Local woman beats breast cancer
Seguin named Zonta’s 2026 honorary chair
Trending
ALPENA -- Mariah Seguin, an Alpena resident and social worker, was named the chair of the annual Zonta Walks for Women event, which will take place tomorrow at the Great Lakes Heritage Center. The event honors those who have had breast cancer, while also spreading awareness of early detection.
Seguin said her cancer journey has taught her about gratitude and grief.
Seguin explained that she was 33 when she was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, breast cancer, in 2025. She said that she first discovered a lump when she was tanning for a trip to Mexico.
"My cancer journey started as an accident," Seguin said.
She said while putting on tanning lotion she felt a lump and contacted her doctor.
"I was like, 'Oh my god, what is that?' Of course being young, a lot of times people brush it off or assume it's nothing," she said. "I erred on the side of caution, I reached out to my provider."
She explained that her provider sent her for imaging, which was a new experience for Seguin.
"I was only 33, which you don't start your mammograms until 40," she said.
"I went to those appointments and it was kind of an odd appointment," she added. "They were doing the ultrasound, they kept coming back and wanting more imaging, more imaging, more imaging, which led me to feel like something's not right."
Seguin explained that while waiting for results from the imaging procedures she experienced the "once in a lifetime ice storm" and went on her trip to Mexico.
"I went to Mexico with my friend, enjoyed that trip, and I’m glad I did," she said. "Came back, we had the ice storm."
After the ice storm, Seguin said she underwent a biopsy procedure and found out shortly later that she had breast cancer.
"I immediately got a call from the breast health navigator, and she was kind of talking with me about what the next steps would be," Seguin said.
"I told my husband via text message, 'I have breast cancer...' there wasn’t time to really have that conversation and try to process it. I feel like you don’t really process any of it until after ... chemo is done."
Before undergoing treatments, Seguin had to get gene testing done. Through this testing, she discovered she has the BRCA1 gene mutation.
A BRCA1 gene mutation is an inherited mutation that changes the BRCA1 gene so that the gene stops repairing DNA, raising the lifetime risk for certain cancers. Everyone has two copies of the BRCA1 gene, which act as tumor suppressors.
"That means a lot later on too, but in my cancer journey, it meant that there was some definite decisions to be made," Seguin said.
Seguin said that chemo treatments came with their one set of side effects, though she also felt out of place in the cancer center, since she was the youngest person there.
"As hard as chemo was, you kind of came to know week to week what was happening, it just became like this flow" she said. "I was the only person in the chemo room in their 30s."
"You don’t hear of someone in their 30s ...locally ... I was able to connect with the few people around my age that had had breast cancer from other people knowing people.
Seguin said that she was able to connect with other young women who developed breast cancer across the state, though there are not many opportunities locally for young people battling cancer to find peers.
"I love that we have Friends Together here, but unfortunately, right now, they don’t have a group for younger adults," Seguin said. "I actually have reached out to them and eventually that is something that’s going to come to fruition. You don’t hear a lot about younger adults getting breast cancer or really many other cancers."
Seguin said that during her cancer journey she underwent a bilateral mastectomy, which is a procedure to remove both breasts, and reconstruction.
"Because of the BRCA1 gene mutation, I knew when I was diagnosed, I wanted to do that," she said. "Having the gene mutation kind of made that more finite that I wanted to do that."
Though she is now in recovery, Seguin said that 1% of the tumor cells remain. She will continue to be on a medication for a year to prevent the chance of recurrence.
Seguin added that her cancer journey has given her a new perspective on life, challenging her to grieve her former body and learn to love the body she has now.
"I think I have more gratitude for life," she said. "I want to see more and do more ... once this happened, I was going to do something with this experience."
"Before cancer, I was very comfortable with my body," Seguin added. "I worked out. I was pretty healthy. I had long hair ... I’m learning to love this new body with what it comes with because it obviously looks extremely different in comparison to what it did. And it’s grief. You learn that you’re grieving a part of yourself, because essentially it’s grieving a loss."
Seguin will give a speech at tomorrow's breast cancer awareness walk, honoring her journey and others who have been impacted by breast cancer. Registration will take place at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Opening remarks and the walk to follow at 9:30 a.m.
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.