My Story
In June 1988 I was suddenly diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer dysgerminoma. I was just 34, a mother of three and had never heard of ovarian cancer!
Two weeks after radical surgery while preparing for subsequent treatment, my friend Kathy phoned and asked if I had only one year to live, how was I going to live it?
I told her emphatically I did not have just one year to live, but if I did, I was going to live everyday living and not dying.
2018 marks 30 years of living since I made that decree. This month I will also celebrate my 65th birthday. I am a miracle in motion, a medical anomaly and am celebrating and reaching out.
My oncology gynecologist told me while researching this that he had only two patients who survived stage four ovarian cancer 25 years plus. Sadly, Gwen passed this year at 88, an ovarian cancer overcomer.
My oncology neurologist has never seen someone come out of such extreme brain trauma with such vigor and success. He told me during our last interview before his retirement he calls me his miracle patient when he talks to doctor associates and students about me. He had an expectation of 3 per cent survival and 0 per cent of expectation of recovery for me.
The raison d’etre for Inside the Healing Journey
After I was diagnosed, I went to the book store… that was still pre-Internet days… to find a book about how, not that, someone had overcome any cancer. There wasn’t one.
When Canadian singer-song writer Dan Hill was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 he googled to find that book. There still wasn’t one.
To make it more relevant and to drag those 30 years into 2018 I have updated
everything I did and used from traditional surgery and treatments to alternative medicine and Judeo-Christian perhaps radical faith.
And because my journey expands over 30 years, I have taken everything I did in the 80’s and 90’s into the 21st century from a “this is what I did, this is what I would do now” perspective”. I write about how I made changes in what I ate and drank and how that has evolved to a lifelong of healthy eating. Through wise associates I learned about supplements. Thirty years later I almost begin my book with what I would start my healing journey with today.
I write about how I kept myself inspired and motivated to continue on the journey when I hit a detour or things got rough including putting on my full face of makeup as if I was going to work face before treatments, the princess nightgown I purchased to wear during treatments, the music I listened to around the clock, the books I read to learn and be inspired, and even the comedy movies we watched to keep our minds on something else while creating happy endorphins… healing hormones.. Smile
As I am writing this in November 2018 there is still not a how-to account for getting through the labyrinth of healing: the tools, the work, its detours, surprises, celebrations and disappointments. I am finally well enough to write it and plan to publish in the spring.
Despite all I was going through I pushed forward to become a published journalist/author, inspirational speaker, life and soft skills trainer, artisan, impresario and community investment specialist….that is my favourite… making a difference in peoples’ lives. In fact, a lot of that became my therapy to getting through and recovery.
Raison d’etre for the go fund me campaign
It is time to complete and publish Inside the Healing Journey and its workbook in 2018. A fall on my face and subsequent concussion in June thwarted my writing but I am back now and there is still time to complete the book.
I have spoken with several bona fid publishers, and while I have not committed I will be self-publishing with a company that has reach into widespread bookstores… brick and online… in Canada and the United States including Amazon.
That is the reason I am writing you to ask you to be my angel, to make the finances happen I need to commit to that publisher.
Inside the Healing Journey I am organizing this go fund me crowd funder to raise funds to complete the book in progress and its sister workbook so those going through can personalize their journey. To give the tools I used to fight and overcome to the people who need them now to plan their journeys. In one book, I am giving them all the information, tools, wisdom and experience I learned over the last 30 years. I have consulted with doctors and others in the medical field and nutritional gurus. This book is an inspiring and factual account of how I navigated through my healing journey And it needs to be shared.
To make it interesting for you to sponsor Inside the Healing Journey I have some perks to offer you that won’t take away from the project but will give you… my angels… some ownership of the book.
For any donation over $20 you will receive your name listed as an angel in the book and a download of Inside the Healing Journey when it is published.
For any donation of $40 or more you will receive your name listed as an angel in the book, a download of Inside the Healing Journey and a download of the workbook when they are published.
For any donation of $75 or more you will receive your name listed as an angel in the book, a download of Inside the Healing Journey and a download of the workbook when they are published and a handmade lacy angel.
For any donation of $100 or more you will receive all the above plus a hard copy of the book. For $130 I will also include a hardcopy of the workbook.
For sponsorship of $!500 you will receive all of the above plus a listing in the text of the book. … I am still working on that with the publisher, so I can perhaps give you copies of the book.
And for sponsorship of $3400 I will publish a full page resource page in the back of the book in the resource section… I am still working on that with the publisher so I can perhaps give you copies of the book.
THANK YOU ANGELS for helping me make the book I have literally talked about for 30 years a reality.
THANK YOU ANGELS for making the solutions and the tactics and the experiences I went through and more easily accessible for the first time to those who need it and their caregivers and family.
Warmest regards,
Marilynn
Inside the Healing Journey
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