WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Amanda Butler leads a class at the popular fitness studio Barry’s in West Hollywood. 

As people file in under the red studio lights, she greets each one with a cheerful salutation and “let’s get this tough work out done” energy.

Because if there’s anybody that knows you can get through something tough, it’s Butler.

A little over a year ago, at 32 years old, Butler, a personal trainer, found a small lump in her right breast. 

“I didn’t know anyone with breast cancer,” she said. “It doesn’t run in my family. And so I wasn’t really that concerned.” 

But after a few weeks, she decided to check it out. Still trying to figure out who to go to, she asked a gynecologist friend of a friend to look at it, who recommended she get a proper checkup.

A mammogram, an ultrasound and biopsies later, Butler recalls sitting in a waiting room after being asked to come in for her results. 

“I was in the waiting room with about like five or six other women, and some of them had currently had breast cancer,” she recalled. “Some of them had survived breast cancer; some of them were newly diagnosed.

“They turned to me and they said, ‘No matter what happens, you have to be so mentally strong because your body knows. Whatever happens from here on out, you have to truly believe that you’re going to be fine,’” she said. 

Through tears, she thanked the women and decided no matter what, she was going to be okay. 

Moments later, she received the bad news. 

“I go into my appointment. I’m sitting there. The doctor walks in with two nurses and he looks at me and he’s like ‘Amanda, I’m so sorry to tell you, but you have breast cancer.’” 

“And I just lost it,” she recalls. “I was just crying.”

“But then immediately, my mind was like, OK, what do we do?” Butler said. 

Initially diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, meaning the cancer is encapsulated and hasn’t left the cells, Butler was offered the choice of a mastectomy — removal of both breasts or a lumpectomy — removal of the cancerous mass. 

After finding out she had the BRCA2 gene, a gene that makes you more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers, the recommendation was changed to a mastectomy. 

“Mentally, I was like, I can’t even go there to what a mastectomy is like. I’m still processing the fact that I have cancer. I went through a PET scan and I did an MRI, and in those scans, my lymph nodes were lighting up,” she said. 

The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. She was immediately changed to stage two, meaning chemotherapy and a longer treatment plan. Facing the revelation head-on, she had surgery, rushed to freeze her eggs and started chemo the day after her egg retrieval. 

“It was a lot,” Butler admitted.

Despite everything on her plate, Butler remained committed to a few things: having a positive attitude, documenting her journey and helping others. 

“I started filming everything on TikTok and I literally just was sharing my entire experience,” she said. “I just wanted something to show this is exactly what treatment was going to look like.” 

Butler’s online community grew and someone suggested she do meetings. 

She started a virtual group called Cancer Baddies.

“It’s all been women from all around the world who join, who talk about all things cancer, our treatment and recovery,” Butler said. “There’s women of all different stages and cancers in this organization and it’s such a beautiful place for people to just come and just vent and just talk and just talk about the littlest things.” 

Butler said the outpouring of stories encouraged her to keep sharing. 

“I get messages every single week from girls who are as young as 23 being diagnosed with breast cancer. And there’s not a lot of resources for younger women. And so I wanted to provide a safe space for that,” she said.  

One of the young women in her group, Katherina O’Brien, was diagnosed with acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia at age 21 right before the last semester of her senior year in college. 

Facing a two-year treatment plan, the college volleyball player recalls feeling out of place after her diagnosis. 

“My friends were either going back to school to start their master’s program or starting their careers or an internship, and I was still just this cancer patient,” she said. 

After searching for online support groups, Butler’s TikTok showed up and O’Brien joined the group. 

“People actually understood what I was going through. It was just like a way that I felt like seen,” O’Brien said. 

In addition to providing a community with her groups, Butler also wanted another way to document her knowledge, tips and advice. 

“When you go through cancer, like doctors give you as much information as they can, but usually it’s not enough. And you find out most information about your cancer treatment through other cancer patients or trial and error,” she said.

She recently released her book “Remember When I had Cancer?: Your Complete Guide Book to Chemotherapy.” 

“I wanted to say in the past tense, ‘Remember when I had cancer?’ so that every single time a cancer patient reads it, it’s like they’re speaking in the past about their cancer,” she said. 

With sections on chemo, egg preservation, hair preservation and even details like what to pack, eat and drink while undergoing treatment, Butler hopes it will give people a head start in their fight. 

As she leads her class with a defiant confidence and still going through low-dose chemo, Butler knows that this is a chapter of her journey — a long chapter — but one that she hopes will help people to put cancer in the past tense.