The Passing of Shannon D’Acquisto
Dear friends,
It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I write to you today to share the passing of my dear friend, confidant, and one of the fiercest warriors I’ve ever had the privilege to know. Shannon D’Acquisto passed away after a decades-long battle with cancer. I still can’t believe I’m writing those words.
There is no way to sum up a life like hers in a single message. There is no way to fully convey what she meant to me, to this community, and to so many of you who knew her, loved her, and stood in awe of her strength.
I met Shannon shortly after I moved to Paso Robles. She was one of the very first people to open her heart and her circle to me. She introduced me to people who became my community, my collaborators, and my friends. But Shannon became more than that. She became one of my greatest champions, a source of strength and joy, and a partner in work that mattered — helping other cancer patients merely survive.
Shannon's cancer story began in 2005, on her 32nd birthday. Her twins were just two years old. At a time when most young mothers are consumed with the joyful chaos of toddlers, Shannon was instead hearing the unthinkable: Stage IIIC post-partum breast cancer. Back then, the world wasn’t ready to believe that young women could get breast cancer. I, too, heard those same words for my own diagnosis. Her diagnosis was delayed, questioned, second-guessed. She pressed on and became an advocate before she ever meant to be one. She raised her voice when others couldn’t and she stared the impossible in the face and never blinked.
That’s who my friend was in everything she did. In every season of her life, she led with courage and conviction and somehow, always, with grace.
In 2019, cancer tried again. A seizure led to a broken back — which led to the discovery of tumors in her brain and bones. Most people would have collapsed under the weight of that diagnosis. But not Shannon. Even after brain surgery left her with right-side paralysis and forced her to learn to walk again in a stroke rehab center, Shannon showed up with the same strength she always had: fierce, full of grit, and still smiling. Up until the very end, while emaciated from her battle, she laughed with me.
Her ability to endure, fight, and still make space for everyone else’s pain, was her magic. Shannon poured herself into helping others do the same. She gave her time, her voice, her story, and her love to families whose world had been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis. And she did it all while still fighting for her own life.
We’ve lost a woman who was larger than life. A wife, a mother, a friend, an advocate, a light, and one of the bravest souls I’ve ever known. Her absence leaves a hole in our hearts and in our community that cannot be filled.
As I sit here and try to find the right words, the truth is, I’m just devastated. I can’t imagine this world without her in it. I can’t imagine the long talks, the laughter, the tears — all gone. I will miss her forever. And I know many of you will, too.
Please hold her family — Josh, Sydney, Austin, & Jordan — close in your hearts. They are the legacy she loved most. And if you feel moved to honor Shannon in any way, I know she would want that honor to be rooted in action — in doing something good for someone who’s struggling, in showing up for someone with kindness, in fighting harder for patients who need a voice.
I am so grateful to have known her, walked beside her, laughed and cried and worked alongside her. And I am so grateful to all of you for holding space for this grief, and for continuing the work that Shannon believed in so deeply.
With love and with sorrow,
Kandace