Breast Cancer Battle Brings Sisters Together

Kelly Siciliano and her sister Brittany Powell have always been close. Only 22 months apart in age, Kelly doesn’t remember a time when they weren’t each other’s best friends. Growing up in Maryland, they went through the typical middle school years when they fought more often than not. But by the time Brittany went away to college in South Carolina, Kelly realized how much she missed and loved her sister. 

After college Brittany returned to Maryland, but by then Kelly had gone off to college. Brittany and her husband Eric then traveled extensively from coast to coast, he as a traveling physical therapist, but Kelly would visit them wherever they called home. In time the sisters settled just an hour apart from each other in North Carolina and shortly afterward, Kelly accepted a fully remote position that allowed her to move within minutes of her sister, brother-in-law, and two young nieces.

“We’re closer than most sisters. We’ve always talked every day, all day,” Kelly said. “It’s funny, I don’t understand how we have this much to talk about all of the time, but I love it. We’ll go to the gym together and work out together, I’ll come help out with the girls a lot. We basically do everything together now.”

In October 2022, their conversations took a more serious tone when Brittany discovered a lump in her breast. Her doctor referred her to a breast specialist, who found the lump suspicious and ordered a biopsy. When the biopsy came back benign, the lump was diagnosed as a lactating adenoma, a breast lesion that can occur during late pregnancy and postpartum. As a mother of two still breastfeeding her youngest, the diagnosis made sense to Brittany.

But over the next few months, the lump continued to grow.

“She found another lump in her armpit in March,” Kelly explained. “She went back in and they biopsied that.”

It was cancer. And since October, it had grown about five times the size and spread to the lymph nodes. The news devastated the family, and the misdiagnosis months before brought up a whole range of emotions.

“Back in October, we went through the full gamut of feelings before we got the results that it was benign,” Kelly said. “So that was pretty devastating. But then having to go through it again in March… it was almost like God prepared our hearts back in October for something like this to happen.”

Though confused and disheartened, Brittany and her family understood it was all part of her story. They turned their focus to the battle ahead.

First up was 8 weeks of aggressive chemotherapy. “It wrecked her,” Kelly said. “She was done, she didn’t want to do any more. But thankfully, before she said anything, her oncologist decided to stop and re-examine the need for more chemo.”

That decision was made not only because of the toll it was taking on Brittany’s body, but also because she’d had a near complete response to the chemotherapy. After the first eight weeks of treatments the imaging found no cancer.  

Finally, a silver lining. Brittany would take a break from chemotherapy treatment and prepare for a mastectomy.

Through it all, Brittany and her family had been updating their community on CaringBridge.

“Brittany is very personable,” Kelly said. “She wants to talk with you face to face and tell you what’s going on. She wanted to be able to update everyone, but we realized there were so many people who wanted to be updated and there was no way to remember who we talked with.” CaringBridge allowed her to tell her story her way, and to let her trusted loved ones take over for her when she was too sick to write.

“With CaringBridge, we truly don’t feel like we could have more support than we do,” Kelly said. “To see the sheer number of people that have read her story and that are keeping updated on her is amazing. It’s really meaningful to know that somebody cares enough to subscribe to updates on how she’s doing.”

Brittany’s community has come together for her, both online and offline. A fundraising workout by Brittany’s gym was announced on CaringBridge and it drew people from all over the country, to raise money for Brittany’s medical expenses. “We are just blown away by the people and the generosity,” said Kelly. “There were people there we didn’t even know. It was just incredible, and really cool to see the community come together and rally around her and our family.”

After a successful mastectomy in July, the whole family is learning to breathe again. They understand the journey isn’t over, but there’s been a break in the storm.

“Brittany is so grateful for all the support and just wants people to see God through her,” Kelly said. “She wants to use her story to have people know God, and know that we believe there’s a reason all this is happening, and that God is the reason we’re getting through it.”