{"id":151521,"date":"2026-10-29T22:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T02:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151521"},"modified":"2026-10-29T22:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T02:19:11","slug":"breast-cancer-patient-launches-cooking-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151521","title":{"rendered":"Breast Cancer Patient Launches Cooking Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: Stephanie Kinsella, 29, of Allentown, films her “Chef Steph” video blog to connect with other cancer patients.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Finding out that you have metastatic breast cancer that has spread to your brain could be devastating.<\/p>\n

For Stephanie Kinsella, 29, of Allentown, it was a catalyst to try something new.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after being treated for a brain lesion in August as a result of stage IV breast cancer, she embraced her love of cooking and launched “Chef Steph” through a video blog on her Facebook, Instagram and TikTok profiles in order to connect with other cancer patients.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always been interested in cooking, even as a teenager,” she said. “This is something I wanted to do when I was originally diagnosed. This time I’m more mentally prepared.”<\/p>\n

This time. Because when she learned she had breast cancer in 2024, she underwent chemotherapy and a double mastectomy in 2025.<\/p>\n

This time, the Lehighton High School and Penn State University graduate has the benefit of experience to guide her future.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at today of it wasn’t for the wonderful care I’ve received through St. Luke’s,” Chef Steph said.<\/p>\n

Eleanor Harris, MD, the chief of radiation oncology at the St. Luke\u2019s, said, “Stephanie embodies such determination to conquer her cancer and live her life fully\u2026 She’s positive and willing to do whatever is necessary.”<\/p>\n

Steph first received her breast cancer diagnosis at age 27. She had already braced herself for the diagnosis, even though she hadn’t discovered a lump. She said one breast felt heavier than the other, and a little harder.<\/p>\n

“There is a list of symptoms we are told to look for,” Steph said, “but that list is not all-encompassing. My symptoms were different. I simply felt that something was off. It wasn\u2019t a lump, and if I hadn\u2019t gotten it checked out, I might not be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following her initial diagnosis, genetic testing showed that Steph had the BRCA1 gene for susceptibility to breast cancer. Steph underwent six months of chemotherapy before St. Luke’s surgical oncologist Mohamed Lareef, MD, performed a double mastectomy. She then received five weeks of radiation therapy, five days a week.<\/p>\n

Everything was going great until this past August when she suffered a seizure. Tests revealed that the same cancer had spread to her brain, causing a lesion, and was now stage 4 cancer.<\/p>\n

Because the lesion was too small for surgery, she received stereotactic radiosurgery, a non-surgical form of radiation therapy used to treat brain and body tumors. She is under the care of Dr. Harris, Dr. Shah and St. Luke’s medical oncologist Subhash Proothi, MD.<\/p>\n

Instead of sinking into despair, Steph found renewed energy and purpose.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me!’,” she said. “I already did this once, but I am even more ready to fight this time, The first time, I was floating through everything, doing what I was told with appointments and treatments and going through those emotions.”<\/p>\n

Being able to draw on that in retrospect, she had one response: “Hell no, it’s not getting me. I put on my oven mitts and said let’s get cooking. The kitchen is the only place where I really have control ”<\/p>\n

Chef Steph is interested in sharing recipes and cancer journeys with other oncology patients, one video blog at a time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of $5 billion. With 24,000 employees at 16 hospital campuses and 400 outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n

The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows. Additionally, the St. Luke\u2019s College of Health Sciences opened in 2026.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, St. Luke\u2019s received the highest quality score of the nation\u2019s three highest performing health systems. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. In 2026, all of the Network\u2019s eligible hospital campuses were awarded Medicare\u2019s highest ratings for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. The Network also earned straight A\u2019s for safety from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2026 when the Network was identified as THE #1 MEDIUM-SIZE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: Stephanie Kinsella, 29, of Allentown, films her “Chef Steph” video blog to connect with other cancer patients. Finding out that you have metastatic breast cancer that has spread to your brain could be devastating. For Stephanie Kinsella, 29, of Allentown, it was a catalyst to try something new. Less than a month after … Continue reading Breast Cancer Patient Launches Cooking Blog<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/chef-steph.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151521"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151526,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151521\/revisions\/151526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}