AMY BYER SHAINMAN, also known as the BRCA Responder, is an activist, author, and film producer providing support and education surrounding BRCA and other hereditary cancer syndromes.
AMY BYER SHAINMAN, also known as the BRCA Responder, is an activist, author, and film producer providing support and education surrounding BRCA and other hereditary cancer syndromes.
Shainman is a BRCA1 gene mutation carrier and a "previvor,"--meaning she is a survivor of a predisposition to cancer (a previvor is someone at high risk for cancer who has not had the disease). In 2010, she had two prophylactic surgeries to reduce her cancer risk drastically: a nipple-sparing, skin-sparing mastectomy with breast reconstruction, and an oophorectomy with a hysterectomy.
Cure Magazine, The Jewish Journal, and The Palm Beach Post have featured Shainman's story. She has also appeared nationwide on television and podcasts and published articles in The American Journal of Managed Care, Jupiter Magazine, and Oncology Nursing News.
Shainman's 2018 medical memoir "Resurrection Lily: The BRCA Gene, Hereditary Cancer & Lifesaving Whispers from the Grandmother I Never Knew" won 14 independent book awards and was a 2020 book club selection of The National Library of Medicine.
Shainman executive produced the 2015 award-winning documentary Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer. She is the executive producer/producer of LOVE, DANIELLE (2025); it's the first scripted feature film to address the decisions and issues faced by an individual who carries a BRCA gene mutation and does not have cancer. Starring: Devin Sidell, Jaime King, Barry Bostwick, and Lesley Ann Warren. Learn more at: lovedaniellefilm.com
PINK & BLUE: COLORS OF HEREDITARY CANCER
HONORS FOR RESURRECTION LILY
Winner 2020 CIPA EVVY Book Award Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
Winner 2019 Independent Author Network Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Winner 2019 Best Book Awards Science
Winner 2019 Independent Author Network Health & Medicine
Winner 2019 IndieReader Discovery Award Health & Medicine
Winner 2019 FAPA President's Award Health
CIPA EVVY Book Award 2020 Silver Narrative Non-Fiction
CIPA EVVY Book Award 2020 Bronze Health
Reader's Favorite 2019 Book Award Silver Non-Fiction-Genealogy
Independent Publisher Book Award Bronze Best Adult Non-Fiction Personal E-Book
SPR Book Award Honorable Mention, Shortlisted for Excellence
Feathered Quill Book Award Silver Informational Book
Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist Inspirational Non-Fiction
HONORS FOR PINK & BLUE COLORS OF HEREDITARY CANCER
NOMINATED FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
Palm Beach International Film Festival - April 2016
EXCELLENCE AWARD
Rincon International Film Festival, Puerto Rico - 2016
HONORABLE MENTION
Buffalo Niagara Film Festival - April 2016
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
The Women's Independent Film Festival, Los Angeles - December 2015
