I Got Fired While in Cancer Treatment. It Led Me to My Dream Job.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alex George, a 29-year-old baker and content creator living in Philadelphia, about her career pivot following her Ewing’s sarcoma diagnosis. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I truly loved baking from a young age. When I’d watch TV, I’d usually opt for Food Network and loved every single show. That was a big part of wanting to make — and also loving — food.

Now, I have my dream job as an almost full-time professional baker and content creator. I never thought this would be the life I’d be living.

I thought I knew what my life would look like

I went to the University of Michigan and got a degree in public policy. I figured that after a couple of years interning on the Hill, I would end up working in something tangentially political. Then I interned at a news station and thought, “Maybe I find journalism more interesting.”

After graduating in 2017, I moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and started my career in journalism at a local Sinclair-owned station. You’re working the worst shifts as a reporter, and I didn’t bring any baking ingredients or many pans. Occasionally, I’d make myself a batch of cookies, but I wasn’t doing it a lot. A part of my life was missing.

Baking brought me joy while I was sick

I got sick while I was in Chattanooga and was misdiagnosed a couple of times down there. I finally got to the right doctor who was able to tell me what was going on — I had Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. I flew back home to Philadelphia, went through an egg-freezing process, and started a terrible chemo regimen.

It was a tough time. But when you don’t have a lot of energy, baking is a great hobby, especially when you have a family that’s willing to help you do the clean-up and all of the mise en place — the preparation.

Baking brought me joy and happiness, so I kept with it. I just baked and baked and brought it into the hospital. The nurses and doctors would eat my food.

I practiced taking photos of the food, which I shared on social media — primarily on Instagram — on an account called Cooking with Cancer. It had very few followers: Most of them were nurses, doctors, family members. I would upload a really crappy picture of a cookie, and my followers would still be very supportive.

‘I think they’re going to fire you’

A few days after an infusion, Sinclair representatives asked me for a meeting. My dad said, “I think they’re going to fire you.” I thought, surely they couldn’t; I had a contract with them that technically wasn’t supposed to end until two years after my initial signing date.

I couldn’t fathom how it’d be possible to fire somebody on disability leave. When the HR person told me the news over the phone, I felt tears well up in my eyes, and all I remember saying out loud was, “I’m still in treatment.” There was silence on the phone.

(Editor’s note: George’s former station, WTVC, did not respond to BI’s requests for comment. A Sinclair representative did not reply to BI’s questions and said the station’s leadership from that time is no longer in place.)

My insurance coverage ended immediately, just a few days before I had a chemo treatment. How do you pay out of pocket for a chemotherapy session? I was thinking, “This is a death sentence.”

It was devastating, but I fell back on the incredible support of my mom and dad, who helped me get COBRA coverage.

I thought trying to fight this to set some sort of legal precedent might be noble, but I just had to make sure I could live and get through my sickness, so that wasn’t something I championed.

I realized baking for social media could really be something

After finishing treatment, it was almost like everything went silent. I was used to constant surveillance from nurses, and then, all of a sudden, I was done. I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted out of life.

I eventually got an offer to freelance with a news station in Philadelphia. I was still baking, and I was selling baked goods, so I changed the name of Cooking with Cancer to the name of a new LLC, Lily P. Crumbs, named after my 20-year-old dog.

I remember telling one of my friends that it would be cool to make videos of my baked goods. I was also frustrated that I didn’t have a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’d made some random TikToks before that, but I remember uploading the first video of my search for the best recipe and seeing it get tens of thousands of views.

After that, I started showing some of my other baked goods and experienced growth along with that. I was finally getting partnership opportunities — and I was having fun. As a risk-averse person, I still freelance in news, but sharing my baking is my priority.

As a cancer survivor, the future is exciting

I’ll never say I’m thankful for cancer, but it did open my eyes to how damn short life is and how little time you have to do exactly what you want to be doing. I’d rather be living this life than the life I was probably going to choose before my diagnosis.

The best part about being a cancer survivor is that the future, in general, is so exciting. If someone is questioning their career or their future, I say, do what you want. Create an idea of where you would like your life to be, and just take a baby step toward it.