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In this powerful episode of Still I Rise, Alana Acereto shares her story, “The Darkness and the Light,” a deeply moving reflection on childhood trauma, generational healing, and her journey as a cancer survivor.

For years, Alana sought healing through therapy, trying to untangle the chaos left by early trauma. She shares that participating in Story Crafting was the first process that truly allowed her to release the pain she had carried for decades. While some parts of her story remain sacred and were shared privately within her small group, she chose to tell her public story through powerful metaphor — describing darkness, light, and the courage it takes to break cycles.

When she became a mother, Alana made a defining decision: the shadows of her past would not shape her daughter’s future. That commitment to bring light into darkness carried her not only through trauma recovery, but also through her own battle with cancer.

This episode explores childhood trauma healing, breaking generational cycles, motherhood as protection, cancer survivorship, and the power of storytelling as therapy. It is a testament to the truth that healing does not erase the darkness — it teaches us how to carry light into it.

If you are navigating trauma, illness, or the quiet work of rewriting your story, this episode will remind you: your light matters — even when it flickers.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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Some journeys aren’t flat roads — they’re mountains.

Mountains with loose rocks beneath your feet.
 Mountains that make your heart race.
 Mountains that force you to stop, breathe, and pray before taking the next step.

Today’s guest, Maryann Fonseca, describes her life as climbing toward the highest peak — even though she’s afraid of heights. Along the way, she’s heard the echo of her sister’s encouragement, felt the steady love of family, endured abuse, navigated motherhood at nineteen, and leaned on the unwavering support of her husband of 37 years.

Then, in April of 2014, she received the words no woman is ever prepared to hear: breast cancer.

Thirty rounds of radiation. Five years of Tamoxifen. Physical pain. Emotional exhaustion. And yet — that was not the summit.

In 2016, at a retreat in Sedona, something shifted. On a run through the mountains, Maryann experienced a spiritual awakening — a moment she describes as entering a vortex of healing. The woman she had been no longer existed. A new version was born.

Since then, she has run marathons. Founded her wellness company, Colorfull Aura. And committed her life to becoming a light for others — especially women and minority women navigating breast cancer and beyond.

She is no longer climbing in fear.
 She is climbing with purpose.

This is Maryann Fonseca’s story.

Reaching the Peak.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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In this powerful episode of Still I Rise, Maureen Fedge shares her remarkable story of surviving acute myeloid leukemia (AML) as a child — not once, but twice.

Diagnosed at just twelve years old with an aggressive form of leukemia typically seen in adults, Maureen’s carefree childhood quickly shifted from Saturday mornings at City Park to hospital rooms, chemotherapy, and a life-saving cord blood transplant at Duke Hospital. After months in isolation and years of treatment, she was declared cancer-free — only to face recurrence again during her teenage years.

Through faith, resilience, and an unwavering will to live, Maureen fought back. Her journey through childhood cancer shaped her into a woman who now sees her scars — physical and emotional — as proof of strength.

Using the powerful metaphor of a caterpillar entering a cocoon, Maureen reflects on how darkness does not mean defeat. Sometimes it means transformation. Sometimes it means wings are forming.

This episode explores childhood leukemia survival, AML treatment, cord blood transplant recovery, faith during illness, and life after cancer. It is a moving reminder that even in the darkest seasons, hope can rise — and miracles are possible.

If you or someone you love has faced childhood cancer, this story will inspire courage, faith, and the belief that your time to fly may still be ahead.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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Life doesn’t come with a single ride.
It comes with twists, drops, music, stillness — and sometimes, pure fear.

When we meet Lauren Micciantuono, she describes her life like an amusement park. Some days are gentle and steady. Some days spin too fast to breathe. And some days feel like walking through a House of Horrors — dark, unpredictable, and heavy with the fear of what might come next.

Lauren is a wife, a mother of two, and a woman who once believed she could manage the ride if she just held on tightly enough. But cancer changed that. It stripped away control and replaced it with uncertainty — forcing her to confront fear, faith, and the courage it takes to keep choosing joy when joy feels risky.

In One Ticket. All the Rides. All the Feels, Lauren shares what it means to live with breast cancer — and now metastatic disease — while learning not to brace for the next drop, but to stay present anyway. Guided by faith, grounded in family, and honest about the tension between hope and fear, her story reminds us that life will always be a mix of rides.

The question isn’t whether the ride will be scary.
 It’s whether we’re brave enough to stay on…
 and sing anyway.

This is Lauren’s rise.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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In this empowering episode of Still I Rise, Crystal Walcott shares her journey through breast cancer, resilience, and the deliberate choice to reclaim joy. Diagnosed after her first mammogram, Crystal’s life shifted in an instant — from a celebration of family, faith, and milestones to navigating surgery, recovery, and life-altering change.

Using the metaphor of a warrior carrying a boulder, Crystal reflects on the emotional weight cancer brings — the fear, grief, and anger — and the strength required to keep moving forward. Through the love of her husband, the humor and wisdom of her children, and a mindset rooted in faith and gratitude, she learned that happiness is not something we wait for — it’s something we choose.

This episode explores life after breast cancer, body image, resilience, motherhood, and what it means to carry your scars with grace. It’s a reminder that while the boulder may never disappear completely, it can grow lighter — and even beautiful — over time.

If you’re walking through cancer, recovery, or a season that feels impossibly heavy, this story will remind you that you are stronger than the weight you carry.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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In this deeply moving episode of Still I Rise, Allison Spampinato shares her story of living with metastatic breast cancer while carrying unimaginable grief, fear, and responsibility. Diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Allison fought through chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation — only to face a devastating turn when the cancer spread to her brain shortly after losing her father to metastatic pancreatic cancer.

As a mother of three, a wife, and a lifelong caregiver, Allison carried far more than illness. She carried grief, expectation, and the unspoken role of being “the strong one” for everyone around her — even after brain surgery and during ongoing chemotherapy.

Using the powerful metaphor of a shield and a trembling sword, Allison reflects on fear, resilience, and the slow, sacred process of learning that strength doesn’t mean doing everything alone. This episode explores stage 4 breast cancer, caregiver burnout, anticipatory grief, and the courage it takes to ask for help.

If you are navigating metastatic cancer, caring for others while silently breaking, or learning how to live alongside fear without letting it consume you, this story will remind you: you are not alone — and strength can be found even when the weight feels unbearable.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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In this powerful episode of Still I Rise, Idun-Cara Byers shares a deeply moving story of resilience, caregiving, and healing after breast cancer. Diagnosed with Stage One Estrogen-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, Idun-Cara faced years of surgeries, body betrayal, and identity shifts — all while continuing to care for family, build a career, and live fully.

From a childhood shaped by love and resilience, to years of caregiving through ALS and stroke, to reclaiming her body through a transformative DIEP flap reconstruction, this episode explores how scars become symbols of survival rather than loss.

Through the powerful metaphor of an hourglass, Idun-Cara reflects on time, gratitude, and choosing joy over regret. Her story is a reminder that breast cancer does not define us — and that healing is not about erasing scars, but honoring what they represent.

If you’re navigating life after cancer, caregiving burnout, or the quiet work of rebuilding yourself, this episode offers hope, wisdom, and permission to live fully — right now.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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Some moments in life change us quietly.
Others crack us open completely.

For Nicole Urbanek, that moment came at just thirty-three, when the life she knew split wide with a breast cancer diagnosis. It wasn’t just her body that changed — it was the way she understood loss, resilience, and who she truly was beneath it all.

Nicole is a teacher, a storyteller, and someone who has known grief long before cancer entered the picture — losing her father at twenty, and her brother just twelve years later. In the classroom, she found purpose and light. In her students, she found a reason to keep showing up, even on her darkest days.

In her Story Crafting piece, Cracked Open, Nicole invites us into a powerful metaphor — a life shaped like a set of nesting dolls. Each layer built from love, memory, heartbreak, and survival. Cancer didn’t destroy her. It revealed her — stripping away the noise and leaving only what truly matters.

This is a story about choosing not to orbit endlessly around what’s lost…
 but reaching inward to find the next version of yourself waiting.

Because when life cracks you open, what you discover inside just might be stronger than you ever imagined.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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Some stories are not about how strong we are —
 but about who carried us when we had no strength left.

When we first met Catrina Sullivan, she carried herself with strength —
and with walls.
Walls built over years of heartache.
Of people letting her down.
Of being taken advantage of.
Of learning the hard way that survival sometimes means staying guarded.

Her life has been shaped by battles most people never see —
 childhood trauma, silence in the military, abuse, loss, motherhood carried alone.
 And then, at thirty-nine, a diagnosis that stopped everything —
 Stage Two HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

But as our team circled the wagons around her, something shifted.
Catrina realized the love being offered wasn’t conditional or performative — it was real.
Safe.
Given freely, without expectation.

And still — this is not just a cancer story.

This is a testimony of faith forged in fire.
 Of a woman who kept walking, not because the road was easy,
 but because God never let her walk alone.

In He Carried Me Through the Sand, Catrina reflects on a life marked by struggle and resilience — and the unmistakable presence of God in every chapter. When her strength failed, His did not. When she could no longer stand, He carried her.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]

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What does it mean to survive when life never gives you time to rest?

In this powerful episode of Still I Rise, Cat Black shares her extraordinary story of surviving breast cancer and leukemia — not once, but twice — while raising two young children. Diagnosed with breast cancer at 36 with a four-year-old and a five-month-old at home, Cat fought not just for herself, but for her family. Just as life began to stabilize, a second diagnosis — leukemia — burned everything down again.

Through hospital isolation, failed chemotherapy, and a life-saving stem cell transplant from a perfect international donor, Cat rose from the ashes — scarred, transformed, and stronger than before.

Using the metaphor of the phoenix, Cat reflects on survival, motherhood, identity, and the relentless fires that shape a woman when she has no choice but to rise. This episode is a testament to maternal strength, resilience, and the quiet sparks that keep us going even in the darkest moments.

If you’ve ever faced cancer, cared for a loved one, or wondered how people survive the unimaginable — this story will stay with you long after the episode ends.

Support the show

Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at [email protected]