Guerdy Abraira Opens Up About Her Recent Breast Cancer Surgery: 'I'm Guerdy 2.0.—I'm On the Other Side'

10/02/2024 12:00 PM

The 'Real Housewives of Miami' star shares a look at her experience undergoing treatment for breast cancer — and how being forced to slow down has made her closer than ever with her family

Guerdy Abraira was having the time of her life. In March 2023, she had flown down to the glamorous Caribbean island of St. Bart's to help a friend plan her tenth wedding anniversary, when she received a phone call from her gynecologist in Miami.

"Why would he call me?," the 46-year-old Real Housewives of Miami star remembers thinking. "He never calls me."

Concerned, she immediately reached out to her husband of 22 years, Russell Abraira, 47, a captain in the Miami Fire Department, and asked him to join the call. Results from Abraira's annual mammogram had just come back.

"'Yes, you have breast cancer, but you caught it right on time and it's considered stage zero,'" Abraira recalls her doctor saying. "You won't need chemo. You're going to be fine."

It soon became clear that things weren't that simple. Results from a subsequent MRI revealed an invasive tumor on Abraira's left breast—and a new diagnosis of stage 1B estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer (meaning the cancer cells use estrogen to grow). Ten weeks later she underwent a lumpectomy to remove the tumor.

When further tests revealed that the cancer had a 36% chance of returning, Abraira went through four sessions of chemotherapy followed by 20 rounds of radiation over the next five months. "I was like, 'What else can you pile on? This is the worst thing ever,'" she recalls. "It's a roller coaster you just want to get off of." 

After careful consideration, the founder and CEO of Guerdy Design, a global wedding-planning firm, decided to share her cancer journey with her RHOM fans. And during last year's season, TV cameras captured many of the highly emotional moments—including when Russell helped shave her head, and as the couple broke the difficult news of Abraira's diagnosis to their two sons, Miles, 17, and Liam, 11.

"Now more than ever I'm going to speak about it," Abraira tells PEOPLE. "I'm the 'cancer girl'—if you want to call it that. God told me that I'm the ambassador to do it."

Declared cancer-free in November 2023, Abraira reflects on the harrowing experience with gratitude for her husband's steadfast support and the lessons she's learned from the life-altering experience.

"I'm Guerdy 2.0 now," she says. "Selfish is the way I want to live my life now because I was giving so much of myself to others."

Despite praise from upscale admirers such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Martha Stewart Weddings for her skills as a high-end events planner, these days Abraira limits her work to just a few weddings a year. "The stress of deadlines, floor plans," she says. "I almost get PTSD in a way." 

Instead, she prefers staying home in Miami with Russell and the boys. "I'm obsessed with my life right now. I'm up in my kids' business all day long, every day. We're closer than ever," says Abraira, showing off her expansive dressing room during a recent Zoom interview—complete with dedicated sections for her jewelry, makeup and wigs.

"Overall, there's been a big change," says Russell. "She actually has a calmer demeanor than before and she's able to sit back and enjoy things more now."

This year more than 300,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 42,000 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. "It's most common in postmenopausal women, when they're in their 60s," says Dr. Christina Annunziata, Senior Vice President of Extramural Discovery Science at the American Cancer Society.

But thanks to early detection and new treatments in development, the number of women dying from breast cancer is decreasing, says Annunziata, who strongly encourages women to have annual mammograms [per the CDC recommendation to begin screening at 40]. "In some cases, the guidelines are ultrasound or an MRI alternating with the X-ray mammogram," she says, "depending on your personal situation."

Abraira grew up the sixth of seven children born to Emilie, 75, a retired nurse, and Anan Louis Rejouis, 79, a retired pastor. She was just a year old when her parents fled their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to avoid political persecution from then-president Francois Duvalier (a.k.a. Papa Doc)—and moved to Paris, France.

"My father decided to go where they had protection and asylum," she says. When she was nine, the family moved to Miami so her father could minister to the Haitian community there. Unable to speak English, Abraira arrived with little knowledge of life in the U.S.—and struggled to fit in. "All we knew was Michael Jackson's music," she says. "It was a culture shock." But she was determined, and threw herself into her studies, dance clubs and sports—eventually joining the volleyball team. 

It was during her sophomore year that Abraira first met her future husband, Russell. "I was like, 'Oh my God, this guy is freaking cute,'" says Abraira, who didn't start dating the high school basketball player until they were seniors. She remembers saying hello to him in the hallway several times, but she could never hear his soft-spoken response. "This guy is either rude or racist," she recalls thinking. "So I told him the next time you better make sure I hear you." When they crossed paths again, Russell grabbed her in a bear hug—and now, 28 years later, Abraira says, "It was fate." They both graduated from St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens in 2000, and two years later they were married in a Spanish monastery in North Miami Beach. "It was the best decision of my life," she says.

Abraira first discovered her passion for event planning working as an alumni relations coordinator at her alma mater after college. "I learned the art of schmoozing," she says.  That led to a job as a catering manager at a local Radisson hotel, and later a position as an events coordinator for Miami's exclusive Fisher Island—home to a wealthy clientele that has included Oprah and Beyoncé. "I loved it," she says. "I was in charge of not only planning events but producing them."

In 2005, she bought a small floral shop and launched Guerdy Design—which, over the next 19 years, grew into an international events-planning firm, with a high-profile list of clients including designer Max Azria and former New York Mets star Mike Piazza.

"It was my brand and it created this addiction for perfection in me," says Abraira, who was traveling 100 days out of the year, producing weddings and events around the world. "I can't tell you the stress that I put on myself to create things that were unachievable for others," she adds, such as "hang 3,000 flowers in two hours. I pushed the limits to the extreme."

In 2020, a casting director from RHOM reached out and, following several Zoom interviews, "I jumped at the idea," says Abraira, who joined the show in season four. "It was meant to be. I had been approached twice before to do a reality show focused on me. But with the ensemble cast, it was less pressure and [more] a medley of my life—including my husband—and who I really am as a person." 

Her cancer diagnosis in March 2023 brought her whirlwind lifestyle to an abrupt halt. In June, she underwent surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from her left breast—and in July, she began her 12-week regimen of chemotherapy. "Chemo will show you your mortality in three seconds," she says. "It's no game. For 10 days [after each treatment] I was in bed. Chemo fog is real and I walked like a skeleton—it felt like my bones were about to break." Three weeks later, she began her 20 rounds of radiation sessions. "It caused a lot of discomfort," she says. 

And while Abraira has been in remission for the past 11 months, she's still dealing with complications from her June 2023 surgery—which surfaced in September that same year. Following radiation, Abraira (who got breast implants in 2014) developed capsular contracture (when scar tissue around a breast implant tightens and becomes hard) in her left breast.

This past August, she had the implants removed from both breasts; in a second procedure, surgeons performed liposuction on the back section of her waist and grafted the fat to her left breast—which was smaller following her lumpectomy—to match the right in size. "I was literally lopsided," says Abraira, who still suffers from pain and tension in the ligaments in her left arm and shoulder. "Hopefully this will help with the mobility in my left arm—and maybe make me feel a little sexier!" 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Guerdy Abraira #GUERDYFY (@guerdydesign)

These days, Abraira is relishing the downtime with her family. "It's all about quality, not quantity, and intimacy as a family," says Abraira, whose daily regimen also includes regular walks and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. "I'm taking my own health by storm," adds the entrepreneur, who recently invested in a local alkaline water company ("Miami has the second worst water in the country—and now I'm obsessed") and an on-demand glam squad business called Ring My Belle. "My motto is: You look good, you feel good—and when you feel good, you do good," she adds.

It's unclear whether she'll need more surgery, but Abraira's focusing her energy on the future.

"I'm living and I love it," she says. "[My fight] is still going on but I won't make it a big topic—because I'm on the other side of cancer."  

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.