Former The Bachelorette star Katie Thurston has shared a deeply personal family health update, revealing that her mother is now battling breast cancer. The 35-year-old reality TV personality, who disclosed her own diagnosis last year, announced the news on Instagram this Monday.
A Mother's Diagnosis and the Power of Advocacy
Thurston posted a childhood throwback photo with her mother, captioning it with the difficult news. She explained that her mother was diagnosed a few weeks ago, but crucially, it was not her doctors who initially discovered the disease.
The social media star detailed a concerning sequence of events. After her mother received a mammogram in December with results marked "negative" and "probably benign," doctors noted she had dense breast tissue but did not recommend further imaging. They advised her to return for her annual mammogram in a year.
"I hate that we have to be our biggest advocate but also, it’s what will save our life," Thurston wrote, having flown to Seattle to attend her mother's first appointment.
The Critical Gap in Screening for Dense Breasts
Drawing from her own experience, Thurston urged her mother to request a breast ultrasound, a test she knew could find cancer hidden within dense tissue that mammograms might miss. Her insistence proved vital.
Within two weeks of the "normal" mammogram, and after her mother advocated for herself, a breast ultrasound found suspicious masses. Subsequent biopsies and an MRI led to a cancer diagnosis.
"Dense breasts need more than a mammogram to screen for cancer and yet somehow my mom had never been referred for further imaging," Thurston stated, issuing a public health plea. She urged anyone with a family history of breast cancer or dense breasts to request further imaging such as a breast ultrasound or MRI.
Thurston's Ongoing Personal Health Battle
Thurston first revealed her own breast cancer diagnosis in February 2025, having found a small lump herself. Her journey has been complex and public. She married comedian Jeff Arcuri in March 2025 amid her battle and pursued fertility treatments to freeze her eggs before starting cancer therapy.
Shortly after her wedding, she received the devastating news that her cancer, originally stage III, had progressed to stage IV after spreading to her liver. However, a reassessment of her cancer type to HER2-negative—which often has a better prognosis—led to a change in treatment plans.
In a recent update, Thurston shared that her liver MRI showed "no evidence of disease," though she won't have her breasts scanned until February to assess the treatment's full effectiveness.
Through both her and her mother's ordeal, Katie Thurston's story underscores a critical message about proactive healthcare and the necessity of patient advocacy in navigating complex medical systems.
