Meet the Models: Monique Costa

Meet the Models: Monique’s Story – After the Fight, the Fear Remains

When Monique was diagnosed with breast cancer at just 27 years old, it came out of nowhere. She had no family history. She found the lump herself.

“I was completely shocked. I never imagined breast cancer would happen to me at such a young age.”

The world seemed to carry on around her—friends getting married, others having babies—while she entered survival mode. Her focus had to be singular: treatment, recovery, staying alive.

“My world stopped, and it felt like everyone else’s kept going. That was really hard to sit with.”

But she stayed grounded in the moment. It was the only way forward.

“Taking one treatment at a time helped me focus. I couldn’t look too far ahead—it was too overwhelming.”

She had a solid support system: her family and her husband stood by her through every appointment, every treatment, every wave of fear. But the emotional heaviness didn’t end when the medical part did.

“For me, the hardest part came after treatment—when everything got quiet. People think once treatment is over, it’s done. But we carry it with us forever. The fear of recurrence doesn’t go away.”

That fear, she says, is invisible to the outside world—but ever-present inside. It’s why empathy matters so deeply, especially for survivors post-treatment.

“Just because someone you love finishes treatment doesn’t mean the journey is over. They’ll keep thinking about cancer forever.”

What helped Monique most weren’t grand gestures. It was the quiet support. The steady presence. The friends and family who simply showed up and listened.

“Just being there to listen, without needing to fix anything, made all the difference.”

Her advice to others in the thick of it is gentle and true:

“Take each day as it comes. Try not to think too far ahead. The future can feel overwhelming—so just focus on today.”

At Runway for Recovery, we honor Monique’s honesty, her resilience, and her reminder that the work of healing doesn’t end when the treatments do. Her story is a powerful reflection of how surviving breast cancer means learning to carry the weight—and still choosing to move forward, one day at a time.