October brings awareness to breast cancer through the iconic pink ribbon. However, there is more than one type of breast cancer; one of them is metastatic breast cancer.
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, which is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, Winter Garden held a ceremony to honor the “thrivers” who fight this disease every day. Through a program called Light Up MBC, the day is directly focused on raising awareness and donations to research on metastatic breast cancer.
MaryAnn Mazellan, a resident of Winter Garden, spoke about her experience with stage four metastatic breast cancer. After originally being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in 2014, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2019, six months after she moved from New Jersey to Winter Garden.
“We were shocked to find out I had seven tumors, and I had just moved to a house,” Mazellan said. “It was a very sad time in our lives; we were just starting new, and I felt like I took so many steps back.”
A main point about metastatic breast cancer is that it is incurable but treatable. Many patients go through chemotherapy, such as Mazellan, and try new treatments to stabilize and cease the spread of the cancer. The cancer can spread from the breast to distant organs, such as the bones, lungs, and the brain. In Mazellan’s case, it was found in her pectoral muscle. As the patient tries new treatments, they may work for some time, but it’s never guaranteed.
“My first line of treatment worked for five years,” Mazellan said. “I was considered stable. I wasn’t cured, but it almost puts the cancer to sleep. But with metastatic breast cancer, unfortunately, it will wake up again.”
The colors of the ribbon for metastatic breast cancer are vastly different from the more well-known pink ribbon for breast cancer. Though there is still pink in the ribbon, there is an addition of teal and green.
“It was inspired by a woman named Laura, whose friend Jessica died from metastatic breast cancer,” Mazellan said. “Her dying wish was that it wouldn’t just be pink; that there’d be colors for metastatic. So, she came up with the colors.”
On the Thursday before this event, Mayor John Rees of Winter Garden read a proclamation during the Winter Garden City Commission meeting, which he read again to the attendees during the ceremony. During the proclamation, he explained the importance of the colors for metastatic breast cancer. Teal is for healing, green is for hope, and pink is for the origin of breast cancer.
“In 2026, an estimated 324,580 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S., and approximately 42,670 Americans, more than 670,000 people globally, will die from breast cancer, the vast majority due to metastatic disease,” Rees said. “Despite this staggering toll, less than 13% of global breast cancer research funding is dedicated specifically to MBC.”
The ceremony honored Winter Garden resident Brittney Beadle, who was diagnosed with MBC at 18 years old and passed away when she was 29 from the cancer. Her husband Patrick Coppieters, along with Beadle’s mom, Karla, and Coppieters’s mother, spoke about Beadle and her life.
“She has shown the world what it means to choose love over fear every single day,” Coppieters said. “She went to all of her doctor appointments, scans, treatments, all the things that no one wants to do, with the biggest smile and a happy energy, not because she wanted to be there, but because she was choosing to love herself.”
Beadle traveled to 25 states and wrote a book titled A Peace of Hope – Finding Inner Peace and Healing Through Stage IV Cancer.
Mazellan is now an ambassador for Light Up MBC and has been actively battling the spreading breast cancer again for the last two years after doing well for five years following her diagnosis. On the day of the ceremony, she attended a radiation appointment. She explained how only 17% of the funding from Breast Cancer Awareness Month goes toward research about metastatic breast cancer. With that, 30% of women who have breast cancer will go on to develop metastatic breast cancer.
“No one understood that with metastatic breast cancer, your treatment’s never over,” Mazellan said. “So when I learned about Light Up MBC, and that they were solely for metastatic research, I was so impressed.”
During the live show, Light Up MBC showcased what the money that was raised from 2025’s event funded, which helped stimulate more research on metastatic breast cancer and grants. Donations can be made HERE.
