In 2025, Tatiana Simons was diagnosed with breast cancer twice; this weekend, the NYPD cop was promoted to sergeant and ran her 13th marathon.
When Simons got on the job over 12 years ago she had one thing in mind: She wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and make him proud. She even wore the same police officer shield and worked in the same precinct as her dear dad for the first five years.
Things seemed to be going Simons’ way. She had a family and was rising through the ranks. But in 2025 she received unthinkable news.
“I ended up feeling a lump in my breast,” Simons recalled to amNewYork. “It was the last week of January, and when it was confirmed that it was breast cancer, I then had to wait. You know, another week. I had to go through genetic testing. I had to go through more ultrasounds, additional MRI biopsies, more mammograms, more blood work, more scans, and then at the same time, I was training for the Boston Marathon in April.”
She described the news as heartbreaking and scary, but attempted to power through and even continued training for the marathon despite having to halt her training intermittently due to the biopsies. Despite it all, she still ran the Boston Marathon, all while knowing that the very next morning she would be undergoing a double mastectomy.
“I shed a lot of tears on that course. It was hard at the moment to fully enjoy the marathon when I knew tomorrow was going to be hard. But I wanted to enjoy it, and I think I’ve learned that in the moment that we’re in, we can control just what’s in front of us right now,” Simons said.
She underwent her surgery and fought her way through the recovery process. She had reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy and later that year was even training for another marathon. Then the unthinkable happened. She felt another lump. She was leaving One Police Plaza when she received the news: she had cancer again.
“I felt a lump in the same exact breast, and everybody thought, no, it’s probably part of the surgery,” Simons recalled. “I opened up my portal, and I saw the results again. “When I got those results, I screamed. I screamed. I came home and put my face in the pillow, and I screamed.”
Although her world was turned upside down again, she powered on. Went through the process all over again and even continued to run two more marathons. Fast-forward to 2026, Simons says she is healthy, she was promoted to sergeant, and Sunday’s New York City Marathon marked her 13th completed marathon. She says she also has a message for those going through a similar struggle.
“You can’t worry about tomorrow when you’re facing today, and even though you might have a setback, it doesn’t define you. You have to find a little glimmer of hope, and I think that’s what I did each time I ran. I found a glimmer of hope,” Simons said.
Simons’ final time on Sunday was 4:20:45.
