Annie

Annie Swanson’s Story

No Stone Unturned

Annie Swanson and her husband, Jason, have walked nearly every path to parenthood.

In 2014, Annie was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer shortly after her 30th birthday and later faced a metastatic recurrence, making the path to parenthood far more complicated than either of them could have imagined.

In pursuit of a family, they tried many paths: fertility preservation, IVF, surrogacy, adoption, and donor eggs, each one offering hope at the beginning, and many ending in another heartbreak they had to somehow overcome to get to the next.

Their perseverance eventually led to the family they had hoped for, but getting there meant navigating nearly every corner of oncofertility and family-building after cancer at great emotional and financial cost that tested their limits, but never their desire to become parents.

A Diagnosis That Moved the Timeline Up

Before cancer, Annie was working a job she loved, pursuing an MBA, training for a half-marathon, and beginning to date Jason.

She knew she wanted children someday, but “someday” felt far enough away that the very thought of it was allowed to be perfect.

Annie imagined the usual order of things; fall in love, get married, build a life, and then think about having a family.

Cancer changed that.

Almost immediately after diagnosis, Annie found herself talking about chemotherapy, fertility preservation, hormones, treatment timelines, and whether she might still be able to have biological children in the future.

Her first oncologist warned that treatment could have long-term effects on her fertility, and he was not comfortable delaying chemotherapy or exposing her body to the hormones required for fertility preservation.

Annie’s head was spinning. She understood the urgency of treatment, but she was not ready to let cancer take away a future she had not yet had the chance to choose.

So she sought a second opinion.

Four Eggs Lead to Hope

Annie traveled to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she met with a team that better understood both the urgency of treating her cancer and the importance of preserving her ability to have biological children.

They gave her a two-week window to complete one cycle of fertility preservation before starting chemotherapy.

It wasn’t without risk. Because her cancer was hormone receptor-positive, there were concerns that exposure to the hormones used during fertility preservation could give the tumor a growth spurt. Still, for Annie, the risk was worth it to have a family someday.

The retrieval was completed successfully, yielding 4 mature frozen eggs.

Further complicating the matter, Annie and Jason also had to decide whether to freeze eggs or embryos. Freezing embryos could offer a better chance of success, but they were still early in their relationship, an emotionally difficult decision for any couple to make.

So she froze the eggs. And while small in number, they offered her something much larger, hope.

A Stage 4 Recurrence

Annie underwent chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, radiation, and medically induced menopause. Despite the massive changes, life began to settle down.

She started a new job. She and Jason moved into their first home together. They were also planning their wedding.

Then just as soon as life appeared to be as normal as it could be after her initial treatments, her cancer returned, and this time, it had spread to her bones.

Annie underwent another surgery to remove the tumor, including part of her sternum, followed by proton therapy, a highly targeted form of radiation.

It worked, and today her scans are stable, but metastatic breast cancer still shapes her daily life. She remains in active treatment and says that, unless something changes, she will always be in treatment.

Because it wasn’t widely discussed, there was really no “go-to” playbook for deciding when or how to start a family in the wake of advanced-stage cancer, but Annie and Jason knew that having children would fulfill that sense of meaning and purpose they longed to have.

Every Path to Parenthood

Because Annie could not safely carry a pregnancy herself, surrogacy became their path to trying for a biological child. A close family friend, Alexis, offered to carry their child. It was an extraordinary gift.

Annie and Jason fertilized the eggs they had preserved years earlier. Two of the four eggs survived the thaw and were successfully fertilized. Their dream of a biological child rested on those embryos, but the transfer didn’t work.

The loss was devastating. Together, they grieved the biological child they would not be able to have.

It was a heartbreaking reminder of everything that cancer had changed, but they didn’t give up.

Determined to blaze their own trail to have a family, they explored adoption.

Annie, who was adopted as an infant, had always been open to adoption, even before she had cancer.

That journey brought its own heartbreak.

Annie and Jason were matched with a birth mother and spent months preparing to welcome a baby boy. They picked a name, planned a nursery, folded tiny clothes, and let themselves imagine life with him.

At 38 weeks, he was stillborn. They were devastated and emotionally depleted.

Then, just as they were preparing to travel for his funeral, they received a call about another baby.

Saying yes felt impossible and necessary all at once.

That yes led them to their daughter, Rylie, who was born in June 2020. After years of uncertainty, heartbreak, and hope, Annie and Jason were finally parents.

Later, when they began thinking about a second child, Annie and Jason knew they wanted Rylie to have a sibling. But after experiencing both the beauty and heartbreak of adoption, they knew their next path to parenthood might need to look different.

They returned to surrogacy.

The same family friend, Alexis, who offered to be their surrogate the first time around, agreed to do so again.

Using a donor egg, fertilized with Jason’s sperm, Alexis carried their second daughter to term and gave birth to Morgan in 2022.

What Are You Fighting For?

Annie has heard people question whether someone with metastatic breast cancer should become a parent.

“What if you are not around to raise your children?”

For Annie, that question oversimplifies the unique and complicated situation that any cancer patient hoping to have a family someday endures.

For her, Rylie and Morgan are not separate from her cancer story. They gave her life purpose, meaning, and direction after diagnosis, treatment, recurrence, and another round of treatment.

Becoming a parent gave Annie something to keep moving toward.

As she sees it, if you are not going to pursue your dreams or build the life you still want, what are you fighting for?

That question sits at the heart of her story.

For many young adults facing cancer, fertility and family-building are treated like secondary concerns, something to address later, “if there is time,” “if treatment works,” “if life settles down.”

Annie’s story shows why that’s not enough. Family-building was not a side issue; it was part of the life she was fighting to live.

Why Annie Shares Her Story

Today, Annie shares her family-building story because she wants other young survivors, especially those newly diagnosed, to know they are not alone, and that oncofertility may not be just one path.

It can include fertility preservation, IVF, surrogacy, adoption, donor eggs, loss, financial sacrifice, but most importantly, hope for what can still be built after cancer tries to take it away.

Through Worth the Wait, Annie hopes to inspire more people to never give up on their chance to build a family after cancer and to better understand the fulfillment families find in one another’s lives.