My conversation with Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor of MD Anderson Cancer Center is a special one. Mariana was Maureen's oncologist as my late wife's breast cancer metastasized from late 2013 into 2014. One of the things I always remember from our visits was Mariana's compassion and focus on Maureen. As Mariana put it so well, "When I'm with a patient, I understand my responsibility. I understand the privilege that I have and understand that I'm probably sharing incredibly hard things and I'm going do it the best way that I can, right? With compassion." Having witnessed it first hand, I can attest to Mariana doing it the best way that she can.

Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, MD, Medical Oncologist, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, MD, MSc, FASCO, is a tenured Professor in the Health Services Research Department, where she serves as ad interim Chair. She is also a Professor in the Breast Medical Oncology Department at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a breast medical oncologist committed to improving the outcomes of her patients while preserving their quality of life and providing evidence-based, research-driven, compassionate care. She is recognized as a key opinion leader who is devoted to contributing to the field through patient care, research, and education by fostering the next generation of clinicians and researchers.

Her research interests focus on outcomes and cancer care delivery. Her work extends to areas related treatment-related complications and to studying the impact and determinants of treatment delays. In addition, she has been involved in the planning, design, and implementation of clinical trials and has been deeply involved in guideline methodology, having participated in the development of national and international breast cancer treatment guidelines. She serves as the Executive Officer for international affairs at SWOG, where she leads the Latin America Initiative. She has served ASCO in many roles, recently completing her last year as a member of the Board of Directors and currently serving as the Chair-elect of the Scientific Program committee.

Gary has a personal connection to today's episode. Both his daughters, like their mom, Maureen, played volleyball. Maureen was 6'1", so Gary married up quite literally and figuratively, and she was captain of her high school team, as were Gary's daughters Kyla and Katelyn. In 2016, Kyla, along with her teammates, started the Dig Pink® tradition and a few years later Katelyn, her younger sister, overlapped with her and then took over after Kyla graduated. That senior year and freshman year when both sisters played varsity together was pretty special. And it was the year that they were the fourth largest fundraising high school in the country, which is how Gary learned of the Side-Out Foundation and was invited to be its board chair.

Ellen Dempsey, Executive Director

Ellen joined the Side-Out Foundation after a successful career in collegiate volleyball. Ellen’s teams participated in 11-NCAC Tournament Championships, 4-NCAA Tournaments, and she was named the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Coach of the Year, 4-times. “My family has been touched deeply by breast cancer. I’ve spent my career building and fostering relationships. In some way, It feels that my life’s work has been to prepare me for this next, most important chapter.

Rick Dunetz, Founder & Chief Vision Officer

Rick’s passion for volleyball and his dual role as a coach and caregiver, led him to create the Side-Out Foundation in honor of his mother, Gloria, who lived with stage IV breast cancer for 6 years before passing in 2010. Side-Out is now a leader in metastatic breast cancer research with the support of thousands of athletes, coaches, parents, and donors. Rick’s passion for volleyball has never waned and he still coaches at the school where it all started.

About The Side-Out Foundation

In volleyball, “side-out” means regaining control of the ball. The Side-Out Foundation helps people with breast cancer regain control of their lives – and we started our fundraising efforts through the sport of volleyball. Our Executive Director and Founder, Rick Dunetz, was a high school volleyball coach when his mother, Gloria, was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. Together he and his father, Bryant, decided to tell her story, and the story of all those with metastatic breast cancer, through dedicated volleyball matches across the U.S., where communities would rally and fundraise to support breast cancer research. This is how Dig Pink® was born – and it is still a central program of The Side-Out Foundation.

We couldn't be more excited by the 2nd inaugural episode of the Team Powdered Donut™ podcast with Kelly Shanahan, President of METAvivor. Gary and Kelly first met through the #bcsm tweet chat started on January 1, 2011 by Alicia C. Staley, Dr. Deanna Attai and the late Jody Schoger. Gary joined these chats to learn from those with breast cancer how to be a better caregiver to his late wife, Maureen.

As Kelly and Gary discuss, when breast cancer becomes #MetastaticBreastCancer is when things go "all to heck," leading to 117/118 deaths a day from this stage of the disease. Research, like that funded by Metavivor, leads to hope, not just for MBC but early stage disease, too. 🍩 🩷

Kelly Shanahan, METAvivor, President

In 2008, I had everything going for me: a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Virginia School of Medicine, I had a busy and successful ob-gyn practice in South Lake Tahoe, CA; a precocious 9 year old daughter; and a well-used passport from traveling all over the world with my family to attend conferences, with a liberal dose of vacation on the side. When I was diagnosed with stage IIB breast cancer in April 2008, I considered it a mere bump in the road, returning to work two weeks after my bilateral mastectomy and continuing to work all through the four months of chemo.

And for five years, breast cancer was an aside, something to put in the past medical history section of forms. Even when I developed sudden back pain, I never thought it could be breast cancer rearing its ugly head – a pulled muscle, a herniated disc but not what it turned out to be: metastatic breast cancer in virtually every bone in my body, with a fractured vertebra and an about to break left femur. I was diagnosed on my 53rd birthday.

I have been extremely lucky, for after an unconventional 14-month course of combination IV chemo and zometa, followed by a more conventional aromatase inhibitor, I have remained NEAD – No Evidence of Active Disease — since April 2014. Neuropathy from the chemo did cost me my career, but I have found a new purpose in advocacy. I am a volunteer and grant reviewer for METAvivor; a member of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance and the ABC Global Alliance; a consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program; and past medical director of METUP. I will fight for more research funding for the already metastasized patient until my dying breath by continuing to contact my state and federal representatives and participating in legislative advocacy days on Capitol Hill, as I have since 2015.

I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a doctor, a woman LIVING with metastatic breast cancer. I am an advocate.