Some buildings and landmarks around New Jersey may be lit up in teal, green and pink as part of the “Light Up MBC” movement to bring awareness to metastatic breast cancer.

“What they like to say is the cancer outsmarts the medicine. So that’s why Stage 4 is so tough,” says Kristin Kubicki, of Ramsey.

Kubicki says that she knew the news would come eventually. But hearing it just last week was still devastating – the medical treatment that has been keeping her alive for more than four years has stopped working.

“I’m always going to have cancer now. There’s no trying to kill it. Just keep it subdued, keep it minimal. Do what you can do and have the best quality of life,” Kubricki says.

A mother and wife – Kubricki says she is now preparing to start a new round of treatment. With no cure, she and thousands of other patients nationwide rely on those limited treatments to keep them alive for as long as possible.

“I’m fighting to stay alive as long as I can,” says Beth Cintron, of Scotch Plains.

Cintron helped to organize a local Light Up MBC event in Scotch Plains.

“We are definitely underfunded. Five percent of the funding comes to metastatic breast cancer, and this is the cancer that kills,” she says.

Light Up MBC is held on Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day and is meant to shine a light on the incurable disease. It is also to raise research money to find more life-extending treatments and a cure.

“The next two treatments I’m on were developed since I’ve been diagnosed. What this does is it gives us hope and it really prolongs our life,” Cintron says.

At the Scotch Plains ceremony and lighting, they handed out flowers with a QR code to the METAvivor website. It is a national organization, with a New Jersey chapter that raises money specifically for metastatic breast cancer research.