OMAHA, NE (KETV/CNN) - Doctors diagnosed Jackie Holscher of Des Moines, IA, with breast cancer weeks after she gave birth to her baby girl. It's a fight hundreds of mothers made sure she didn't face alone.
It's been six months since Holscher welcomed her daughter Genevieve into the world.
Just two weeks after her delivery, doctors diagnosed Holscher with a fast-growing, stage two breast cancer.
"I've barely even had time to bond with my new baby, and then, you know, you have thoughts of how is it that I just had this baby and now I may not be here to raise her or my other two kids," she said.
She started chemo on her birthday and underwent a double mastectomy.
"It doesn't erase the chance of you ever getting cancer or anything like that, but it just made me feel better," Holscher said. "It's just what I felt at peace with."
That decision meant Holscher would have to give up breastfeeding, so friends recommended she follow another breast cancer survivor's blog, "Baby on the Brehm."
Holscher never expected to meet the woman behind it, Ashli Brehm.
"We had no idea we were both going to be in the same place," Holscher said.
Their friendship started in the waiting room at Nebraska Medicine. Then just before her mastectomy, Holscher shared her breastfeeding fears with Brehm.
"I remember her asking me, 'Do you want me to ask on my blog?' I go, 'Sure,'" Holscher said.
Brehm did, requesting 6,500 ounces of donated breast milk, and the response was overwhelming.
"I just like cried," Brehm said.
"She told me I have offers for over 9,000 - 9,000 ounces of milk, and I think it went silent on both of our ends because I felt like I couldn't speak," Holscher said.
Milk from Nebraska, Kansas, Florida, even Canada is being stored in freezers at Brehm's home and Nebraska Medicine.
"I watch too many women go through this and the things they lose, so being able to give something and say 'No cancer, you don't get to do this. You don't get to control this.' I think that's really so therapeutic, selfishly for me," Brehm said.
For Holscher, it means feeding Genevieve the way she intended, and she'll have more time to spend with all her children since she's been declared "cancer free."
"I breathed for the first time in six months, and I forgot that was totally different than what I was doing," Holscher said.
She drives to Omaha every few weeks for infusions at Nebraska Medicine.
Brehm plans on picking up another round of breast milk donations after the new year.
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