Vikki Espinosa | Updates

Announcing the One in Eight Breast Cancer Toolkit

Vikki Espinosa — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I felt overwhelmed. Not just by the diagnosis, but by how quickly everything moved afterward. Appointments. New words. Decisions that felt urgent. Conversations I didn’t yet know how to have. I remember wishing there was something steady I could hold onto. Something that didn’t tell me how to feel, but helped me figure out what to do next. That’s why I created the One in Eight Breast Cancer Toolkit.

What This Toolkit Is

This toolkit is a collection of practical tools designed to support people as they move through breast cancer, in whatever way that journey looks like for them. It doesn’t assume you’re organized. It doesn’t assume you’re calm. It doesn’t assume you know what questions to ask or what comes next. It’s meant to be supportive, flexible, and usable on days when your energy and focus are limited.

What You’ll Find Inside

The toolkit includes worksheets, prompts, and guides that can help with things like:

Preparing for medical appointments so you can capture questions, answers, and next steps
Keeping important information in one place, instead of scattered across portals, notes, and emails
Thinking through decisions at your own pace, even when things feel rushed
Communicating with work, family, and friends in ways that feel clear and manageable
Reducing the mental load of remembering everything when there is already a lot to carry

You don’t need to use every page. You don’t need to start at the beginning. You can open it when it’s helpful and set it aside when it’s not.

Who This Toolkit Is For

This toolkit is for anyone affected by breast cancer, including:

People who are newly diagnosed and trying to get their footing
Those in treatment who are juggling appointments, side effects, and decisions
Survivors who want a clearer record of their experience
Caregivers and loved ones who want to support without overwhelming

There is no “right” way to use it. It shows up when you’re ready.

How This Fits with One in Eight

The book shares my story.
The journal offers space to reflect and process.
The toolkit focuses on the practical, day-to-day pieces that can make things feel more manageable.

Each resource can stand alone. Together, they form a support system you can use in the way that works best for you.

Why I’m Sharing This

Breast cancer can be frightening and disorienting. Even with excellent medical care, many people are left trying to piece things together on their own. My hope is that this toolkit provides a sense of steadiness. Not answers to everything, but support where it’s most needed. If it helps you feel a little more prepared, a little more grounded, or a little less alone, then it’s doing what it was created to do.

If you’re supporting someone with breast cancer, this may also be a gentle, practical way to show care, without needing to say the perfect thing.

Sometimes tools speak more kindly than words.

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When Chemo Brain Hits, Writing Becomes a Lifeline

Vikki Espinosa — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

During treatment, my brain didn’t work the way it normally does. I forgot questions I meant to ask. I lost track of details I would usually hold easily. Some days, thinking felt heavy.

Chemo brain is real. It’s not just forgetfulness. It’s mental fatigue layered on top of physical exhaustion, and pretending it wasn’t happening didn’t help me cope. Writing things down helped. Not in a poetic or inspirational way. In a practical one. I wrote questions before appointments because I couldn’t trust myself to remember them. I wrote down symptoms when I had the energy so I wouldn’t have to recall them later. I made lists because my brain needed somewhere else to put things. Writing became a way to offload what I couldn’t hold. It also gave me back a small sense of control. When so much of treatment happens to you, having one place where information lived made things feel more manageable.

The guided journal grew out of that need. I was already writing things down. I just wanted one place to keep it all together. This isn’t about becoming a journal person. It’s about supporting a tired brain during a demanding time. If writing things down helps you feel a little more organized or less overwhelmed, it’s doing its job.

The One in Eight Guided Journal is available here if it’s useful to you.

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Something new is coming.

Vikki Espinosa — Thu, 4 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m putting the finishing touches on the companion journal to One in Eight: a guided space for anyone moving through breast cancer treatment or supporting someone who is. It’s full of prompts, checklists, planning pages, grounding exercises, and room to breathe on the hard days.

The journal is headed to final design now, and I’ll share the cover and release date as soon as it’s ready. If One in Eight has been helpful to you or someone you love, I think this journal will give you (or them) a steady place to land.

More soon.

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New Resources Now Available

Vikki Espinosa — Mon, 1 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today marks the official release of One in Eight, and I’m grateful to finally share the tools and guides I created to support anyone moving through breast cancer—patients, partners, friends, coworkers, and caregivers.

Two new resource collections are now live:

• The full Book Club & Discussion Guide

This includes bonus questions, reflection prompts, survivor insights, and a facilitation script designed for book clubs, support circles, and workplace groups who want to read and discuss One in Eight together.

• The complete Resources Library

Ten downloadable bundles with checklists, scripts, practical tools, and emotional support materials covering every major stage of treatment and recovery—from chemo prep to workplace communication to survivorship transitions.

Everything is free to download and use.

My hope is that these tools make difficult days a little easier, and help loved ones show up with clarity and care.

Thank you for being here with me.

— Vikki

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Launch Day is Monday! (And yes, I am quietly freaking out.)

Vikki Espinosa — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been working for months to make this book available to anyone who needs it—patients, partners, coworkers, managers, neighbors, and the people who love someone with cancer but don’t know where to start. Behind the scenes, I’ve been finalizing distribution, thinking about podcasts, obsessing over small details, and yes… quietly panicking about the fact that my friends and readers will now see photos of me that are not my most flattering.

But that’s part of the point. Cancer isn’t flattering. It’s human. And I wanted to show the truth of it.

My hope is simple:

If this book brings even one person a moment of clarity, relief, laughter, understanding, or companionship during an impossible season...then everything I’ve poured into it will have been worth it.

I’ve always tried to leave the world a little better than I found it. I was a Girl Scout well into my teen years, and that idea stuck with me. This book is an extension of that instinct—an educator trying to make the path easier for the next person.

One in Eight is filled with the things I wish someone had handed me at the start:

practical tools, clear explanations, checklists, prompts, and honest stories that show you’re not alone. Whether you're the patient or the one supporting them, my goal is to give you ways to navigate treatment with more confidence, understanding, and steadiness.

Cancer takes so much from people. If this book can help someone prepare, advocate, breathe, and eventually return to living instead of constantly worrying about dying, then I’ll feel like I did something meaningful.

Launch Day is Monday. Thank you for walking into it with me.

Vikki

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A Moment I Never Expected to Share

Vikki Espinosa — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I never imagined I would write a book about breast cancer. I never imagined I would live through it, let alone try to put words around something that felt so big and overwhelming at the time. But once I was on the other side of treatment, I kept thinking about all the moments when I wished I had a guide — not just medically, but emotionally and practically.

One in Eight grew from that place.

From wanting to make the experience less frightening for the next person.

From wishing someone had told me what to expect, how to prepare, what to bring, what to ask, and how to let people help without losing myself in the process.

Writing this book required honesty I wasn’t always ready for and vulnerability I’m still learning to be comfortable with. But if it helps even one person feel steadier, more prepared, or less alone — then sharing it is worth it.

Thank you for being here with me as this book makes its way into the world.

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