Jenn Kane recently returned to the helm of her fifth-grade classroom at New London Elementary School for the first time in over a year, diving back into lessons and forging bonds with her newest students.
“I wanted to get my life back, and I wanted to have something else driving that wasn’t cancer,” she said. “And I love my job. I love my school, and I love our community.”
Kane’s annual mammogram in the winter of 2025 showed troubling evidence of something amiss. The test was soon followed by a breast cancer diagnosis, leaving Kane reeling. Within mere months, she underwent a double mastectomy and made the difficult decision to step away from teaching for a year to focus on her health.
Her cancer proved to be bilateral, with two kinds growing at the same time, requiring twice the strategy to defeat.
“It’s hard to be reflective when you’re in the middle of it, which I feel like I’m just coming out,” Kane said. “I feel like I’m at a stage right now where I’m in a little bit of a whiplash. I’m doing a lot of just like, ‘Whoa, that happened to me?’ I mean, I think that’s the next stage of this process.”
Her return to the classroom has been a return to as much normalcy as she can find, even though her energy is lessened as she continues to recover after chemotherapy.
On Sunday, Kane will don her pinkest attire and head to Memorial Field in Concord with a team of her loved ones for the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, which benefits the American Cancer Society and raises money for research and patient support.
About one in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates over 42,000 women will die of breast cancer in 2026 alone. The disease is the most common cancer facing women in the United States, except for skin cancer.
Kane actually participated in the walk for years before her diagnosis, getting involved in her 30s and 40s. Her dad was a lung cancer specialist, so she grew up understanding the importance of fighting this disease in whatever form it took.
After her diagnosis last year, Kane reassembled her team under the name Braver Together, with 50 people in her life slated to walk alongside her.
“As walk day approached, I was in the midst of chemotherapy and experiencing neuropathy, a common side effect that was causing me to lose feeling in my hands and feet,” she said. “I worried about whether I would be physically able to participate. But as the day drew closer, I felt the love and support of the people around me. Fueled by determination, emotion, and a healthy dose of adrenaline, I made it to the starting line.”
Team Braver Together became the top fundraiser for 2025, she said, hitting $12,000 through individual contributions alone.
“My mantra this whole time has been just keep showing up, be brave, and keep showing up, and so that this Braver Together was born in that way as well,” she said.
The celebratory feel of the event, coupled with the solidarity of survivors and supporters, is unparalleled for Kane, especially as she considers what it’s taken to make it here.
Another light in her life recently has been Cancer Recovery on Water, or CReW, run through Dartmouth Hitchcock. Having never rowed before, she decided to give it a try and has found a community of “incredible human beings.”
“Just being on the water with this crew the other day, I was like, I am so grateful,” she said. “I am just so incredibly grateful. Like this is another thing that this sort of tragedy has brought to my life,” she said. “And I’m grateful I’m still here. I feel that way often.”
As she prepares to walk on Sunday, she finds herself thinking of her own resilience and of the solidarity of others walking the same path alongside her.
“It’s still something that, until you go through it, you really just don’t understand the gravity of it,” she said.
The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk will take place on Sunday, Oct. 25 at Memorial Field in Concord, with the event festivities kicking off at 10 a.m., the ceremony happening at 11:30 a.m. and the walk beginning at noon. Visit cancer.org for more information on the American Cancer Society and Making Strides.
