SM: Many women with cancer experience an array of emotions and feelings after they receive their diagnosis. What was that cycle of feelings like for you?
Diem Brown: My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach [after I heard that I had cancer]. My mom had already passed away and the first thing I thought was, ‘Alright, I guess I’m going to meet her soon.’ It’s a wave of emotions and there are many times when you first find out that you’re just so mad. I actually just wanted to ignore it, which is horrible. I had so many crazy thoughts of not even looking at it. You’re trying to think of anything to do but deal with the issue. Finally, I realized I had to deal with it or it was going to get me. That’s when [my mindset] turned into a positive attitude: I’m just going to bust through this stupid chemo and bust through everything and hopefully be cancer-free.

SM: What have the treatments been like for you both mentally and physically?
Diem Brown: Ugh. The treatments are hard—I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You walk into the room and you really feel like you’re in a war zone. You do see people without hair. I fainted the first time I walked in there. You see [cancer patients] and you think death, you don’t think living. I’m hoping to be a survivor and be someone you look at and see life. But [when I started my treatments,] I didn’t see life. I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is it.’ It was hard and those treatments are long. They’re not comfortable. I did my first treatment by myself. It was horrible and it was dumb, [but] I tried to hide it from everyone. Once I allowed people to start helping me—which is a hard thing to do—it got a lot easier.