My name is Tara Templeton. I'm 45 years old, a wife, a mother of two, a sister, a daughter and, as of this year, a Breast Cancer survivor.
I was born and raised in Catskill, NY, and I've come back to it more than once. After Catskill High School, I headed to Emerson College in Boston, then spent a stretch of years in Los Angeles before life pulled me back to New York City, where I met my now-husband. In 2019, we moved back to our hometown of Catskill to raise our family, so I guess you could say Catskill always gets the last word.
In June 2025, my mom, Carole Muggeo, told me she had received a breast cancer diagnosis. My world changed in that moment, but little did I know what was really to come! I accompanied my mom to her first surgical appointment for support and to ask one important question of her doctor: “How does this change my chart?” I had just had my routine mammogram and got the “all clear–don’t come back for a year,” but now I have family history to add to my checklist. I asked for a second opinion. That ended up saving my life. I was diagnosed with a very aggressive HER2+ breast cancer that wasn’t there in May but was in July! I immediately went in for surgery, followed by 12 rounds of chemo, 19 rounds of radiation, and I am still receiving what will be 17 rounds of immunotherapy. In coordination with my amazing medical team at NYOH, I am also choosing hormonal therapies for the next 10 years. In other words, I’ll still be kicking cancer’s sorry ass even when I walk down that runway.
I’m only able to walk here today because of my mom. She's receiving care through NYOH, too, and, as you can see, her diagnosis ultimately saved my life. Carole isn't just my mom. She's my breast cancer sister and fellow survivor now. At home, we say Grammy got cancer to save mommy’s life. My mom is recovering well and, thankfully, didn’t need all the treatments I did. She’s also a 2x cancer survivor, having beaten a uterine cancer diagnosis earlier in her life. So, basically, she’s a bad-ass warrior who keeps showing cancer it’s messing with the wrong women! My story proves that early detection saves lives and that the people who love us can save us in ways we never expect.
During my initial oncology consultation in 2025, my NYOH doctor mentioned the 2025 event and suggested I participate in the next one. Jokingly (but not really), I told her, “If I’m rocking the runway, you can too!” She was about to go on a journey with me, so, rightly so, she should join me on the runway. She agreed, probably secretly hoping I wouldn’t remember. Fast-forward to June 2026; I held her to it, and this year my oncologist, Dr. Ami Negandhi, is walking right alongside me.
Honestly, if you had told me a year ago that a cancer diagnosis would kick-start my modeling career and lead to my own oncologist modeling with me, I would have laughed you out of the room. Cancer, if you are reading this: still not a fan, but I am ready to take my story to the runway and rock it. You can’t keep me down!
I'm walking for my mom, for every family navigating a diagnosis, and for every person who needs to hear that survival is possible and that they don't have to face it alone. But most importantly, I’m walking for myself. I did it. I’m doing it. I’m rocking it. My affirmation for the past year has been: I can. And I will. Because I’m a bad-ass like that.
If you're able to support my walk, your generosity helps NYOH continue doing exactly what it did for my family: catching cancer early, treating it with compassion and giving families more time together. Thank you for standing with my Mom, with Dr. Negandhi and with me. I'm so glad to have you on this journey right alongside me.
