Toks Olagundoye is an actor, writer, and advocate known for her sharp wit and unshakable presence on screen, most recently as Olivia Finch in the Frasier reboot. At the height of her career, still grounded in the intensity of early motherhood, she got a call from her doctor, she had breast cancer.
What followed changed everything. The pace of her days. The demands on her body. Her sense of control. But now she’s telling the story herself. She’s a breast cancer survivor, and she’s still here.
The Moment She Feared Had Arrived
Toks had gone years without a full mammogram. Between breastfeeding and the demands of daily life, it stayed on the back burner. After several reminders, her OBGYN became more direct and told her it was time to stop waiting. So, she went.
During the scan, doctors found calcifications. These are tiny calcium deposits that can form in breast tissue. While often harmless, certain patterns can signal early signs of cancer. A biopsy confirmed it in August 2022.
“I was told I had stage zero triple negative breast cancer,” she said.
Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive types. According to the American Cancer Society, it grows quickly and does not respond to hormone therapies because it lacks three common receptors. That limits treatment options and increases the risk of recurrence. Within three weeks, her cancer had already advanced to stage one.
Toks had always feared cancer. It ran deep on her mother’s side with diagnoses across generations. Her father’s side, rooted in Nigeria, had fewer known cases, though she believes there may have been more that went unnamed. So when the biopsy confirmed triple-negative breast cancer, she wasn’t shocked.
“I had been terrified to get cancer my whole life,” she said. “I was almost relieved, honestly, to just know which one it was and get it done.”
Then Came the Reality Check
At just 46 years old, Toks had to shift into survival mode. In September, weeks after her diagnosis, she began treatment with a lumpectomy and radiation. A lumpectomy removes the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue. But when the pathology came back, the margins were not clear. That meant cancer cells were still present at the edges. She would need more surgery and chemotherapy.
Before starting chemo, she tried one round of egg fertilization. She and her husband had hoped for a second child. But her gynecologist stepped in.
“He’s like, stop it. Triple negative moves so quickly you’re gonna die,” she said. “I was like, okay, all right, Jesus.”
From Lumpectomy to Mastectomy
After another surgery with no clean margins, her oncological surgeon recommended a mastectomy. A mastectomy removes the entire breast to prevent further spread. Toks chose to remove both.
“She was like, listen, none of this is showing in any of the imaging we did,” she recalled. “We’re not seeing any of what we’re taking out of your body, so it’s making us really nervous.”
She began chemotherapy in early November, just after wrapping Fatal Attraction. The treatment was intense. Every three weeks, she returned for another round.
“I did four rounds of very strong chemo,” said Toks. “A week after I stopped chemo, I started working on Frasier.”
To help protect her hair, she used cold capping. The process involves cooling the scalp during chemotherapy to reduce hair loss, and it worked. Toks was able to keep about 50 percent of her hair.
The Circle That Held Her
Toks kept working, not to prove anything, but because it helped her feel like herself. Work was also essential to Tok’s healing.
“My husband was picking me up from work. My mother was dropping me off,” she said. “I had tons of people helping me carry things. That was a little difficult because I couldn’t carry my kid for a really long time.”
Her sister, best friend, and nanny helped care for her son. Insurance paperwork was handled by her financial manager. On set, her team made space for her to rest when she needed it.
“Sometimes I was like, I need to go upstairs and just rest for 25 minutes,” she said. “And they’d be like, yeah, no worries, we’ll make time for you.”
Parenting Through Treatment
While navigating surgeries and chemotherapy, Toks was also parenting a young child. Her son was still small and still used to their routines. She had to explain why things were changing, why she couldn’t carry him, why their time together looked different.
“We used to call my boobs my boo boos,” she said. “I said, so we can’t do boo boo time anymore, and he was sad, but he understood.”
She approached those conversations with honesty and compassion. She didn’t hide what was happening, but she didn’t overwhelm him either.
“I keep in mind that my kid is new here,” she explained. “I don’t put things on him that he doesn’t deserve.”
Her son responded with kindness. He would come in to chat, then tuck her into bed.
“He’d be like, Mommy, you need your rest,” he’d say.
She believes children know when something is wrong, even if no one tells them.
“I feel like you’re actually just making them more scared and anxious because they don’t know what the thing is,” she said.
Rest Is a Right
Toks spoke directly to the pressure Black women face to keep going no matter what. She spoke about how Black communities are among the most capable in the world.
“Especially Black women. We are versatile, good at problem solving and hard working. And we are insanely intelligent.”
She knows how deeply that pressure can affect health.
“One of the reasons that Black people get sick so much is that we don’t rest,” she said. “We have to stop believing the myth that rest equals laziness.”
For Toks, healing was never just about her body. It was about being part of something larger. She spoke openly about the realities Black people face, and the strength that comes from community.
“I feel like Black people are placed in a position of being stressed out and not being able to give our families what they need,” she said. “We are placed in a position of not being able to live in clean areas, not being able to afford healthy food, not being able to afford health care, not being able to afford to take time off work.”
She named the systems that create those conditions. But she also named the power our communities hold.
“I think that we need to start talking to each other,” she said. “We need to start asking questions. We need to start sharing information.”
Advocacy Begins with Access
Toks now works with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She is using her voice to push for better access, better care, and better outcomes for Black women.
“Almost half of the women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are going to be Black women,” she said. “And one of the reasons for that is the disparity in what is available to us. We are placed in a position of being stressed out and not being able to give our families what they need.”
She has seen the consequences of delayed care and poor insurance firsthand. People she loves have waited far too long for the imaging and procedures they needed. She knows how quickly diseases can spread and how dangerous those delays can be.
She encourages people to ask questions, share what they learn, and help each other navigate the system.
“You need to figure out, as young as you possibly can, what your plan for your health care is,” she said. “If you’re going to somebody and you don’t feel heard, or you feel dismissed, or you feel like you can never get an appointment, find somebody else.”
And she wants Black women to know they matter.
“You need to see yourself and your life as precious,” she said. “We take care of so many other people. We have to be healthy too. Otherwise, we can’t take care of everybody else.”
Resources:
Triple-negative Breast Cancer | Details, Diagnosis, and Signs | American Cancer Society
Breast Cancer Research Foundation | BCRF
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