She Found Out She Had Cancer the Day She Got Into Nursing School, Now She’s Pregnant

Image source: People

For most nursing students, an acceptance email can be some of the best news of the year. But for Katelyn Daniel, her acceptance day was tinged with other emotions as well, because it was also the day she found out that she had cancer.

Daniel found out she had been accepted into nursing school, a long-time dream of hers, on the morning of April 25, 2024. And by that afternoon, she also learned she had stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer, People reports.

Daniel was 24 at the time. Two years later, she is a 26-year-old registered nurse living in Kilgore, Texas. Since her diagnosis, she has finished chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and immunotherapy. She graduated from nursing school in August 2026, got engaged, and is expecting a baby girl in January.

Her path to that point started with a lump that she says several emergency rooms didn’t take seriously.

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Daniel found the lump on March 1, 2024. She told People it seemed to appear out of nowhere, was about the size of a golf ball, and looked bigger and sore by the next morning.

Daniel remembers calling her mom about the sudden increase in the lump’s size, telling her: “Something’s not right. I have a lump. It’s grown since last night.” 

Her mother took her to the emergency room. The family ended up visiting four of them that day. At the first three, Daniel says, providers asked her age and told her to take Tylenol for the soreness. She says none of them examined the lump, and one nurse practitioner suggested it was related to her period.

At the fourth ER, an ultrasound showed fibrous breast tissue, and she was referred to a general surgeon. The earliest appointment was in April. When she got there, the surgeon asked about family history of breast cancer, which she didn’t have, and told her to come back in six months. Daniel pushed back and asked him to remove the lump. He performed a lumpectomy on April 18.

At the time, Daniel was working as a registrar in a Texas emergency room and finishing prerequisites. She had applied to the University of Texas at Tyler Longview University Center. On April 25, the acceptance email arrived in the morning. That afternoon, at her follow-up, the surgeon gave her the pathology results: stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer.

She recalls him telling her that without chemotherapy, he gave her six months.

Daniel met with oncologist Dr. Matei Socoteanu of Texas Oncology the next day. She says he told her she was the youngest cancer patient he had ever treated.

According to Daniel, her insurance denied a PET scan because of her age and wouldn’t approve a mammogram, even after doctors knew it was breast cancer. Her oncologist ordered CT scans and MRIs instead, which showed the cancer had spread to her other breast and her lymph nodes. Genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 came back negative for her and her parents.

Triple-negative breast cancer makes up about 10% to 15% of all breast cancers and tends to grow and spread faster than most other invasive breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. It also has fewer treatment options because hormone therapy and HER2-targeted drugs don’t work against it.

Daniel’s treatment timeline, as she shared with People, looked like this:

• May 3, 2024: First chemotherapy treatment
• September 27, 2024: Last chemotherapy treatment
• October 21, 2024: Double mastectomy
• October 28, 2024: Declared no evidence of disease
• May 2025: Completed active treatment with immunotherapy

Her father is a battalion chief with the Longview Fire Department, and firefighters lined up outside on her first day of chemo. When she rang the bell after her final treatment, more than 200 people showed up, including the entire fire department.

“The way she has gone about her breast cancer fight, the way she’s continued to live life, refusing to let breast cancer define her future, is remarkable,” Socoteanu told People. “She is cured and cancer-free.”

Daniel started nursing school in January 2025 while still receiving immunotherapy. In July 2026, she received the “Heart of a Nurse” award, and she graduated in August 2026. She wants to become an oncology nurse at Texas Oncology.

Fertility was one of her first questions. During chemo, she went into induced menopause, and in October 2025, a fertility specialist told her conceiving naturally would be nearly impossible and recommended IVF.

She and her partner, Hunter Goff, decided to try anyway. They got engaged in March 2026 and learned she was pregnant in May. Their daughter, Everleigh Ann, is monitored closely by high-risk doctors, perfectly healthy, and due January 15. The couple plans to marry in 2027.

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Daniel’s experience lines up with what researchers have found about young women and breast cancer. 

A study presented at the 2024 American Society of Breast Surgeons annual meeting looked at 1,148 Canadian women diagnosed at age 40 or younger. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) had symptoms, and of those, 77% had a palpable lump.

About a third waited more than a month to seek care. Reasons included waiting for their next menstrual cycle and reassurance from another health care practitioner.

“Even if you have seen a physician, don’t dismiss an ongoing abnormality,” lead author Dr. Katherine Fleshner said in a meeting news release.

For nurses, the takeaways are practical:

• Age isn’t a reason to skip an exam. Breast cancer is less common in young women, which makes symptoms easier to brush off. A new, growing, or painful mass still deserves a hands-on assessment and clear follow-up instructions.
• Triage and discharge teaching matter. If a young patient leaves with “take Tylenol,” make sure they also leave knowing when and where to follow up if a lump doesn’t go away.
• Insurance barriers add to the burden. Daniel says coverage denials based on her age affected her imaging. Nurses who navigate prior authorizations and care coordination can help patients push through those obstacles.
• Patients become nurses. Daniel is heading toward oncology practice with firsthand knowledge of what her patients will face.

The last one is especially meaningful to Daniel, and as challenging as her experience was, she says she believes that she went through her cancer journey for a reason. She graduated from nursing school in August of 2026, and as she finishes wedding planning and her “hair grows out more,” she is looking forward to her future as an oncology nurse. 

“There are oncology nurses that tell patients, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be okay,'” Daniel told People. “But they have no idea how terrifying it is. I do.”

🤔 Nurses, have you cared for a young patient whose symptoms were brushed off because of their age, or been that patient yourself? Share your story in the comments below.