Young couple shares journey while navigating Stage 4 breast cancer

More young people are being diagnosed with breast cancer. 

While doctors can't yet point to a clear reason why, the people diagnosed, particularly in late stages, are left to live a life dramatically altered — including a young couple recalibrating their dreams around Stage 4 breast cancer and sharing why there is reason to be hopeful.

When Sara and Ramiro Sandoval said their vows two years ago, they already understood the weight of the words, 'in sickness and in health.' To understand that moment, you have to know what came before. 

"We're soulmates to a T. Whether it's this lifetime or the next time, pretty much guaranteed that I'll find him in every single life," she said.

"That's why we haven't separated since our first date. You kind of know that this is your soulmate, this is your person," he said.

The couple got engaged in late 2023, already dreaming of starting a family. As they were preparing for their October wedding, Sara started to notice an odd and off sensation in my upper left armpit.

She then started getting bruises all over my body. She wondered about breast cancer but had no family history.

"I started feeling around when I was in the shower, and I ultimately found a little pebble, is what it felt like," she said. 

Nothing could have prepared her for what it felt like to get that call.

"They say, 'Sara, I'm so sorry. It has spread to your liver,' and at that point, my phone just drops out of my hands."

The call came on Ramiro's birthday — just 40 days before their wedding. Sara was just 35 years old. 

"My heart was immediately broken, but I mean my head was in fight-or-flight mode. Like, what's the next step? What do we do next?" Ramiro said. 

The aggressive cancer required aggressive treatment. The effects of it hit the week of their wedding.

"We were just trying to make the best out of everything we could. When we did need to shave her head, it kind of pressed on the gas pedal, so to say, like alright, we need to have a great time, we need to enjoy ourselves," Ramiro said.

"No one left that dance floor and by the end of the night, the wig came off and I was wailing it around, having a good time with it," Sara said.

In this season of milestones, two years married, two years post-diagnosis, the Sandovals are still trying to figure out how to build a life and live for the day. 

"Stage 4 is the only stage that is a terminal illness. It's guaranteed death. I'm going to die from cancer at some point — this is a given," Sara said.

What's not a given is how long her treatment will keep the cancer at bay. So far, it has. 

"My husband likes to leave me little reminders and so this is my one that he reminds me that I have to take every single day. It's his old license, believe it or not," Sara said. "To say I'm positive every single day would be a lie, but there's something about the positivity. When I talk to my doctors, when I talk to my nurses, they say the ones that are positive do have a better outcome." 

It's easier to stay positive when you have purpose. 

While taking on her own treatment, Sara has emerged as a powerful voice for those with metastatic breast cancer as an ambassador for the American Cancer Society Chicago Portraits of Hope. 

"We're still dying for funding and that I cannot stress enough that if you cure Stage 4 breast cancer, you cure breast cancer for all."

A stat she often shares is that only about 13% of breast cancer funding goes directly toward finding a cure for Stage 4 — that's according to the nonprofit Metavivor. Despite that, Sara's oncologist at Northwestern Medicine says there is a positive part of the story. 

"The exciting part, even for the patients with Stage 4, potentially incurable disease, the progress has been unbelievable," said Dr. Lisa Flaum.

With new drugs being approved and technology being developed, Dr. Flaum says patients like Sara have more options than ever for treatment. 

"Maybe some of these newer strategies are gonna help someone like Sara, right? I don't know if she's going to be cured, but at least kind of extend the timeline that we're able to treat her and keep her disease under control."

"It gives me hope, Sara said."It gives hope that I actually have and can have a normal life. I can grow with my husband. I can get old. A lot of people take that for granted, but the gray hairs that you may have or, you know, those wrinkles in your skin, you should be embracing those because if you are able to grow old, it's truly a gift."

A gift the Sandovals would cherish.

Sara's oncology team believes she and Ramiro are good candidates for adoption, so they hope to still live out their dream of becoming parents.