Grief as Fuel: Kaitlin Christine on Building Gabbi to End Late-Stage Breast Cancer

In 2013, Kaitlin Christine's mother, Lisa Gabrielle, got a clear mammogram. Weeks later she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer, and she died less than eight months after that. When Kaitlin went through her mother's medical records, she found two things that should have changed everything: a family history strong enough to warrant genetic testing that never happened (her mother had an undiagnosed BRCA mutation), and extremely dense breast tissue that made mammograms the wrong screening tool. A year and a half later, at 24, Kaitlin was diagnosed with breast cancer herself.

In this episode of No Operating Manual, host Erin O'Brien talks with Kaitlin about turning grief into purpose. She explains what she learned as an account executive at Myriad Genetics, including why appropriate testing went up whenever she brought lunch. That work led her to found Gabbi, which is named after her mother and aims to eradicate late-stage cancer by making sure every woman knows her risk.