Writing Through It

Karla Baptiste is an author and three-time breast cancer survivor.  Two years after being diagnosed, Karla started writing her memoir about the good, bad and ugly of her breast cancer journey from diagnosis to reaching her five-year survivor anniversary. She found the writing process to be very cathartic. During her second diagnosis she was being treated at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) and became an ambassador for their Cancer Fighters support group. As an ambassador you are asked to reach out to other patients while at the hospital. When patients discovered that Karla was an author they would often say they would like to write a book or had started and hadn’t finished, so she thought a writing group would be helpful. She started a monthly expressive writing group called Writing Through It. Over the years the group has grown and recently expanded to all five CTCA hospitals. Additionally, Karla’s friends and followers outside of the hospital have been expressing interest in participating in Writing Through It. With so many people struggling emotionally with the pandemic and with people suffering from illnesses other than cancer who could benefit from expressive writing, she decided it would be nice to expand Writing Through It to a broader audience.

In her spare time, Karla is also an ambassador for the Stanford Cancer Institute Community Partnership Program which aims to reduce breast cancer disparities among African American women. Karla has a Bachelor degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Master of International Business from Schiller International University- Paris, France. Karla retired from a career in sales with a major Food and Beverage manufacturer in June 2019 to focus on breast health advocacy and being her own boss. She is a realtor and is living cancer-free in the Dallas, TX area with her dog, Armani. Her bestselling breast cancer memoir, Dig in Your Heels: The Glamorous (and Not So Glamorous) Life of a Young Breast Cancer Survivor, is available internationally at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers.