Conversations: Judith Fitzgerald

Adventures with Scars

On this episode Lauren welcomes guest Judith Fitzgerald.
Judy was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in 2009. Her year of treatment included a double mastectomy and reconstruction. Since her diagnosis, she has been an active advocate for breast cancer prevention and founded Sisters4Prevention in 2010.
Judy serves as a consumer advocate for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Grant Program, and is an active blogger on social media. Her passion is diet and lifestyle changes that can help survival, as well as supporting the development of a vaccine for the prevention of breast cancer. She serves as an advocate for the Phase I clinical trial of the breast cancer vaccine at the Cleveland Clinic developed by Dr. Vincent Tuohy. In 2019, she initiated a group to lobby Congress for a “Women’s Health Initiative”. Such a program did allocate specific funds to support research for the prevention of women’s cancers with the funding of the NCI Prevent Program.
In 2015, she was selected by Ford Motor Company as a “Warrior in Pink” for her service to the breast cancer community. She is working with the Biden Moonshot Team to advocate for psychological support for cancer survivors post treatment. She is passionate that this is the time when help is needed most, and support is too often given least.

Judy serves as an advocate for Friends of Cancer Research, Komen Advocates in Science, the FDA and NIC/NCI. She is a retired teacher and lives in West Palm Beach Florida with her husband John and is blessed with 5 grandchildren.

She is the author of a book, A Teacher’s Journey…What Breast Cancer Taught Me and the website www.Sisters4Prevention.com. Links to her Youtube Channel and Podcast are found on her website. Her book is available on Amazon.