Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski endured a tough 2024 on her way to Wimbledon and Paris 2024 glory.
“How can something so small cause such a big problem? This is the question I asked myself when I was diagnosed with breast cancer back in mid-April,” the 32-year-old doubles specialist wrote on Instagram.
“I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am okay and I will be okay. Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this.”
During a self-exam in 2023, Dabrowski discovered that she had developed a benign lump in her left breast. A year later it was larger in size and she treated it with biopsy after diagnosis.
“Those are words you never expect to hear, and in an instant your life or the life of a loved one turns upside down,” said Dabrowski, who won the 2023 US Open women’s doubles title, the 2018 Australian Open mixed-doubles title and the 2017 French Open mixed-doubles title.
The second half of 2024 turned out ‘surreal’ by her admission as it included radiotherapy and surgery, before delaying the treatment to compete at Wimbledon and the Summer Olympics.
She finished as runners-up in the women’s doubles event along with her Kiwi partner Erin Routliffe and secured a Paris 2024 bronze in the mixed doubles category with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Her partnership with Routliffe also won her the doubles crown at the year-ending WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh.
Dabrowski waited to share her story because she wanted to figure everything out and handle things privately with only those closest in the loop.
The journey changed her perspective towards life.
“When the threat of losing everything I’d worked for my entire life became a real possibility, only then did I begin to authentically appreciate what I had,” she said.
“My mindset shifted from ‘I have to do this’ to ‘I get to do this.’
“Through this lens I find it so much easier to find joy in areas of my life I previously viewed as a heavy weight.”