As her little girl finishes chemo, Smilow Cancer Hospital nurse fights breast cancer

When we met Maddie in the summer of 2022, she was a little girl with a big fight against leukemia. 

They say the days are long, but the years are short. She’s 4 years old now and finished her chemo treatments in January.

But, at the time, her mom, Hunter Bouchard, was preparing for a fight of her own.

“So, just two months shy of Maddie finishing treatment, we were excited she was going to be done, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Bouchard said.

She was shocked. The Smilow Cancer Hospital nurse returned to her job at the Guilford location for treatment.

“I was diagnosed on Halloween, and I had a double mastectomy on December 4.”

She and her husband didn’t fully explain it to the kids, Maddie, and Gordy who’s almost seven. They used kid-appropriate terms to let them know that mom had a “boo-boo,” and the doctors were going to make her better.

“Maddie in particular, she's already been through so much, and I didn't want them to have to worry.”

Overall, Bouchard says she’s doing well. There’s some treatment still ahead and she finds support in their family and friends.

So, this year for the Closer to Free Ride, she changed their team’s name from “Maddie’s Magic Makers” to “The Best Little Village.”

“We don't have a huge village, so just a nod to our little village that's been so great,” Bouchard said.

She’s planning to go 40 miles on her third Closer to Free Ride on September 7, which she says may be a little challenging this year. But she’s determined to support the programs that have helped her patients, her family, and herself. 

“Not to say that I wouldn't be here today, but a lot of the things that I’ve had the opportunity to utilize in my treatment come from research, and funding like this.”

All of the money from Closer to Free goes to research, treatment and patient support programs.

“Oftentimes [the patients] are happier, they're more comfortable, they're able to participate more in the things that they love to do, which, in the end, keeps us going,” she said, adding that she’s looking forward to joining the Survivorship program at Smilow.

This year, ride day will have a deeper meaning. She says the emotional opening ceremony, riding by Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven where she once worked, and crossing the finish line will connect differently. And she looks forward to sharing her story with other families.

“You see doctors that might have taken care of you, or nurses that are riding that may have taken care of you,” she said. “So it really just, it really shows and feels like such a small community in such a small world that we've all been through something similar in some way.”