Rebekah's Story

The first time she found suspicious lumps in her breast, Rebekah Singer of Jupiter was a 28-year-old mother of two who had recently stopped breastfeeding her infant. The test that her doctor performed confirmed her suspicions: it was a clogged milk duct.

Four months later, she discovered another lump in her breast.

“I was itching my armpit and I felt a lump,” says the 30-year-old work-from-home human resources specialist. “I was ready to write it off as another clogged milk duct because it felt the same…but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

So she returned to her gynecologist to make sure, and while initial imaging found nothing suspicious, Rebekah’s doctor referred her to Dr. John Rimmer, Medical Director of Comprehensive Breast Care at Jupiter Medical Center, for an ultrasound.

“Within minutes of the ultrasound, I was downstairs getting a biopsy,” she recalls. Rebekah’s result in May 2023 confirmed the diagnosis: Stage 2 breast cancer – the same disease that her mother (double mastectomy and chemotherapy) and paternal grandmother (lumpectomy) had survived in 2011.

No time to process a cancer diagnosis.
“I went numb at that point, just trying to figure out the best way to go about this with two kids,” she remembers. “My son had just turned 1 a month earlier, and he was really young, barely walking. My daughter had just started kindergarten. Two months earlier we had moved into a new house. I didn’t really have time to cope or process what was going on.”

She singles out Dr. Rimmer and other members of the breast cancer team for leading her sensitively, expertly and compassionately through a plan of recovery and survival.

“Thankfully, Dr. Rimmer is a good family friend — and one of the most incredible doctors and human beings in the world,” says Rebekah. “He is a truly one of a kind. He took the time to assure me that we were going to get through this together. He explained every step, every process, every possibility at every step of the way. Based on my family history and results from the biopsy, he told me my options were a lumpectomy and double mastectomy…but he definitely recommended the mastectomy.”

“I’m here, and still kicking”
Her surgery in late May 2023 was followed by four weeks of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, and a treatment called “cold cap therapy,” which involves ice packs and cold liquid treatments that cool the scalp’s follicles during chemotherapy to prevent hair loss – Rebekah’s way of sparing her young children the additional image of a bald mother.

Today, she is undergoing hormone therapy injections every 3 months and will take a daily antibiotic long-term.

“I’m here and I’m still kicking,” Rebekah says with a hefty sense of gratitude for breast specialist Dr. Rimmer, plastic surgeon Dr. David Lickstein for her breast reconstruction, and Dr. Elisabeth Anne McKeen, her oncology specialist.

“Be your own advocate”
“They all went above and beyond,” she points out. “They care so deeply for their patients. They’re not opinionated. They just give you all of the facts upfront, and they want the best for every patient they see. The Jupiter team is amazing.”

Rebekah’s advice to other women facing breast cancer family histories, current diagnoses and treatment options?

“Be your own advocate,” she says. “I was 29 when I was diagnosed, and it was hard to realize that something like this was happening to me. Don’t wait until it’s happening to you to take it seriously. Go to your regular checkups. Ask for mammograms. Do your own breast self-exams. Watch what you’re eating. Take care of yourself…and surround yourself with good people and excellent medical professionals.”