What happens after Breast Cancer Awareness Month ends, when the campaigns quiet down but women are still navigating treatment, work, relationships, and the fear of recurrence? In this episode of the Women on Wisdom Podcast, Sandra Boyd welcomes Deborah Dubenofsky for a personal conversation about experiencing breast cancer in her 40s and again in her 60s.
What happens after Breast Cancer Awareness Month ends, when the campaigns quiet down but women are still navigating treatment, work, relationships, and the fear of recurrence?
In this episode of the Women on Wisdom Podcast, Sandra Boyd welcomes Deborah Dubenofsky for a personal conversation about experiencing breast cancer in her 40s and again in her 60s.
Deborah reflects on approaching her first diagnosis with the same determination she brought to her career: asking questions, gathering information, and finding ways to contribute. That experience led her into breast cancer advocacy, fundraising, and clinical research. When cancer returned more than two decades later, she faced a different emotional journey, choosing greater privacy while continuing her board responsibilities.
Together, Sandra and Deborah discuss what it means to remain yourself through illness, make room for uncertainty, and look toward a future that can feel difficult to plan.
Topics include:
Deborah’s message is not about being fearless. It is about giving yourself permission to experience illness in your own way, embrace who you are becoming, and keep fear from taking away the life you have today.
Our guest this week:
Deborah Dubenofsky is a board director and senior executive whose career spans government, higher education, business, and nonprofit organizations. She has served as Brampton’s city manager, deputy chief of staff for policy to Ontario’s premier, and vice-president of finance and administration at Wilfrid Laurier University. She currently serves on the boards of the OMERS Sponsors Corporation and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. A former national chair of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Deborah brings both leadership experience and a deeply personal perspective to conversations about women’s health, advocacy, and living through change.