ST. PETE, Fla. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there is a woman in St. Pete who not only survived her diagnosis but used it to motivate her into pursuing her dream job.
Bridgette Bello is a writer, and if she had to type out the most challenging year of her life, she wouldn’t have writer’s block.
“In June 2017 I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Bello. “It was very, very scary, I was 47, had no family history, no reason to suspect that, I still have no family history, I’m still the only one in my family.”
Just a few months later her house was destroyed during Hurricane Irma.
“So 2017 was not my year,” said Bello.
However, in between the pain of that year, Bridgette also found the power to pursue her lifelong goal.
“There were a lot of introspective days where I really got inside my head and said, ‘ok what do I want to be when I grow up,’ and if this does kill me, ‘what do I want my legacy to have been,’” said Bello.
Almost one year after her diagnosis, Bridgette and her two-person staff published the first edition of Tampa Bay Business & Wealth (TBBW), and they’ve been publishing ever since.
“It's been an incredible journey and I have to say it’s because of this community and the people in this community and the way they’ve wrapped their arms around us,” said Bello.
This year TBBW was one of 27 small businesses nationwide to be a finalist for the United States Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Award.
“It's such an American dream story, right, it’s literally pull yourself up by the bootstraps, work hard, do things for the right reasons,” said Bello. “We do donate a two-page spread to a nonprofit every month to help them be more exposed and better understood.”
Bello never forgets about the disease she had to beat to make it this far.
“Screenings are way down across all different cancers and part of what we are working on, I’m part of a group called CEOs against cancer, it’s a state-wide chapter, is getting large employers to start to have their workforce screened,” said Bello.
