Celebrating 7 Years Cancer Free!!

This month I hit my 7 year cancer free anniversary!

I got to where I am today through a life changing event. The thought of an illness killing me, shuddered me to my core. Fear of doctors mutilating my body caused me to take drastic measures and turn my life around.

When I was first diagnosed, a woman I had never met before, was introduced to me by my brother. She told me she had spent an enormous amount of money getting her health back and suggested I do the same. I have to say, I thought she was crazy! How could I spend that much money? At the time, I really didn’t realise this was my life.

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy were harder than I could ever have anticipated. They forced my health to take a nose-dive which took a long time to get out of, both physically and emotionally.

But it took for me to get that genetic test one year later for it to really hit me. I remember standing outside the hospital as my husband Paul went to get the car and breaking down crying. I can’t remember the journey home, but recall thinking life was over. I think this was really the turning point, this very moment changed who I was forever and where my life would go.

In the aftermath of the receiving the results of this genetic test, I knew I needed help for my optimal health and healing. Through my journey back to health, my 3.5 years studying Nutritional Therapy, my trip to the US to study Integrative Cancer Care, the 4 year Herbal Medicine Course and Naturopathy I am now embarking upon and the tonnes of of scientific research, I’ve learned that integrative cancer care improves quality of life, cancer survival, and cancer prevention.

Changes I felt were dramatic and too difficult, turned out to be smaller and smaller as time went on. The daily habits of eating a different way, choosing different products when I shopped and changing my mind-set all became easier with persistence and repetitiveness. Today I do all of it without a second thought.

From my experience of working with people going through cancer is, the person who is not willing to try something new, or believes that the mountain is too steep to climb, is the person that has already accepted death. It is never too late to make changes, no matter how small they are.

Since then, I could never have imagined the possibilities that have come my way. Living with, what the doctors tell me is a “90% chance of recurrence”, my outlook on life couldn’t be better.

The road hasn’t been easy – anything but, and taking the plunge to go as far as leaving a steady paid job to setting up Practice as a Nutritional Therapist, made me realise that no matter how hard it would be, it was harder to do a job I had lost all interest until I reached retirement.

I have been gifted with the opportunity to give back and help others live a healthier life and to give them hope through a cancer diagnosis.

Herbal medicine will allow me to help others reduce the side effects of cancer treatment and also to help relieve some of the worries, stress and also sleep problems that so many women tell me about during consultations.

My own knowledge, education, research and experience allows me to help others where I struggled – to learn about integrative cancer care. Helping clients learn about their bodies and why its so important to nurture the only single thing in this world that we actually own.

Turning my health around has given my life real meaning and purpose.