Breast Cancer and Heart Failure at the Same Time: How Dawn Freret Found “Glimmers” and the ability to "Dance through the Darkness"

Today on Still I Rise, you’re going to meet a woman who describes herself through the image of a firefly—small, steady, and lit from within, flickering even when everything around her feels dark.

Our guest, Dawn Freret, was stepping into a new chapter: rebuilding after a painful divorce, raising her boys, and finding love again—ready to turn 50 and see it as the beginning of the second half of her story. But then a routine mammogram became a biopsy… and in February 2025, Dawn was diagnosed with Stage 2 HER2-positive breast cancer.

Before treatment could begin, her oncologist ordered a standard echocardiogram—just to make sure her heart could handle the drugs. What it revealed stopped everything: an ejection fraction of only 20 percent. Dawn felt fine. She was active. No symptoms. And yet she was in heart failure.

In an instant, she was carrying two diagnoses—breast cancer and congestive heart failure—and her cancer treatment paused before it ever started. For six long months, she had to wait as her heart became the priority, learning a new kind of bravery: trusting her doctors, trusting timing, and allowing people to hold some of the weight.

And along the way, Dawn learned to look for what she calls “glimmers”—tiny sparks of joy, gratitude, and peace that still appear in dark seasons.

This is Dawn’s story entitled "Dancing through the Darknesss".  It's a story of resilience, vulnerability, and hope—of not just surviving the darkness… but learning to light it up and dance through it.