Meet the Models, New England: Karen Walsh
In 2015 at 40 years old, Karen Walsh snuck away for a quick shower while her boys, ages 5 & 8, were enjoying a movie. Taking advantage of the dark bathroom for zen, Karen was decompressing when a beam of light shone in and revealed a pucker on her breast. What sounds like a moment from a movie would end up saving her life. The pucker made her self check her breast, revealing a lump. It was stage 3A invasive ductal carcinoma. Karen would go on to have a single mastectomy, 28 rounds of radiation and 8 rounds of chemo. In addition to the cancer, Karen was navigating the end of her marriage and later, divorce. She acknowledges the intense stress of that time certainly could have played a role in her diagnosis, but she went on to live seven great years in remission.
Always active and healthy, Karen did have arthritis in her family, so navigating aches and pains post treatment was a careful balancing act of not assuming these symptoms were cancer related. However, in July 2023, the aches turned into acute pain and it was determined to be a recurrence- this time stage 4 metastatic: “I was fortunate because it landed in my hip and we were able to do a replacement and get rid of the pain, but it’s metastatic at this point and that has been a new, very challenging part of this- mostly for my two boys.” Indeed, the hardest part for Karen was telling her children, noting that as a single mom, it had to be extra scary for them.
Luckily, Karen has an incredible tribe that continues to support her family. From high school and college friends to her large extended family, she has been blown away by her community’s support: “that is the silver lining for myself, but mostly my boys. Watching them watch people show up for us in the way that they do is such a huge gift. I walk through this earth with a single breast and the one I do have is not small, it’s large, and some days I think this is so much for my children. Should I tone it down so they can tolerate it better? I have decided to live very much out loud, so they can participate in the amazing connections and community and love they get to be a part of.”
It is not only the tribe showing up for Karen and her family that has been so impactful, but the way in which they do. For Karen, humor has proven to be her best defense mechanism. Though at first she could tell people didn’t want to laugh with her, now she finds humor to be what keeps her positive. Indeed, she avoids anyone who responds to the challenges of her diagnosis with “you should” statements, noting how unhelpful that can be. Instead, she aims to live as passionately and normally as before the diagnosis, knowing she has doors she can open with people on the other side who will support her in whatever way she is looking for at that moment.
It is that support- of her family as a whole- that drew her to Runway: “I feel so insanely grateful because I know that level of support isn’t everyone’s experience and what would I have done if I wasn’t able to rest and be reassured people would step up and help? Knowing women don’t have that, I want to be apart of something that will enhance that for them and for me- because it is reciprocal in this world. That give and take can be so powerful and magical.”