Lavetta Meyers was vacationing on the east coast in the winter of 2017 when she first noticed a pain in her hip. She had just wrapped up a grueling, breast cancer treatment and recalled her doctor’s words at the end of her treatment, “Yes, Lavetta, I got it all, you no longer have cancer in your body.” Those words marked the beginning of 18 months of cancer-free bliss. Though the possibility of reoccurrence was always in the very back of her mind, she was so happy to be finished with treatment, she did not dwell on it. She hoped the pain in her hip was caused by the extreme temperatures that she had been traveling through, but knew it was better to be cautious. When she returned from her vacation in December, she sought answers from her care provider. Testing began in January of 2018 but her results were not delivered until the end of February. The wait was torturous and the diagnosis even worse. Lavetta’s breast cancer had metastasized to her right femur, pelvic, spine and into the middle of her chest bone. “Everything that I had gone through: the chemo, the surgery, the radiation. I would have to go through it again. [And ] It was something that could be treated, but not cured,” Lavetta said. The news was not just devastating to Lavetta, but also to her two daughters. “When you hear of Stage IV cancer, the majority of people think it’s an immediate death sentence. That’s what I thought when I was first diagnosed and that’s what my daughters thought too,” said Lavetta. It has been six months since Lavetta was re-diagnosed and it took her three months to come to grips with the new diagnosis, the new treatment and the reality of the situation. Lavetta spent much of those three months delving into what it meant to have metastatic cancer. In that time, she discovered that metastatic cancer was not necessarily a death sentence, that the survival statistics meant nothing to her, specifically and that there were others out there who had been living with metastatic cancers for decades. “You have to believe that you can still live your life, a good quality life. Every day we get up, go outside and walk around or drive around. We don’t know when our lives will end, it could be a car accident or some other freak accident. Even though the cancer is in my body, it doesn’t mean I’m going to die from it and that’s what I believe. I believe that I can live a long time with this,” said Lavetta. Lavetta’s determination, passion for survival and will-power inspire those she meets. She shares her story and perspective with others who have similar diagnoses and has found some amazing women through her journey. Together, they fight to defy the statistics and transform what the world understands about metastatic cancers.