Morgan Aquino was not supposed to have cancer u2014 not once, and certainly not twice. An active mother, entrepreneur, and community leader in Oklahoma, Morgan was in her early forties when she received her first diagnosis: kidney cancer. Several years later, breast cancer.

In Episode 44 of The Cancer Project, Morgan sat down with host David Raubach to share what those two journeys taught her u2014 about medicine, about herself, and about what it means to face uncertainty with faith.

The First Diagnosis

Morgan’s kidney cancer was discovered almost incidentally u2014 the kind of finding that makes patients wonder what might have happened if the scan had been ordered for a different reason, or not ordered at all. Her treatment required surgery, and the recovery tested every dimension of her resilience.

The Second Battle

When breast cancer came years later, Morgan had something she did not have the first time: the experience of having already faced the worst and come through it. That perspective shaped how she approached treatment, how she talked to her children about what was happening, and how she found meaning in an experience that could have felt only like loss.

Morgan chose to undergo treatment at Oklahoma Proton Center, where the precision of proton therapy minimized radiation dose to her heart u2014 a critical consideration for left-sided breast cancer patients receiving nodal irradiation.

What She Wants Other Patients to Know

“You can do hard things,” Morgan says. “You will surprise yourself.” Her advice to newly diagnosed patients is simple: ask every question you have, lean on the people around you, and find one thing each day to be grateful for u2014 even in the middle of treatment.

Watch Morgan’s full conversation with David Raubach in Episode 44 of The Cancer Project.