• Carol Colborn is a full-time carer to her husband, William, who has Alzheimer's disease.
• She struggled, especially after being diagnosed with cancer, and the pair was confined to the house.
• A Medicare benefit designed to help carers and keep their loved ones at home changed all that.

This story is based on an interview with Carol Colborn, 77, a retired academic from Mesa, Arizona. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband, William, and I married in 2008 when I was 60, and he was 65.

We both retired and went on an amazing adventure together: RV-ing full time across North America for eight years.

We drove to every state in the US, every state in Mexico, and every province in Canada. Then we traveled the world, visiting 29 countries in total.

The trips stopped after William was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2018, so we're glad we built so many happy memories on the road.

He'd shown symptoms of the illness, mostly forgetfulness. I gave him a shopping list of three items written in large print, and he'd come back with two.

We had a ritual: he'd bring me a mug of herbal tea while we watched TV in the evening. It made me calm and serene and helped me sleep better. He'd done it every day since our wedding and, when he forgot the first time, I was distraught.

William had mild cognitive impairment for the first four years, which progressed into moderately severe Alzheimer's.

He needed 24/7 support, and I was his full-time caregiver. He stayed in bed a lot of the time, but I gave him his medication, three meals a day, and baths.

I had chemotherapy for lung cancer

His mobility was limited, but we still did our evening walks past four houses. It was his main exercise.

Things were relatively manageable until July 2025, when I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had surgery in September and was in the hospital for four days.

My daughter and William's daughter stepped up to care for him, but it was a temporary arrangement because they lived in other states.

I began chemotherapy and had to juggle my husband's health needs with my own. It was incredibly stressful.

"How can I take care of him while taking care of myself?" I asked myself. We considered assisted living, but we couldn't bear the thought of leaving our own home.

One of our biggest expenditures was transport. William gave up driving long ago, and I'd never driven. It meant we'd spend around $500 a month on Uber rides to get to things like his doctors' appointments and my cancer procedures.

We were paying between $30 and $40 a trip. It got to the point where we stayed home most of the time because we couldn't afford the cost.

It was exhausting trying to navigate the Medicare system

The walls closed in on us. We didn't go to mass or socialize with our friends. Things like date night at a restaurant were out of the question.

It was exhausting trying to navigate the Medicare system. It felt as if I was fighting for every benefit and getting nowhere. Every day was a challenge.

Earlier this year, I saw an ad on Facebook for Ez Health, a free or low-cost service that deals with Medicare on your behalf. It explained how federal legislation passed in January 2024, called Community Health Integration, aims to keep people who want to stay in their own homes as long as possible.

The program supports carers like me. We were appointed a health advocate, known as a guide, who helped me through the qualification process.

We suddenly got many of the benefits I'd been struggling for, including eight hours a week of respite care. We also had access to medical professionals who came to your home, such as a physical therapist, a palliative nurse, a dentist, and a phlebotomist.

Dining out again has strengthened our marriage

Our transport is subsidized. The guide introduced us to a local paratransit service that costs $3 per ride. It has saved us as much as $400 a month. Best of all, it's opened up our world.

We use it not only for grocery shopping and health appointments — I'm having maintenance therapy for my cancer now — but also for date nights. Dining out again is transformative and has strengthened our marriage.

These days, rather than William's caregiver, I refer to myself as his "present companion," as I steer him through his later years.

FOX News Media teamed up with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) Thursday for a special panel highlighting advances in breast cancer research and treatment while urging women to take an active role in their healthcare. 

The event, held at Fox News headquarters in New York City during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, featured Kat Timpf, the "Gutfeld!" co-host and breast cancer survivor, alongside Dr. Priya Malhotra, director of research impact at BCRF.

Speaking with Fox News Digital after the panel, Timpf emphasized that while breast cancer awareness is widespread, misconceptions about the disease persist and may discourage people from asking important questions about their health.

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"There is also so much that people don’t know. It can happen at any age, without genetic markers. I would know that," Timpf told Fox News Digital. "Talking about it is always helpful because it removes a lot of the stigma, and it makes you feel like you can ask these questions to your doctor."

Timpf was diagnosed with Stage 0 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in February 2025, just 15 hours before giving birth to her first child. She announced the news on social media days later, writing what she called an "unconventional birth announcement."

"Last week, I welcomed my first child into the world. About fifteen hours before I went into labor, I was diagnosed with breast cancer," Timpf wrote on X at the time.

"Now, before you worry, my doctor says it’s stage 0 and is confident that it almost certainly hasn’t spread. Or, as I’ve explained to the few people I’ve managed to tell about it so far: Don’t freak out. It’s just, like, a LITTLE bit of cancer."

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Throughout her breast cancer experience, Timpf leaned on her signature humor, a coping mechanism she said helped her through some of the most difficult moments of her diagnosis and recovery.

"Humor is how I've gotten through every hard thing that's ever happened to me," Timpf said. "I was making jokes the day I was diagnosed about getting huge replacement [implants] and stuff like that. That's just how I do things because I feel like when you say that you can't joke about a subject, you're giving it even more power over you than it already has.

"For me, making jokes about a subject is a way to instead feel power over the things that are threatening to take you down."

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Timpf's central message to women was to take an active role in their healthcare, stay on top of recommended screenings and speak up when something doesn't feel right.

"Your own health is up to you. So, you have to make sure you pay attention and ask your doctor questions," Timpf said. "Don't think it can't happen to you because I thought that, and I was wrong."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the U.S. and worldwide, with approximately one in eight U.S. women expected to develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

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While breast cancer has historically been more commonly diagnosed in older women, rates are rising among younger women, including those under 40, before routine mammograms are generally recommended for women at average risk.

Dr. Malhotra emphasized that while breast cancer diagnoses in younger women account for a relatively small share of cases, the impact is profound.

"Incidence of breast cancer is rising in younger women," Dr. Malhotra told Fox News Digital.

"Maybe 10% of breast cancers are in younger women," she added. "But still, if you're one of the 10%, it's crushing."

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Dr. Malhotra, who previously served on the faculty at Georgetown University, now works at BCRF to help advance breast cancer research. She highlighted the growing number of targeted treatments developed in recent decades.

"In 1977, we had one targeted treatment for breast cancer. Twenty years later, we had two," Dr. Malhotra explained. "Fast forward to today, we have over 30 targeted treatments, 19 in the last decade alone. So, it’s moving very quickly, and we're proud to say that our investigators are involved in all of those, getting them across the finish line."

She also stressed the importance of recognizing changes in one's body and speaking up during medical appointments.

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"My biggest thing is to know your body because if you feel that something is out of whack — even if you think it's minor — it’s worth it to talk to your doctor about," Dr. Malhotra said.