Robin Herbst-Paparne, Psy.D. (she/her)

Illness: breast cancer, diagnosed at 29 y.o.

Who I am: A health food cook, a fur baby lover, an amateur pianist, someone who exists to support and love on my fellow humans.

A little more: I’ve been a student for my entire life—formally until I completed my post-doc to become a clinical psychologist and informally in the time between and after, when I’ve had to learn and relearn how to live with the fallout of cancer.

I was diagnosed with an unstaged (due to neoadjuvant chemo) triple positive, grade III breast cancer when I was 29 years old, four unsuspecting days after our wedding, just ahead of completing the final requirements for my doctorate. I was thrust from being on the verge of achieving life dreams, three decades in the making, when suddenly I was to become a student again. Except this time, my studies were frantically toward an end of survival; toward finding pockets of control amidst chaos and fear; toward learning how to rely on both people I love and on complete strangers; toward a still unresolved figuring out whether or not I can count myself back in for the stuff of life; toward healing through connection with others who see me, hear me, and who have a more accurate approximation of the life I’ve lived and the hurdles that I still face.

From this fervid learning; from deep connections born from joining each other so that we would be a little less alone; from witnessing and experiencing the generosity of people with chronic illnesses helping each other along in their respective paths; and from dreaming of a collective space to support one another fueled by the love of our community, the seeds of Chronic Love were formed. We hope that this space can soften your hurdles and bring some comfort to your world.