As we enter the month of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it is on my heart for my blog post this month to share the story of my best pal and a breast cancer warrior, Morgan Martin. I told Morgan when I saw her about a month ago that I might share her story for Indy Moms, and she said, “Oh, don’t do that… It’s too depressing!” Well, sorry, Morgan, but I feel that sharing your story could be powerful, inspirational, and maybe even save someone else who is destined to fight the terrible disease you recently lost your life to, so here we go.
I met Morgan the first week of my spring semester at Ball State in 2009, as we started our nursing clinicals. Morgan and I were in the same clinical group and immediately bonded, as many do in nursing school, due to our mutual dark sense of humor and enjoyment of taking care of an older woman with dementia who cussed like a sailor at the lunch table. We rode to and from clinicals together, studied together, and quickly became best friends. After we graduated in 2011, we started our nursing careers in downtown Indianapolis and had nursing orientation on the same day, smiling proudly in our royal blue scrubs. While we lived on opposite sides of town, we remained close and were bridesmaids in each other’s weddings, and took trips together as couples prior to having our children. I was blessed to share my first pregnancy with Morgan, as she carried her youngest daughter, and to navigate many chapters in life with her by my side.
In August of 2025, Morgan noticed swelling in her left breast, which prompted her to seek care. Morgan advocated for herself to get a mammogram, knowing something was awry, and the mammogram showed every woman’s worst nightmare: a 4 cm mass suspicious for cancer. Morgan had a biopsy and was told just 3 days before her 37th birthday, on August 5th, that she had triple-negative breast cancer. Morgan was shocked by this, as she had no family history of breast cancer, did her monthly self-exams, and had just had a mammogram a few months prior that showed nothing. Despite her shock, Morgan’s attitude remained as positive as she could, saying she would fight this disease and one day join me in a nursing home to cuss like a sailor and mess with the nervous nursing students. Morgan started chemotherapy in October of 2025 and had an aggressive regimen that left her feeling worn down, exhausted, and nauseous. Morgan had 6 cycles of chemo, a double mastectomy in January of 2026, and 16 cycles of chest radiation. Through it all, Morgan continued working as a gastroenterology NP, caring for her patients between treatments. She also continued to be a super mom to her two girls, ages 10 and 6, and attended all of their school events, celebrated their birthdays and the holidays, and enjoyed spending time with her family and friends.
In the spring of 2026, Morgan started to develop significant hip and back pain that was limiting to her daily life and activities. While some providers thought this might be due to radiation or arthritis, Morgan knew something was wrong. Again, Morgan advocated for herself and asked for X-rays. In a devastating turn of events, these X-rays showed that Morgan’s cancer had metastasized to several of her bones, including her hip, which the X-ray showed was at risk for an impending fracture. This news changed everything, as it made Morgan officially in stage 4 of breast cancer. Throughout her career, Morgan cared for the sickest of the sick in the transplant ICU setting, and knew what stage 4 meant. She continued to fight and required an emergent hip/femur surgery for a fracture, as well as a kyphoplasty for a fracture in her spine, which changed her mobility significantly. Morgan went on to receive 15 more rounds of radiation to her back and pelvis to help with her pain and ongoing symptoms. Morgan continued to advocate for herself and sought out clinical trials for treatment, even when her oncologist acknowledged that she had never seen a cancer behave like Morgan’s was. Morgan’s fight was inspired by wanting to be there for her girls, whom she loved so, so much. Ultimately, the cancer continued to metastasize despite treatment, affecting nearly every bone in her body, including her eye sockets. My last few visits with Morgan were shared in her living room where she rested in a very comfortable recliner, with her eyes shut as she struggled significantly with headaches and light sensitivity. Given the extensive nature of bone destruction from her metastases, along with side effects of her chemo, Morgan’s blood counts dropped significantly within the last few weeks, which eliminated ongoing chemo as an option. Morgan was hospitalized due to her significant pain twice in September, and between hospitalizations, supported her girls in their transition back to school and helped dress them up for each homecoming theme day at school. Just 5 days before she passed away, she attended her girls’ high school homecoming football game, putting her pain and struggles to the side to ensure she was making memories with her family and friends. Morgan was rehospitalized on Monday, September 28th, and made the very difficult decision that day to start hospice care.
During one of my last visits with Morgan before she was hospitalized, she shared with our two close nursing school friends and me that she wasn’t afraid to die, but she was very worried for what would happen to everyone when she was gone. Morgan had become involved in her local church in the last two years and made it a point to be baptized before she passed, believing that Jesus would be the ultimate healer and that she knew where she was going when her time on Earth came to an end. At her heart, Morgan was someone who cared deeply about other people. Whether it was her patients, her friends, her family, her husband, or her daughters, she was constantly thinking of others before herself. It is in those people that she cared about so deeply that she found strength over the last year as she fought a disease that was simply too aggressive for her to overcome, and she truly had an army of people behind her cheering her on. They say that grief is a result of a deep love, and that to feel grief is a blessing because it means you allowed someone into your heart enough to miss when they are no longer with you. Morgan was easy to love and to let into your heart. With her smile, contagious laugh, and incredible sense of humor, everyone she met quickly became her friend. To know Morgan was to love Morgan, and while the 38 years she had on this Earth were not long enough, the life and love she packed into those years, and memories she left behind, will keep her spirit alive. On her 37th birthday in 2025, Morgan made one of her epic speeches to the friends and family at her party. She said, “I’m not here for a long time; I’m here for a good time,” and encouraged all of us to keep fighting along with her. I am one of many who can say my heart is broken because she is no longer in my world, but knowing she is free from pain, no longer suffering, and resting in Heaven, watching down on all of us, gives me the peace and strength to go on. Her girls will be loved by the army that loved Morgan, and we will always tell them how strong, funny, brave, smart, and kind their mom was.
In this month of October, Morgan would want me to tell all of the Indianapolis Moms reading this post that doing self breast exams monthly is SO important, and that if you notice something new, to seek help right away. While medical providers are the experts in treatment of breast cancer, it is still imperative to be your biggest advocate and to speak up when you feel more workup is needed for something you feel is not right. While Morgan’s cancer took so much from her, her life and story also gave so much to others, and I hope that in sharing her story women are inspired to take control of their own health, monitor diligently for changes, and get their yearly mammograms for prevention.
Morgan, we will continue the fight for you and with you. I will love and miss you forever.
Your best pal,
Angela
