My name is Brittany and I am from Nicholasville, Kentucky. I was born and raised in northern Kentucky. I have two children, a son that's 17 and daughter that is 12. Probably my favorite hobby is just being outside. We've got 10 acres here in Jessamine County. I love exploring the land, hiking, and even photography.

I was diagnosed with stage 2 squamous cell carcinoma at the age of 34 in June of 2020. So that’s stage 2 anal cancer. My initial symptoms were extreme itchiness and discomfort, especially when I sat for a prolonged period of time. And then a little bit of bleeding when I went to the bathroom, and of course blood in my stool. But those were the main symptoms that really made me wonder what was going on.

My initial appointment with my primary care doctor, going to her and explaining that I had itchiness and discomfort and a little bit of bleeding; she ended up referring me to a gastroenterologist. And really she didn't know what was going on. I mean, she didn't see hemorrhoids or anything, and she just, she thought with my family's history of cancer, it would just be better safe than sorry for me to see a gastroenterologist. So I go into this appointment, eager to then go into scheduling a colonoscopy. Little did I know I was walking into kind of a battle for my own body. And this gastroenterologist, when I explained my symptoms to him, he looked at me and he said, you're healthy. At the time I was 32 years old. He said, you're healthy. I don't see anything wrong with you, your symptoms, it's probably internal hemorrhoids. I don't think we need to do a colonoscopy. And I just kept begging him to the point of almost crying. And what most people who know me when I get really upset, I cry <laugh>. And so I was just getting frustrated, mad because I felt internally that there was just something more going on.

The one thing that I would want someone to know as they go into their diagnosis of getting anal cancer is just knowing that they're not alone. I think when I was first diagnosed and reading up on it and reading that it was a rare cancer, and then of course it was caused from HPV, I just felt very suffocated in my own little circle. And it drove me to a point where I kept digging to find people. And so that's, you know, it's like find a community, search and, you know, we live in technology days now where like hashtags are amazing and I searched “anal cancer” hashtags, and that's how I connected with a lot of the amazing women that I have still been in contact with four years later. 
And so it's just to really put that diagnosis aside for a second and find their support group and find people alike to just know that they're not alone and they don't have to sit there and dwell in that initial embarrassing feeling and diagnosis of an HPV-related cancer and anal cancer.

One of the biggest misunderstandings with HPV-related cancers or just HPV in general is that you don't have to have multiple sex partners to obtain that virus. You know, it can happen to anybody. And so I was terrified to go to my family and say, Hey, it's anal cancer. And so initially I was going to tell them that I had a colorectal cancer, but then that brought up a lot more questions. Oh, is it colon cancer? Is it rectal? Is it this? And so I flat out, I just was like, screw it, it's anal cancer.

And they were like, anal cancer. Is that genetic? Like my mom, she's all about like genetic cancers and the history of our family. Is that genetic? Did I cause that? And I'm like, no, mom <laugh> you, you didn't cause that. So, my family took it really well. But it was hard to open up to everyone because even saying the word “anal cancer” is very difficult for a lot of people. But over time I've gotten used to it. It's just, it's part of me now.

What I hope that others take away from my story is to see that this can happen to anyone. I'm a 38-year-old mother. I never thought that this type of cancer or diagnosis would happen to me. And so, upon receiving the news that you have anal cancer, just don't feel ashamed. Don't pay attention to the stigma that surrounds it. Just know that you have a community surrounding you of amazing people who will help you get through it. And I think that that's the biggest takeaway. It's just that you're not alone. And then just to continue to be an advocate for yourself and your children, and even your family. I'm only here today because I'm my own advocate. If I hadn't stood up to a doctor <laugh> years ago, I wouldn't be sitting here today being able to share my story. And I'm a firm believer in that.