Meet the Models, New England: Alison Olsen

Alison Olsen is no stranger to breast cancer. She was a physicians assistant to a breast surgeon for many years. As such, she read mammograms and was present during diagnosis, surgery and post-care. Given her knowledge of the disease, she was avid about getting her own mammograms, starting at 40. It’s why at 41, when her mammogram came back abnormal, she wasn’t worried. She knew it was most likely nothing, so she didn’t stress much during or after the biopsy. 

Driving around her 6 & 8 year old daughters selling girl scout cookies the following Friday afternoon, she decided to call the doctor to check on the results: “the nurse tells me I have invasive ductal carcinoma and I know what that meant and it wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. I had her on speakerphone with my kids, that’s how unconcerned I was. Time stood still.”

For Alison, the diagnosis felt “dark and lonely,” so she leaned on two friends, one of whom was fellow model Sarah Wilfert, for comfort and emotional support: “I saw how resilient these women were and I needed to talk to them to hear that I was going to be ok.” Soon after she told her girls, promising them that life would remain as normal as possible while she worked to beat the cancer.

Amongst the fear and anger, Alison was determined to get answers. She dove right into researching treatments and next steps. She eventually settled with a care team at Dana Farber who she raves about: “having answers and a plan made me more comfortable.” She would go on to have a lumpectomy and on the advice of two oncologists, bypass chemo and move straight into radiation. She worked throughout, chiefly to show normalcy for her children, but notes how emotionally and physically draining the schedule was.

After taking Tamoxifen for five years, Alison is seven years into survivorship now and not taking any medication. It was a milestone she was adamant to celebrate: ““Once I hit five years, I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt like that was a huge milestone. I went to lunch with all my girlfriends.” 

She is quick to note that the fear never leaves: “my yearly mammogram and MRI is still very hard. Every time I get through that appointment, I have this big sigh of relief.” She is especially grateful as she sees more and more women face the disease with very different outcomes. Indeed, she is emotional remembering her dear friend Sarah Wilfert, who passed earlier this year. Alison hopes to honor strong women like Sarah on the runway, while also celebrating the advancements in medicine that will hopefully help her two daughters one day: “I want to let everyone know- GO! Go get your mammograms!”