There's a story behind Project Boudicca. And it starts with me.
Hi, I'm Crista—wifey, mama, stepma, writer, and breast cancer survivor.
In January 2025, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The same disease that took my beloved grandmother, Nora, when I was just nine years old. Suddenly, I was a mother, wife, stepmother, daughter, sister, auntie, and friend coming face to face with my own mortality. The fear was enormous. The uncertainty was overwhelming.
My goal was simple.
To live.
The months that followed were filled with chemotherapy, long days in an infusion chair, exhaustion, and all the strange little ways cancer can make you feel like a stranger in your own body.
But I had something extraordinary: people who loved me. Family and friends who showed up, held me together, made me laugh, and lit the way through some very dark days.
And I knew that not everyone sitting in those infusion chairs had that same support.
A little beauty. A little defiance.
Somewhere in the middle of treatment, I discovered that even the smallest things could help me feel like myself again.
For me, one of those things was earrings.
A little sparkle. A little femininity. A little reminder that beneath the diagnosis, the treatments, and everything cancer was demanding of me, I was still me.
It might seem like a small thing. But sometimes the smallest things make an enormous difference.
And I started wondering whether I could share that feeling with the women sitting in those chairs beside me.
That idea became an earring tree at the Altamonte Springs infusion center, where women undergoing cancer treatment could choose a pair of earrings to take home. No cost. No expectations. Just a little something beautiful on a day that might be anything but.
What began as one small gesture grew into something beyond anything I'd imagined.
In our first six months, we donated more than 1,000 pairs of earrings.
A thousand little reminders that we are still ourselves.
A thousand opportunities for kindness and connection.
A thousand small sparks of light on some very difficult days.
And that was only the beginning.
A year into Project Boudicca, I'm still amazed by the generosity of the people who have embraced this little idea and helped it grow into something so much bigger.
Because the real beauty of Project Boudicca has never been about how many earrings we collect.
It's about the women who receive them. The people who give them. And the extraordinary things that happen when we remind one another that we aren't facing this alone.
Queen of the Iceni
I named the project after Boudicca, the ancient warrior queen who became a symbol of courage, resistance, and defiance. As a powerful female leader who rose up against the Roman Empire to protect her people, Boudicca embodies the energy of the warrior goddess, inspiring resilience and the pursuit of one’s beliefs against adversity.
But Project Boudicca isn't about pretending we're fearless.
Cancer is frightening. Some days we're brave. Some days we're exhausted, angry, or simply doing our best to get through another treatment.
There's strength in all of those days.
Boudicca represents the part of us that refuses to let the hardest thing we've experienced become the only thing that defines us.
We are more than our diagnoses. More than our scars. More than what we've lost.
We are still women with lives to live, stories to tell, and a little defiance left in us.
This is only the beginning.
The earrings were our first initiative. They won't be our last.
Project Boudicca is growing into something bigger: a community dedicated to supporting people navigating cancer, including survivors, warriors, and the caregivers who walk beside them.
Because no one should have to face the unknown feeling invisible or alone.
Today, I am proud to call myself a survivor. The first woman in my family to stand on the other side of this disease.
And I've made myself a promise: I intend to live, not just survive.
I'm doing that for my grandmother, Nora. For the women I love. For the friends who carried me through. For the women who will come after us.
And for myself.
To everyone who has donated earrings, shared our story, offered encouragement, or helped keep those trees filled: thank you. You are part of something beautiful.
And to every woman who reaches for a pair of earrings on a difficult day, I hope you remember one thing:
You are stronger than you think.
With love and a little defiance,
Crista
Founder, Project Boudicca