When Morgan Bargent got sick, it upended every dream she had thought she wanted for herself: marriage, kids, a steady 9 – 5 job. Breast cancer had no place in that vision.
It was right before Christmas in December 2019 when Morgan found out. She had noticed a lump that was causing extreme discomfort, chest pain and fatigue. When she went to have it checked, the health care professionals she consulted said it likely wasn’t cancer. After all, she was an otherwise healthy, young woman with no risk factors or family history of disease.
When she finally got the diagnosis, it felt like a trick. Morgan is a triplet, and was immediately worried for her two sisters. If she could get cancer seemingly out of nowhere, were they at risk, too?
Morgan had two lumpectomies (sometimes referred to as partial mastectomies) at Trillium Health Partners (THP), the second one removing the cancer, surrounding area and lymph nodes. This was step one in a gruelling 10 month journey, that involved 10 chemotherapy treatments over the span of five months at Queensway Health Centre and radiation five days per week for five weeks at Credit Valley Hospital.
Small moments between different THP staff members, from surgeons to volunteers, played a huge role in her healing as she went through one of the most challenging times in her life. She recalls fondly the daily interactions with the woman operating the drink cart, who would always provide comic relief and friendly conversation as she dropped off Ensure and Ginger Ale for the chemotherapy patients.
She also remembers what her surgeon, said to her before her first lumpectomy. “He was a wonderful man,” Morgan recalls. “He said, ‘We’re going to fix you, you’re going to be okay,’ and as corny as it sounds, it was exactly what I needed to hear… his positivity and support was amazing.”
THP also conducted very thorough genetic testing to see if Morgan had any variants in her DNA that would indicate whether her sisters could also develop cancer. Thankfully she didn’t, which provided peace of mind that her siblings would be okay and that her partial mastectomy meant that the cancer was likely gone for good.
Two years later and Morgan remains cancer-free, living in Etobicoke and pursuing her dreams with a renewed sense of purpose guiding her and a friendly golden doodle, aptly named Hope, dutifully by her side. She’s begun improv and theatre classes and has plans to get professional head shots done, focusing on pursuing a dream career performing. She acknowledges that while the journey was difficult, the path she had been on prior to her diagnosis wasn’t the right one, and now she is focused on living out her wildest dreams with a new lease on life.
To all of the THP staff members who crossed her path on this journey, from the social worker who helped her apply for grants to help subsidize treatment costs, to the dietitian who helped her choose foods that would mitigate nausea from the chemo and everyone in between Morgan says this, “thank you for seeing me not as a patient but as a human being.”
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