Jani Raynor’s Story

How has breast cancer affected your life?

Jani Raynor was diagnosed with Stage 3C breast cancer in 2022.

At the time, she was newly separated and had three young children.

“When you hear the words ‘You have cancer,’ your life splits in two — before and after,” Jani shares.

Her diagnosis came during an already significant period of change in her life.

“Everything I had built seemed to crumble overnight,” she says. “My health, my plans, my sense of control — all gone.”

 

How did your diagnosis change your perspective?

For Jani, breast cancer forced her to look at her life in a way she had never done before.

“My diagnosis forced me to look at myself in all aspects and ask myself, was I really living and experiencing life the way I was meant to?”

It was a difficult question, but one that changed the way she approached her future.

“I decided to live.”

Jani began to understand that even after a life-changing diagnosis, she could still decide what she wanted her life to look like.

 

What have you learned from your experience?

Jani describes her diagnosis as the moment her life split into a before and an after.

But she has also come to see that what felt like everything falling apart could become the beginning of something new.

“What I didn’t know then was that those ashes would become the soil where my greatest victories would grow,” she shares.

For Jani, her experience with cancer has become a reason to question how she wants to spend her time and what it means to truly live.

 

What are we celebrating this year?

And we are celebrating the possibility of a new beginning, even when life has changed in ways we never expected.

As Jani puts it:

“A life-threatening diagnosis doesn’t have to be the end of your story — it can be the spark that ignites your most powerful new beginning.”