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Warrior Pose: In Celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Michelle Apple Shares Her Purpose and Passion
She is a true warrior – and a survivor who leads a team of more warriors by way of her Apple Breast Cancer (ABC) Warrior Foundation.
Michelle Apple was first diagnosed in September 2018 with metastatic stage 3 breast cancer in Cleveland, Ohio. She had to combat the removal of over 20 cancerous lymph nodes and her ovaries, a full mastectomy, four months of chemotherapy, and 40 rounds of radiation.
At the same time as her treatment, Apple’s dear friend and fellow weightlifter, Jamie, was also battling metastatic breast cancer. And, as a single mom, Jamie needed help paying her bills.
“I told my friends, ‘Let’s do something for her to help her raise some money,’ so we hosted a cornhole tournament,” says Apple. “Sure enough, we raised $10,000. I looked at my husband and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I think this foundation is my purpose.”
Unfortunately, Jamie lost her fight against cancer, but the ABC Warrior Foundation continues to flourish, now serving women here in the Myrtle Beach area, where Apple moved with her husband and two pit bull rescues in 2022.
Today, the foundation is small but mighty, thanks to Apple and her all-volunteer board of four that helps breast cancer patients with medical bills, groceries, and travel expenses through donations and fundraising events. The foundation’s mission also supports women by providing advocacy, mentorship, and education on early detection, care, and prevention. For its efforts, it received the Jefferson Award in 2023 and United Bank and Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Month in October 2025.
“My goal in starting the foundation was to just help one person because I saw my girlfriend, Jamie, go through what she went through,” says Apple. “Even if it’s mentoring them, I think things like that are helpful as well because you have a lot of questions, you’re scared, and sometimes you don’t want to ask your significant other or dive into that with your parents or your kids. … To be honest, most of what I’m seeing is there’s a middle-class group that is getting forgotten.”
While Apple was going up for battle for other women, she had to battle her own, too. After being seven years in remission, she was challenged with another setback in October 2025. It’s when she traveled to the Cleveland Clinic to become a potential living liver donor for her niece, who suffers from a rare autoimmune disease, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), that damages the liver and causes the need for an emergency transplant. But things didn’t go as planned.
After doctors performed testing to approve Apple’s organ donation, they discovered lesions on her bones and the recurrence of metastatic breast cancer, stage 4, so unfortunately, she was denied.
“Even now, talking about it makes me emotional,” she says. “It was a hard time because, one, I wanted to help my niece, and I couldn’t do that. And then, at the same time, she saved my life.”
On top of the pain and treatment of that, Apple most recently (at press time) needed to have surgery for a hip replacement because of the severity of her bone lesions.
“It’s a lot,” she says. “But for me, the friends that I’ve built even down here and the foundation has given me such purpose to know that helping others really helps me, and even more so now through my second bout with this cancer.”
The registered dietitian and longtime athlete (she graduated from Youngstown State University on an athletic scholarship for softball) isn’t one to back down from trials and tribulations that come her way – and into the way of others experiencing the same.
“The patients that are going through it, first and foremost, have to try to find some type of new norm,” says Apple. “I tell them to try not to let it define you, but try to find something that gives them purpose and helps them through the journey because there are highs and lows. There are days that you question your mortality, but don’t fester in those. I have a lot of faith. I believe in God. I have a lot of support. And you have to have some type of hope because if you don’t, it’s very hard to get through this journey. And for many of us who are metastatic, this is a lifetime journey. It is terminal. There is no cure for this, but it is treatable.”
ABC Warrior Foundation will be hosting a golf tournament fundraiser on Saturday, November 14, at Myrtlewood Golf Club, Myrtle Beach. To play or donate, visit applebcwarrior.com. The foundation’s website always accepts donations and applications for cancer assistance.
