For sisters Mardi Kaplan and Sandra Merrill, breast cancer is not something that enters their lives only in October. It is woven into their family, their relationship with one another, and the way they think about the future.
Recently, Mardi and Sandra stood side by side at The Pink Agenda’s Pink on the River in Chicago to share why being part of The Pink Agenda community is so deeply personal to them. Both members of The Pink Agenda Chicago Committee, the sisters have experienced breast cancer in very different ways, but their stories are connected by a shared belief in the power of research to change what comes next.
Mardi was 37 when she was first diagnosed with Stage IIB breast cancer in December 2017 after finding a lump in her breast. She underwent a bilateral mastectomy, eight rounds of chemotherapy, 28 rounds of radiation, additional surgeries and years of medication intended to reduce her risk of recurrence.
“I did everything I was supposed to do,” she says.
Then, in March 2022, Mardi learned that her breast cancer had returned as Stage IV, or metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
Metastatic breast cancer occurs when breast cancer spreads beyond the breast to other parts of the body. While treatments can control the disease for periods of time, there is currently no cure. For Mardi, that means remaining in treatment indefinitely, staying on each therapy for as long as it continues to work.
It also means living in 12-week increments.
Every three months, Mardi undergoes scans and waits to hear the words she hopes for: shrinking, stable, unremarkable.
But scans do not always bring the news she wants. Since her metastatic diagnosis, Mardi has experienced disease progression multiple times. Most recently, scans showed that her third line of treatment had stopped working. She is now preparing to begin another.
It is a reality that makes the need for continued research intensely personal.
“There are only a finite number of available treatment options, and that’s why I feel so strongly about research,” Mardi says. “Research is the reason I’m alive today.”
When Research Means More Time
Mardi has participated in clinical trials during both her early-stage and metastatic treatment. And she has seen the pace of breast cancer research change her own options in real time: medications she has taken, and others that may become part of her treatment, were not yet approved when she first learned she had metastatic disease.
For someone living with MBC, a scientific advancement is not an abstract promise about the future. It can mean another treatment to try when the current one stops working. More time with family. More birthdays. More ordinary Tuesdays.
That urgency is part of what brought both Mardi and Sandra to The Pink Agenda’s Chicago community, where they serve on the Chicago Committee and help raise funds for lifesaving breast cancer research.
For Sandra, supporting that research initially meant supporting her sister.
“I found my place supporting Mardi by supporting The Pink Agenda,” she says. “By raising funds for research that would help extend her life comfortably and hopefully prevent many of my friends and my daughters from her fate.”
Then breast cancer became part of Sandra’s own story.
When Breast Cancer Became Sandra’s Story, Too
In November 2025, at age 42, Sandra received a breast cancer diagnosis of her own: ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, also known as Stage 0 breast cancer.
The cancer was found early, in part, because of Mardi.
Despite no known genetic mutation in the family, Mardi’s young age at diagnosis meant Sandra was considered at increased risk. She began alternating mammograms and breast MRIs every six months. Five years into that screening regimen, an MRI detected a tiny abnormality that had not been visible on her mammogram.
Sandra underwent a bilateral mastectomy and chose surgeons who offered nerve preservation and grafting, techniques that helped preserve significant sensation after surgery.
Once again, research had changed what was possible.
Sandra describes her diagnosis as a “gift,” not because cancer itself was welcome, but because early detection gave her options. It reinforced the importance of knowing her risk, advocating for herself and having access to screening appropriate for that risk.
“My sister is to thank for my early diagnosis,” she says.
The experience also gave Sandra a new, if still very different, understanding of what Mardi has been carrying for years.
Sandra could recover from surgery and begin to put treatment behind her. Mardi could not.
“Mardi had her every-12-week scans two days prior to my bilateral mastectomy, and when I was feeling like myself again three months later, she was back at it,” Sandra recalls.
That contrast is one of the realities of metastatic breast cancer that can be lost amid the sea of pink each October. For people living with MBC, there is no finish line to treatment. There is the current treatment, the next scan and, when necessary, the next treatment after that.
Beyond Awareness
Mardi has what she calls a “complicated relationship” with pink.
She understands its power. Pink can start conversations, build community and bring attention to a disease that will affect hundreds of thousands of people in the United States this year.
But awareness, she believes, cannot be where the conversation ends.
“When you see all the pink throughout October, I hope you’ll really notice it,” Mardi says. “Wear it, celebrate it…but I also hope you’ll ask: What is this actually doing to help people with breast cancer?”
For Mardi, the answer is action.
Research is not solely about finding the next treatment for metastatic disease. It is also about understanding why breast cancer develops, identifying who is at increased risk, improving screening and early detection, preventing recurrence, developing treatments with fewer side effects, and helping people live longer and better.
The sisters’ experiences sit at different points along that continuum.
Research helped identify Sandra’s cancer at its earliest stage. Research gave her surgical options that helped improve her quality of life after treatment. And research continues to give Mardi new options as she lives with a disease for which there is not yet a cure.
A Future They Both Want
Breast cancer has also changed the way Mardi and Sandra think about the generation coming behind them.
Sandra’s children have a mother, an aunt and a paternal grandmother who were all diagnosed with breast cancer before age 45, despite no currently known genetic explanation on either side of their family.
That unknown is another reason research matters.
Sandra wants a future in which her children have better ways to understand their risk and prevent breast cancer. Mardi wants a future in which someone receiving a metastatic diagnosis has more treatments, more time and, ultimately, a different prognosis.
And the sisters want something much simpler, too: more years together.
Mardi is clear that metastatic breast cancer is not a life she would have chosen. But it is the life she has, and she is determined to live it fully.
“I’m incredibly grateful to be here today, supporting research that I hope will give those who come after me more options, more time, and a different story.”
For Sandra, that future starts with the person standing beside her.
She wants her sister here next year. And the year after that. And for as many years as research can make possible.
Mardi and Sandra’s story is a reminder that awareness has power when we turn it into something more: knowing our risk, advocating for ourselves and one another, and investing in research that can change what comes next.
For Mardi, and for everyone living with metastatic breast cancer, what comes next matters.