Plant City Breast Cancer Survivor Turns Harrowing Journey Into Book to Help Others
by SHAYLYNN MARKS
photos provided by KATIE RADER
Katie Rader’s world shifted in an instant. In 2022, just a week after her teenage daughter survived a devastating car accident with a semi-truck, Rader went in for her very first mammogram. When her radiologist didn’t hesitate about her diagnosis, it was a moment, Rader says, that instantly changed everything.
Her diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma led to a whirlwind of surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation. But in the middle of it all, Plant City’s Rader discovered a surprising new calling.
“I used my Notes app, and every day I started writing,” says Rader, 46. “When my friends would ask how I was doing … I just sent what I had written.”
What began as intimate updates shared with friends soon became something much larger. The book now serves as both testimony and comfort for other survivors.
From Notes App to Book Contract
Rader had originally never set out to become an author until the encouragement from friends and her belief that God had a hand in her journey convinced her to take the leap.
“I said a prayer and told God, ‘If you really want this to happen, you’ll just drop a publisher in my lap,’” she says. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Soon after, she was introduced to Starlight Publishing, a small independent company. The editor, Yvonne Deane, was immediately captivated by Rader’s raw honesty.
“Katie’s ability to write from her heart in a way that feels like your best friend is sharing her story with you is part of her magic,” Deane says. “I laughed. I cried. I connected with her experiences as I had endured much of the same.”
Suffering a Setback
Just when Rader thought her cancer journey was behind her, she developed a severe infection that led to the loss of her reconstructed breast.
“I was mad at God,” Rader says. “I thought my story was done. I had finished treatment, and I was ready to move on.”
Her publisher and editor encouraged her to keep writing.
“They told me, ‘You need to be journaling this. This part of your story could help other people,’ ” Rader recalls. What she added in those raw hospital entries became the missing piece of her manuscript, titled “You Don’t Need Headlight to Shine.”
“When I sent those pages, Deane said, ‘Now your story is finished,’ ” Rader says. “It was the hardest part, but it made the book complete.”
Deane agrees that the addition gave the manuscript more emotional depth.
“It wasn’t work to edit her manuscript,” she says. “Instead, it was the beginning of a lifelong friendship connecting through shared experiences, feelings, and faith. Those later pages reminded me of what I had gone through, and it was a healing experience for me as well.”
Friendship and a Foundation
Rader’s story soon led her to Ashley Lloyd, executive director of the Breast Cancer Foundation of Central Florida. Lloyd first noticed Rader on Instagram when she was promoting her book.
“I asked her to go for coffee one day, and it was like all of a sudden, we were best friends immediately,” Lloyd says.
The book quickly became a resource for the women Lloyd’s foundation supports.
“When women call and tell me they’re diagnosed, I give them her book,” Lloyd says. “I tell them, listen, if you need to know if you’re angry today and sad tomorrow, and if it’s okay — Katie wrote it in this book.”
Lloyd says the power of the writing comes from its intimacy.
“You’re reading something that was once very sacred and private to her, and she’s sharing every emotion.”
Real, Relatable, and Resilient
Lloyd says what makes Rader’s story resonate is how authentic it feels.
“You feel like you’re sitting there with a girlfriend,” Lloyd says. “She’s telling you the gross parts and the funny parts. She’s real, and that’s the personality she wrote with.”
Today, Rader is cancer free, though she is undergoing preventive treatments for eight more years.
For many survivors, the honesty in Rader’s book is the most powerful gift.
“Once you’re done reading Katie’s book, you close it knowing you’re not alone,” Lloyd says. “If you’re not on the survivor side yet, you feel like you’re going to get there.”
Rader’s book, “You Don’t Need Headlights to Shine,” is available on Amazon and at other major booksellers.