Media Has the Power to Save Lives #Breast Cancer

By 2040, 40% of women and 30% of men will receive a cancer diagnosis. Just as it was unacceptable that LGBTQ folx were not represented in media twenty-five years ago when I started my professional journey, it is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable that our media is not actively engaged in helping us prevent a cancer diagnosis and how we can best survive and thrive when we receive one and complete treatment.

I received my breast cancer diagnosis Jan 14, 2025 having just returned home after evacuating my home in LA due to the fires. It was Friday at 5pm, and my MediCal appointed doctor asked me if I had any family at home, when I said no she made a disappointed sound and then in the most uncaring and unprofessional way possible said the words I never dreamt I would hear, “you have cancer in your right breast, a surgeon and oncologist will call you next week.” No other information and no one called me that next week. When they did, no appointments were available for months.

The next three months fighting MediCal to get the care to save my life was more stress than I have ever experienced. I recorded every conversation with every MediCal operator, every piece of misinformation, the lack of empathy, humanity, then onto the doctors.

The only thing that kept me going was knowing when I was healthy again I would finally launch School of Fish, the media company and business plan I wrote before attending my first Sundance in 2002. I knew then that I wanted to make media that would center the disenfranchised folx, the people that were never featured. At the time it was my LGBTQ family. It was Boys Don’t Cry that changed my world and showed me how you could use media to educate people and save lives. Thirty years later and a whole lot of experience under my belt, it's time to focus my attention towards cancer, and help those same disenfranchised communities advocate for themselves and demand the standard of care that all cancer patients need and deserve.

A bit about my cancer journey so far: I truly thought I could beat the MediCal system. With English as my first language, college educated, corporate executive, cis white privilege ideas, I thought I could find a way to make it work. With two other hyper educated people and one insurance expert calling almost full-time 8 hours a day for weeks, MediCal broke me. When I think of the people who just give up, or who go to the shit doctor who gave me the worst advice and just take it as fact because they went to medical school, it breaks my heart.

I decided I had to find a work around and found a way to get onto a PPO that without Covered California would have been $1400/month. I then went to work meeting with as many doctors as I could from City of Hope to UCLA, personal recommendations and more. Why was I on MediCal…after being laid off from an amazing job during the pandemic I decided to use some savings to become certified as a resource family (aka foster mom) and fulfilled a dream to become a mother that I’ve held onto and still dream of today.

My mother was then diagnosed with breast cancer and shortly thereafter Alzheimer’s. As an only child I became her sole caretaker. Having worked as an indie producer for most of my career, not making money and living on savings has been the norm. I was applying for plenty of jobs but only had short term consulting roles here and there. MediCal was the safety net I and millions of others needed when my income was below a certain threshold.

The greatest doctor I found, the one who has 30 years of breast cancer experience, the only one who talked to me about my entire lifestyle and prescribed changes that will create an anti-cancer environment for the rest of my life Dr. Kristi Funk, doesn’t take insurance anymore and as painful as that is, I commend her decision. At this point, I think we all know how insurance is dictating medical care in the US. But she has written it all down in her books, goes on Good Morning America, and she is one of the greatest breast cancer evangelists we’ve got.

And now I have what it looks like to work with the best captured on my Iphone and want to share it with the communities I know how to reach and prioritize. As well as Dr. Funk, I’ve captured what it should feel like to meet with the best oncologists, plastic surgeons and even better, a comparison of what it looks like when you are not getting the calibre of care we all deserve.

I am not interested in making a documentary, the public I want to reach, the disenfranchised people I have always strived to focus on and help are not watching HBO docs (although I love HBO, Shelia Nevins and Lisa Heller forever.) This revolution will be on socials, using the skills Condé Nast taught me when they brought me in to launch “them,” what Billboard taught me when they made me their Pride Editor, what I learned as the first VP of Pride at a min-major studio.

I want it to reach the waiting rooms of the MediCal clinics and mammogram offices that I have now frequented where people will be going who aren’t reading her books, don’t necessarily speak english or have the time to sit on hold for hours only to be disconnected or have an operator who can’t give you any answers.

I know how to use media with an educational component better than most. I also know the power of a personal story and footage.

With my care plan finally in sight, it's time to get back to work. I will have surgery this week to remove my cancer, check my sentinel node to see if it has spread, heal and then start my chemo and radiation journey.

So if you have the means to help launch School of Fish, Obama style, every bit of energy towards this is welcome. If it is monetary, wonderful. If it is barter, great, let's talk. It is volunteering your skills as an editor, shooter, sound, graphics, social media posting wiz, lawyer, access to celebrity…game on. An introduction to serious financing so we can build this out the way I built out the first queer television network, let's go!

School of Fish is about using media to save my life too so you will also be paying my salary as I don’t think I can ever go back to a corporate world where 80 hour weeks, narcissists, non-stop stress, shitty food, and making someone at the top millions if not billions is the norm.

A funny thing happens when you face mortality, are almost 50 and have nothing to lose. This has always been what I do and now it's time to do it for myself on my terms. I would be honored if you would be part of the team to make this a reality.

With profound gratitude,

Alexis