The Life She Chose to Grow: Niya Brown Matthews Beyond Breast Cancer

Diagnosed at 27 and confronted by breast cancer a second time, Niya Brown Matthews went on to become a voice for survivors—and a farmer helping others build healthier, more self-reliant communities.

Niya Brown Matthews: two-time survivor, advocate, entrepreneur and a woman whose story refuses to end at diagnosis.

On a farm outside Atlanta, Niya Brown Matthews can gather the ingredients for a simple breakfast without going to a supermarket. The vegetables, the eggs, the work behind both: they are part of a life she and her husband have built deliberately. It is an unexpected second act for a woman who once considered herself a city girl with little interest in dirt, bugs or spending hours outdoors.

But the most important thing about Niya is not that she learned to grow food. It is what she had already endured before she started teaching other people how to grow. Twice, breast cancer demanded an answer from her. Her response was never merely to survive and resume business as usual. She made more room in her life for purpose and then invited others in.

THE FIRST DIAGNOSIS: 27, GRIEVING AND UNPREPARED

Niya was 27, newly settled in Atlanta with a four-year-old daughter, when she discovered a lump near her underarm during a shower. She felt no pain. At first, she dismissed it as something minor. Her mother urged her to see a doctor, and the appointment brought a diagnosis of stage II cancer in her left breast.

The news arrived while she was grieving the death of her father from lupus. As she told Andscape in a 2017 interview, she did not know anyone with breast cancer and was overwhelmed by the idea that it was happening to her. The medical decisions were daunting; the emotional isolation was its own ordeal. She underwent a lumpectomy and repeated radiation treatments, lost significant weight and began journaling at her oncologist’s suggestion. For a time, she felt too ashamed to join a support group.

That detail is worth keeping in the story. She was not fearless. She was a young mother trying to make sense of illness while still processing loss. The woman now known for encouraging others first had to learn how to receive encouragement herself.

THEN CANCER APPEARED AGAIN

Years later, breast cancer appeared in her other breast. Niya chose a mastectomy followed by reconstruction, describing an exhausting period of treatment and appointments that occupied roughly a year of her life. By then she was married to Eric Matthews, the former NFL player and Super Bowl champion. She initially held back the news, not wanting him to see her sick, before the couple confronted it together.

The second diagnosis did not erase the fear of the first. But her account of those years reveals something more durable than the familiar language of “fighting”: the difficult decisions, the dependence on family, the willingness to undergo treatment and the discipline of keeping appointments. Cancer changed her life twice. It did not earn the right to become her whole identity.

A SURVIVOR WHO MADE ROOM FOR OTHER WOMEN

Rather than keep her experience private, Niya became a visible breast-cancer advocate. Her Too Fabulous for Cancer initiative held events and helped women facing costs that treatment can bring beyond the hospital bill, transportation, co-pays, childcare, food and wigs. She also became an ambassador for Ford Warriors in Pink. These are practical acts of solidarity: recognizing that a woman may need help getting to treatment as much as she needs someone to tell her to be strong.

Her wider professional life is just as layered. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, she built a career in real estate before expanding into authorship, speaking, life coaching and community service. Her books include The Boss in You and a Soulfood Sessions devotional. Through Soulfood Sessions with Niya, launched in 2019, she created spaces for women to address work, confidence, wellness and the personal setbacks that rarely fit neatly into a motivational speech. She and Eric have also supported community outreach through the Eric Matthews Foundation.

THE GREEN CHAPTER—AND THE LIFE AROUND IT

The transition to farming may look surprising, but Niya’s new work has the same underlying concern as her advocacy: helping people meet everyday needs with dignity. A first-generation farmer, she taught herself through online resources before co-founding Twin Oak Farms in Douglasville, Georgia, with Eric. The farm’s stated mission centers on nutritious food, practical gardening education and sustainable agriculture.

In 2024, Niya told FOX 5 Atlanta that growing food saved her family more than $600 a month in groceries; produce had also reached neighbors through markets and local churches. Her farm is not just a picturesque backdrop for social media. It is a place where food security becomes hands-on instruction—and where people who thought they could never grow anything learn to begin.

In September 2026, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report noted that demand for Twin Oak Farms’ food-growing workshops had outgrown available space, prompting fundraising for expansion. The woman who once had to fight for her own health is now helping other families gain knowledge, confidence and greater control over what they eat.

SURVIVAL IS A BEGINNING, NOT A JOB TITLE

Gardening did not treat Niya’s cancer; medical care did. Nor is surviving twice a guarantee that life becomes uncomplicated. What the farm offers is a different kind of story: one about the freedom to make plans, to care for other living things and to build something that may nourish people she will never meet.

Niya Brown Matthews deserves praise for more than defeating a diagnosis. She turned an experience that once left her isolated into a reason to stand beside other women, and she brought that same generosity into fields, classrooms and community gardens. Two battles with cancer are part of her history. The life she is growing now is unmistakably her own.

WHAT SHE’S GROWING NEXT

Learn directly from Niya at her Fall Gardening Workshop on October 24, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Fairburn, Georgia. The $50 hands-on class covers fall seeding, companion planting and designing gardens for spaces of any size. Reserve a place through Twin Oak Farms.

https://form.jotform.com/NiyaMatthews/octobergardenworkshop