How Breast Cancer Previvor Sarafina El-Badry Nance’s Advocacy Work Is Expanding With Motherhood

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.

While many women begin entering the nesting phase during their third trimester, Sarafina El-Badry Nance is keeping up with her strength training workouts in the gym at 38 weeks pregnant. The astrophysicist, author and activist is a breast cancer previvor who, throughout the past several years, has used her platform to bring awareness to understanding one’s breast cancer risk along with the measures one can take to minimize that risk. After continuing her advocacy work throughout her pregnancy, Nance will deliver her baby boy via a scheduled C-section this Friday, Oct. 9.

“Movement has honestly saved my pregnancy,” Nance admits, noting that she has been prioritizing two to three days of lifting each week. While some sessions have been more successful than others, Nance believes that sticking with her workout routine has made all the difference.

“The kind of discomfort that I feel now, I think would be so much worse had I not prioritized that strength training,” she adds. “It’s also just been an opportunity for me to be in my body in a way that’s much more familiar than the discomforts of pregnancy that I’m experiencing for the first time. So that’s been, mentally, really anchoring and honestly, as hard as movement can be right now, it’s very joyous every time I’m able to get in the gym and get my heart rate up and feel movements that are familiar.”

In addition to weightlifting, Nance enjoys walking around her neighborhood for cardio, and she continued running late into her second trimester. In fact, the 2022 Swim Search finalist participated in a 10K race at six months pregnant.

“It was just to prove to myself that I could do it, which was awesome,” she says casually. “It was really a celebration of, like, ‘Wow, look at what bodies can do; they’re so amazing.’ So that was really fun. I’m really glad I did that.”

In addition to her physical health, Nance has been prioritizing her mental wellbeing as she approaches parenthood. She goes to therapy once a week—which she says has been incredibly helpful during such a huge transition period of life—and leans on her “extraordinary” spouse, Taylor, as well as her girlfriends and family for support.

Advocating for mothers impacted by breast cancer

At the age of 26, Nance underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her lifetime breast cancer risk from 87% to less than 5%. Then, when she and her husband decided they wanted to start a family, Nance used preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) to eliminate her future children’s risk of inheriting the BRCA2 gene mutation. Her journey to motherhood involved IVF as a way to reduce the risk of passing on genetic conditions to any of her future children. During her scheduled C-section later this week, Nance, now 33, will also have her fallopian tubes removed in order to reduce her ovarian cancer risk.

Pregnancy and impending motherhood have ushered in a new wave of activism for Nance. Due to her preventative double mastectomy, she is medically unable to breastfeed. And since women who undergo a bilateral mastectomy can no longer produce breast milk, they are required to use alternative means for feeding their babies, such as formula or donor milk. However, neither option is covered by insurance (though breast pumps and lactation counseling both are), forcing women to pay out of pocket to cover these essential feeding costs.

“I am very frustrated that there is a huge gap in our healthcare system where people who cannot medically breastfeed are saddled with the costs of coming up with ways to feed their babies [through formula or donor milk] and often are shamed for it,” Nance explains. “ ... There’s the societal stigma, and then there’s also this legislative piece of how can we improve the lives of people who cannot physically breastfeed? What kind of legislation can we introduce? What kind of healthcare can we support for those people?”

Nance has been working closely with formula brand Bobbie on Connie’s Bill, a proposed federal legislation that would cover the costs of infant formula and donor milk for those who cannot medically breastfeed. With so much social stigma attached to breastfeeding versus formula feeding, Nance is hoping to create change while reminding women to support one another rather than pass judgment.

“Every mom, every parent is trying to do the very best that they can, and everyone is different,” Nance says. “They have different constraints, they have different bodies, they have different lives and support structures and I think when we meet each other from a place of compassion and empathy and say, ‘How can we support each other?’ versus, ‘Oh, you’re doing this wrong. Let me tell you why,’ I think we would all be better off.”

As Nance approaches her due date later this week, she and her husband are looking to the future with excitement. She shares that she hopes her baby boy will be kind, empathetic and curious while possessing a passion for making the world a better place—all traits that Nance herself exemplifies.

“I am just really excited to have an incalculable amount of love and joy and exploration and curiosity in my life that I’ve not experienced before,” she says. “I can’t wait to meet our little one and learn what he’s like and experience the world through his eyes.”

Advocating for mothers impacted by breast cancer

Breast Cancer Awarness Month resources from SI Swimsuit