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“It took my breath away,” Jill Thalhimer Campbell said, recalling the first time she heard triple negative breast cancer survivor Tara Daudani speak. It was 2020, 10 years after Campbell lost her own mother to the same disease.

That very personal shared connection drew the two women to Massey’s vision for a future without cancer. They now serve together as co-chairs of Massey’s Women and Wellness, an initiative that raises money to support cancer research and innovation through an annual luncheon and peer-hosted events throughout the year.

Campbell and Daudani have seen firsthand how research advances can be the difference between life and death. The pair recently sat down to recall their personal experiences and motivations for volunteering at Massey and to celebrate the advances in cancer research that are keeping more people in the picture every day.

A changing landscape

In 2009, Campbell’s mother, Lisa Thalhimer, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that can be difficult to treat. Her mother died a year later, and Campbell had never known anyone who had survived stage 3 triple negative breast cancer – until she met Daudani, who was diagnosed in 2018.

“When I first heard Tara speak at the Women in Wellness luncheon in 2020, I was awestruck,” Campbell said. “It took my breath away. “There you were, speaking as someone who survived stage 3 triple negative breast cancer,” she added, addressing Daudani.

“It took my breath away. There you were, speaking as someone who survived stage 3 triple negative breast cancer.”

- Jill Thalhimer Campbell
to cancer survivor Tara Daudani

“When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, we didn't even know what to think. It was the type of news that you don't ever expect to get, that you're not prepared for. But we were optimistic that Massey had the best of the best doctors and were ready to take all their advice and do whatever they asked.”

“My mom was really funny. We talk about her a lot with my kids, share stories.” Campbell named her daughter, Lisa, after her mom, who was a writer and amateur photographer.

Lisa Thalhimer

Thalhimer’s care team included Harry Bear, M.D., Ph.D., a surgical oncologist at Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. Bear focuses on the care of patients with breast cancer and on basic and clinical research, mostly on immunotherapy for breast cancer.

“My research career has spanned 40 years, from a time when many people said immunotherapy would never make a difference to it now being a standard part of initial treatment for patients with triple negative breast cancer,” said Bear, whose fascination with research was fueled by his first job working in a research laboratory at age 14. He remembers Massey’s earliest days when he was a medical student at the VCU School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree in 1975 and went on to complete a doctoral dein microbiology and immunology in 1978. He has been on faculty since the mid-80s.

Immunotherapies, he says, have dramatically changed the landscape for a variety of cancers, including the treatment of triple negative breast cancer, which has dramatically improved outcomes for patients. Other advances, he says, include the use of pre-operative, or neoadjuvant, treatments that can help decrease tumor size and allow for less radical surgery as well as the development of antibody drug conjugates that target the chemotherapy drug to the cancer cells so they don't impact other parts of the body.

When Campbell’s mother was diagnosed in 2009, the standard of care for triple negative breast cancer was not as defined as it is today. Through her volunteer work at Massey, Campbell has learned more about the advances in cancer research that had altered the standard treatment of care for a cancer like her mom’s – and Daudani’s. “These changes are saving lives. When I see how much research has changed outcomes for people with triple negative breast cancer. I feel incredibly dedicated to making sure that research continues.”

Jill Thalhimer Campbell and her family

Even in the five years since Daudani underwent treatment, new standards of care for triple negative breast cancer have been developed. “To know that there are new treatments being developed right here at Massey is just incredibly exciting.”

Daudani credits research advances and the care she received at Massey with saving her life. “Hearing the words, ‘You have cancer’ is devastating,” Daudani said. “I remember waves of heat just going through my body, I was scared, I was angry. I was worried about my daughters. Yet, I was determined to do everything I could to get past it.

“It was really a different message when I was diagnosed compared to what Jill’s mom received,”said Daudani, who is now five years NED (no evidence of disease). “Triple negative is still a scary diagnosis, but I was told from the start that I would get through it.”

As a survivor and a caregiver, Daudani and Campbell are proud to give back. Both are mothers and see their involvement with Women and Wellness as an investment in the future.

“As soon as I knew I would be okay, I also knew I wanted to do whatever I could to help advance research to fight this disease,” Daudani said. “I am involved so my daughters, sisters and friends will never have to go through what I went through.”

Tara Daudani and her family post-cancer diagnosis

Accelerating cancer research

As co-chairs of Women and Wellness, Daudani says, they’ve “gotten to look behind the curtain and to see what's coming” – and it’s even more effective treatments for triple negative and other cancers. “It's so exciting to have that happening right here in Richmond.”

To Campbell, Daudani said, “It is because of women like your mom, who participated in clinical trials, that we know more than we did. Even though it didn't help her, it may have helped me, and I am so grateful.”

Massey chief of breast surgery, Kandace McGuire, M.D., echoes the value and importance of Women and Wellness in raising awareness and funds that are critical to her work. “The Women and Wellness community is an inspiring and motivating group. who are truly passionate about empowering us in the fight against cancer. Whether through the annual luncheon or small, intimate gatherings hosted in the homes of our generous supporters that bring our donors together with the doctors and researchers, the women and Women and Wellness are changing the world for the better.”

In addition to Daudani and Campbell’s dedication to accelerating cancer research, the pair share an appreciation for the legacy of Women and Wellness in the Richmond community.

“The women who created and sustained Women and Wellness were such visionaries” said Daudani. “I think it's really cool that this luncheon has been happening for 29 years and that the tradition of Women and Wellness continues to raise awareness and funds for women's cancer research.”

As for Bear, he says, “I can envision a world where breast cancers are detected so early and where treatments are so effective that the cancer will rarely shorten a woman's life.”

To get there, continued financial support through initiatives like Women and Wellness is critical.

“Without money raised through Women and Wellness and philanthropy, my treatment would have been a lot different,” Daudani said. “And I dare say my outcome would have been different.”

Watch video
Watch video of Campbell’s and Daudani’s personal connections to cancer.

2024 Women and Wellness luncheon keynote speaker: Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert, influential writer and bestselling novelist, best known for her 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love,” headlined the sold-out event benefiting VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center on Feb. 6, 2024.

Massey’s Women and Wellness luncheon boasts a long tradition of bringing strong women speakers to Richmond to share personal stories about resilience in the fight against cancer. Journalist and author Elizabeth Gilbert was no exception as the featured speaker for the 2024 event on February 6 at The Jefferson Hotel.

Gilbert is best known for the New York Times’ bestselling memoir Eat Pray Love, which chronicles the year she spent traveling the world after a difficult divorce. At the February event, Gilbert shared her powerful story as a caregiver during her partner’s cancer journey and what losing the love of her life taught her about living.

“When somebody who you love is very fragile one of the things that happens is the entire world starts to feel incredibly perilous,” Gilbert said.

Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2008, Gilbert’s writing expands our understanding of creativity, spirituality and love.

At the 2024 Women and Wellness event, Gilbert shared her experience caring for the love of her life, during her partner’s journey following a terminal pancreatic and liver cancer diagnosis.

“When you are broken, sometimes that’s when divinity can find you,” Gilbert shared. She talked about learning how to give herself, and others, mercy. “Mercy is a state of being where we’re all standing together.”

Watch video recap of the 2024 Women and Wellness luncheon

Learn more about Women and Wellness at: https://vcumassey.org/waw.

Written by: Katherine Layton and Erin Lucero