group of women coming together for small meetups in New York City quickly grew into something much bigger, and in late 2017, she and other women impacted by breast cancer began hosting potluck dinners and workout classes together. Those meetups quickly grew in attendance through word of mouth, and the group—deemed The Breasties—applied for 501(c)(3) status in early 2018.

Through the nonprofit, Brumel and her cofounders have created the space they wish existed for themselves.

“A t the time, there were a lot of nonprofits out there and a lot of support groups, but they were in hospitals and the basements of like social work departments and they were just like dark, sad spaces and a lot of us would go to these groups and be the youngest by many, many years and just didn’t see ourselves represented,” Brumel explains.

Allie Brumel, Paige More, Trish Michelle and Bri Majsiak / Courtesy of Allie Brumel

Today, The Breasties is an inclusive community for breast and gynecological cancer survivors, thrivers, previvors and caregivers to connect, share resources and tell their stories. Brumel and her leadership team—consisting of Trish Michelle, Bri Majsiak and Paige More—hope to empower women facing breast and gynecological cancers by providing trusted resources, fostering community and offering peer-to-peer support.

“ It’s just been such a beautiful way to channel the pain into purpose,” Brumel says of The Breasties. “ ...  This experience [of battling breast cancer], although I had a great support system, it was still so isolating and lonely and [The Breasties] was just a way to channel that into hopefully improving the cancer experience for others, whether that’s survivors like myself or those on the preventative side or stage four thrivers, creating a community and education that people could really benefit from when going through it.”

In creating The Breasties, Brumel realized that, unfortunately, her experience with her prior OB/GYN was not a unique one. She regularly comes across fellow breast cancer patients and survivors who had to “fight for a diagnosis and deal with being dismissed for being too young or not showing typical symptoms,” she says.

“Self-advocacy is just so, so important, especially when it comes to your health,” Brumel continues. “Sometimes it could be a matter of life or death. I  look back and I’m like, what if I didn’t ask for imaging? Where would I be now? Would I even be here? Would my prognosis have been different? Would my treatment have looked different?”

Launching Camp Breastie

The year after the nonprofit was founded, Brumel and her team brought Camp Breastie to life. The annual four-day retreat features educational panels, workshops and activities like yoga, sound healing and much more, and allows those with breast and gynecological cancers to come together for several days each June.

The inaugural camp was held in 2019, and the sold-out event hosted 500 people in the Poconos. This year’s Camp Breastie, held at Camo Bryn Mawr in Honesdale, Pa., hosted 600 people and sold out in 20 hours with a 400 person waitlist. Registration for 2026 will open early next year.

“It’s  such a beautiful thing that people are seeking community in this way and can take advantage of joining these events and really benefiting from them,” Brumel says of the community she’s created.

While Camp Breastie tickets cost $350 per person, the summit costs the organization $1,500 per camper to put on, and due to generous donations and sponsors, the nonprofit can offer camp tickets at a reduced cost. Additionally, no-cost and reduced-cost tickets are available through a scholarship program for interested attendees.

“ We believe financial barriers should never be in the way of getting support, and so we charge a very reduced cost rate for camp,” Brumel explains. “But we also offer scholarships for those who can’t afford to come. Last year with the 600 attendees, we offered 250 scholarships, so 250 people came for free and the others paid a discounted rate to be there. We’re hoping to expand the scholarship program this year to provide even more.”

Camp Breastie / Courtesy of Allie Brumel

Brumel continues to share her journey with breast cancer in the hopes of helping others, and the proud mom of two strongly believes that every individual impacted by cancer has his or her own story to tell, which is what makes her work leading The Breasties so impactful.

“This is a community that’s super diverse and inclusive of all experiences,” Brumel says. “My story is one story. It is the story of me as a breast cancer survivor, but our community is people impacted by both breast and gynecologic cancer, whether that’s survivors like myself, previvors, stage four thrivers and caregivers, and there are just so many different stories to be told.”

PINKTOBER resources EDITED AGAIN. https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/v1759326461/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/si_swimsuit/01k6g0epzmb0pcez0mvb.jpg. Community Support Guide. Breast Self-Exam How To. https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/v1759326461/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/si_swimsuit/01k6g0epx2cbb70y4kje.jpg. Resources for POC. https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/v1759326461/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/si_swimsuit/01k6g0epzrfe5pbhp511.jpg