Broadway veteran Mandy Gonzalez was starring in Hamilton when she received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2019, and chose to continue to perform through her treatment. “I really had to decide during my diagnosis if I wanted to be open about it,” Gonzalez said. “I was going to have to start missing shows because of different treatments, and I decided I wanted to be very vulnerable and open about what was going on to help other people that maybe didn’t have a voice.”

While cancer couldn’t stop Gonzalez from performing nightly, COVID eventually shut down her show, along with every other live performance in NYC and across the country. So when performances started up again after a year and a half, Gonzalez’s first show back was especially meaningful as it was also her first performance post-treatment. “When I stood on the stage for the first time, it was like, man, I’ve made it, in so many ways.”

Read more about Mandy’s story here.