Living with cancer during the holidays
ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- Some holiday traditions never change but for the Breslin family in Astoria, this will be a Christmas like no other.
Sadly, it won't be an easy one.
"The hardest part is probably with my daughter, Emilia," Jillian Breslin said.
Emilia is only 2 and a half years old. Her mother is only 35 and now in treatment for stage 4, triple negative breast cancer.
Jillian Breslin's diagnosis came without warning.
"It was May of this year. We had just gotten back from a trip in Disney. I was almost 6 months pregnant," Breslin explained.
Her symptoms included hip pain, sciatic pain and shortness of breath, but were written off as part of the pregnancy until they became too severe to ignore.
"We decided to go to the E.R. and they told me right there, in the E.R. that I was... I had cancer... basically throughout my body and my bones, brains, lung, breast and liver," Jillian said.
The Breslins are grappling with weekly chemotherapy and Jillian's survival, much less the holiday season.
"We love our friends dearly but saying no to those Friendsgivings and friends' Hanukkahs and all the friends' gatherings," she said.
The Breslins are only seeing immediate family because Jillian's immune system is so compromised.
As many of you know, Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager is a cancer survivor and in treatment, going through some of the same this holiday season. She wanted to share the Breslins' story to show what living with cancer can be like during the holiday season.
After all, cancer does not take holidays off.
No travel. No big crowds. Lots of staying home. Lots of "no" to others, but experts have some advice.
"As a friend or as a family member, that we don't take that personally, that we support that, that we encourage that, and that we find other ways to help bring joy," Dr. Shanthi Sivendran, an American Cancer Society oncologist, said.
For some, it may mean starting new traditions.
But that doesn't mean you should not check in on your loved ones. Cancer can be lonely.
"People stop inviting you to things, and that's tough," Jillian said. "I want to hear from them."
What's clear is material things don't matter one bit this holiday season, at least not to Jillian and her husband. What does he want the most for Christmas?
"Just to be with my two girls, really," he said.
For Emilia, too young to understand, it's a team effort right now to normalize the holidays when their world seems anything but.
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