September 3, 2024 • 36 mins
Eric and Debbie Emms, HealingStrong Group Leaders, share their incredible journey of faith, holistic healing, and dedication to a plant-based lifestyle. When Debbie's father was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer, they observed the world of conventional treatments, while searching for alternatives. Debbie turned to Ty Bollinger's "The Truth About Cancer," setting the couple on a path to explore holistic healing.
Initially met with skepticism by Eric to change his nutrition happened to all change when he overheard a portion of the documentary "Game Changers" that Debbie was watching. This shift became a critical support system when Eric himself faced a health crisis with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Hear how their deepened faith in God and their commitment to dietary changes not only helped them navigate these difficult times, but also provided invaluable lessons in resilience and hope.
Finally, Eric and Debbie's journey didn't stop at their personal healing. Inspired to give back, they established a support group to assist others on similar paths through the organization HealingStrong.
Listen as they discuss the challenges and rewards of a healing community and the massive action taken to benefit from the power of diet and lifestyle changes. Their experience with HealingStrong, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting, supporting, and educating individuals facing cancer, brings hope to the listener.
HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.
Please consider supporting our mission by becoming a part of our Membership Program, as a monthly donor.
When you do, you will receive additional resources such as: webinars, access to ALL our past and most recent conference videos, downloadables and more, as a bonus.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've always been believers, but I wouldn't say
that prior to your dad gettingsick, it wasn't as much of a
part of our life as it is nowand I think it was pretty
profound.
When Barry got sick, we theonly way.
It was like Debbie said earlier.
It was gruesome and it was fearbased and there was a lot of
fear and we knew and I rememberthis conversation we needed God
(00:22):
in our life and the only way wegot through that period was by
surrendering to Christ and byintentionally going through each
day and looking, specificallylooking for the beauty in each
day, because there wasn't a lotand we had to find it.
Like Debbie said, glory to God.
I mean, he showed us beautifulthings every single day in a
(00:44):
world of such ugliness.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast,
a part of the Healing Strongorganization, the number one
network of holistic cancersupport groups in the world.
Each week we bring you storiesof hope, real stories that will
encourage you as you navigateyour way on your own journey to
health.
Now here's your host stage fourcancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Today's episode.
I have a husband and wife duoand they have a unique story
because it's coming from alldifferent directions.
All these diagnoses Talkingwith Eric and Debbie Ems Is that
how you say your last name?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Ems.
Very well done.
We didn't even have to spell itfor you.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, it's just more than one M, so I guess M plural
right, there you go, Perfect.
That works in my family becauseall my kids we have four kids
and their initials are M and Mall of them.
So good.
So we can be the Ems also.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
That's right.
I love it Already connected.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, and you guys are all the way on the other
side of the country.
I'm sitting here in SouthCarolina sweating like crazy and
you're up in the beautifulNorthwest.
Have you always been there?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Well, I was born and raised in California and I'm so
grateful that I found my way uphere, because Chili is amazing,
but he is the Born and raised.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, not born, but raised here, lived here my whole
life.
Okay, so how'd?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
y'all meet.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Mutual friends Right, it's always those friends that
always know how to connect you.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Seems like another lifetime ago.
Yeah, none of my friends helpedme with mine.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
In fact, when I saw my wife for the first time my
friends were fixing her up withsome slick salesman guy.
I thought, thanks for thinkingabout me.
She fell for me, just chased meuntil I said okay, okay, I'll
marry you.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Uh-huh, I wonder if she would say that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Hey, don't worry about it, you didn't need any
help, yeah.
So anyway, you guys have agreat story.
I believe it kind of startedwith your dad, debbie.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yeah, it started with my dad, and shall I just jump
right into it?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Jump on it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Okay, well, you know, when my dad was diagnosed in
2019, this was a world that wewere so unfamiliar with because
we didn't have anyone in ourcircle that was healing with
cancer, and so when my dad wasdiagnosed with a glioblastoma
(03:15):
brain cancer, we really onlyknew one way to take, which was
the prescribed way of surgeryradiation and chemotherapy and,
honestly, it was a time where itwas absolutely horrifying to
watch.
It was such a brutal way oftreating his cancer and it was
(03:38):
in that time that I started tolook for something different,
because I couldn't be convincedthat this was the only way.
It just seemed too barbaric.
And my best friend at this timeshe handed me a book called the
Truth About Cancer by TyBollinger, and I read this book
(04:00):
ferociously I could not getenough of it, and it really
started the trajectory of thereis another way to heal, and
we're just starting the path.
And from there it led me to EatReally Heal by Nicolette Roche,
which again is healing the bodyholistically, using food as
(04:23):
nutrition, and that just againstarted us down another path of
healing, and so I was already in.
But when you have a circle ofpeople that have only been
taught one way, there was a lotof walls that we came across,
and so my next step was tointroduce this to my husband,
(04:47):
who, you know, was open.
Right Everything that we do inour life, we like to say that we
walk with an open mind and anopen heart, and so he gave it a
shot.
He read the same books that Iread, and then he started to
watch the same documentariesthat I was watching, and I think
(05:08):
one of them that was reallypowerful to him was Game
Changers, and I feel like thisis probably better for you to
talk about, because it was aprofound step for you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I guess it was.
I mean, so at this time we'dbeen reading all this
information and Debbie was justall in and she was trying to get
her parents on board with thisdifferent way of lifestyle and I
think at the time we didn'treally know so much about whole
food, plant-based, but she wasconvinced she was going to go be
(05:44):
vegan.
And at the time I remember like, well, that's great, I'll
support you, but I'm out, andshe was watching Game Changers.
I'll never forget this.
Actually, I was getting readyfor bed, I was in the bathroom
and she's laying in bed watchingthe Game Changers and I'm kind
of listening to it.
I'm not really watching it andI'll never forget that.
They're talking about this studythat they did with.
(06:06):
Uh.
Well, first there was thisgentleman, he was in his 90s and
he said I've been whole foodplant-based, I'm a cancer
survivor and the flag stillrises, and so who's this guy?
And then they're doing thisstudy with these uh collegiate
baseball players from stanfordand they they were measuring
their uh nocturnal erections, Iguess, if I can say that, and so
(06:31):
I'm listening to this, and onegroup ate the chicken burritos
and the beef burritos and thenthey would measure it at night
and then the other group ate thewhole food plant-based burritos
and they would measure them.
And after I hear the outcome ofthis study, I remember I looked
at her and I'm like, all right,I'm in and we've been some
version of whole foodplant-based ever since, and that
(06:52):
was what 2019, I think 2019.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
That's right.
That's right.
So, whatever it was going totake, it definitely was enough
for him to start the same path,and we've been walking it ever
since.
And again, everything happensfor a reason, and in this time,
in this period, that's when weaccepted Jesus Christ and we've
(07:16):
been following his path eversince.
Our relationship with God hascompletely changed and we
wouldn't have been able to getthrough some of the things that
we've been facing without Him,and so we give Him all of the
glory because, not so long aftermy dad's diagnosis in 2021, I'm
(07:41):
going to let Eric jump in,because this next phase is Him.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, yeah, I, I mean , there's a lot of truth to that
.
We, we've always been believers, but I wouldn't say that prior
to your dad getting sick, um, itwasn't as much of a part of our
life as it is now and I thinkit was pretty profound.
When barry got sick, we, theonly way.
It was, like debbie saidearlier, it was gruesome and it
(08:04):
was fear-based, and there was alot of fear and we knew and I
remember this conversation weneeded god in our life and the
only way we got through thatperiod, um, was by surrendering
to christ and by intentionallygoing through each day and
looking, specifically lookingfor the beauty in each day,
(08:27):
because there wasn't a lot andwe had to find it.
And, like Debbie said, glory toGod.
I mean, he showed us beautifulthings every single day.
In a world of such ugliness.
Your relationship with your dad, those those last few months,
were just.
It was a beautiful thing, yes,and so I just wanted to ask I
(08:48):
appreciate that.
Thank you so then I guess fastforward a little bit.
In january of 2021, totallyrandomly, we found a mass in my
thyroid and Debbie's prettyintuitive, and she would tell me
(09:08):
, sometimes I see this thing inyour neck.
And she would tell me that shecould feel it.
And I was always like, ah,you're just making stuff up,
whatever.
So I think it was during COVID.
It was during COVID, we're at myprimary care doctor and he had
just gotten an ultrasoundmachine and he was all proud of
(09:29):
this new machine and he was like, oh, let's play around with it.
And debbie said we'll put it onhis neck.
And so he did, and he foundthis mass and we talked about it
and whatever.
And I essentially just said,well, thanks for the information
.
And we left it alone for a year.
We continued to monitor it, butwe left it alone and finally,
after a year, we had noticed inlooking at it on the ultrasound
(09:53):
that it had grown a little bitand both the doctor and Debbie
were like, look man, if I wasyou, I'm getting this biopsied.
And at the time we didn't reallyknow another way.
I don't think I would make thatdecision now.
But then, uh, I did, I had abiopsied and and was diagnosed
with uh papillary thyroidcarcinoma which you know, even
(10:16):
with the information we had wasit was scary, but again, god
works in mysterious ways and, um, I heard loud and clear from
God that it wasn't for Barrywho's Debbie's dad the
information we learned thesepast two years.
It wasn't for him, because wetried to get them to go that
(10:36):
route as well and they didn'tnecessarily believe all of that
stuff, and it was overwhelminglymade clear to me that it wasn't
for him, it was for me, and sothat's kind of where my journey
down this path started.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
What year was that you were diagnosed?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
2021, january 2021.
Not too long ago, no, not toolong ago.
And you know, know, one of thefirst things I noticed once I
got the official diagnosis waskind of looking at the medical
industry, I guess, if you will.
(11:16):
It was very fear-based and itmade me feel like I mean, mean,
I had a representative fromOregon Health and Sciences
University, a surge from thesurgeon's office.
They were on the phone with mewithin 24 hours.
I mean I felt like, if you'veever had a sales job, I felt
(11:37):
like a warm lead and they wereall over me and they made me
feel like I didn't really haveany time.
We've got to get this in.
I can get you in later thisweek or early next week.
And I felt a lot of pressure to.
They wanted to surgicallyremove my thyroid and they
wanted to put me on four monthsof radiation treatment.
And I remember the decidingfactor for me that I didn't want
(12:02):
anything to do with it was whenshe told me that when we did
the radiation for 48 hoursafterwards I would have to be
quarantined from my familybecause the levels of radiation
were too toxic for them.
And it just struck me, itbecame so clear and I was like
wait a minute, we've just thrownlogical, rational thinking out
(12:23):
of the window.
If it's too toxic for them,then how is it not too toxic to
do directly to me?
Like it just didn't make sense,and so I knew I was out.
I didn't know what we weregoing to do, but I knew I wasn't
going to do that, right.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So what did you end up doing?
Did you go with the truth aboutcancer?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Our original plan was that we were going to do the
Gerson therapy Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And if you're familiar with the Gerson therapy
, it's a very strict commitmentand that's really challenging.
It's such a beautiful way toheal but you have to be
completely committed to it andthat was.
It was much.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
It was a lot.
A little bit of that.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
It was a lot.
And we have six kids and at thetime they were, you know, a
little bit younger.
They were all, I think.
They were all still in thehouse, or most of them still in
the house.
And so we're you know, we livea busy lifestyle with small
business owners and ultimatelywe decided that wasn't the right
path.
But at first that's what wethought we were going to do, and
(13:33):
so then we figured, okay, well,we need a team, you know, an
oncologist or somebody tosupport us through this Right,
this right, and I had to.
I talked to five oncologistsand laid out what I wanted to do
before I found the sixth onewho would even work with me.
The other five didn't wantanything to do with with, uh,
(13:56):
they basically they didn't sayit was a death sentence, but
they basically said theycouldn't do it or wouldn't do it
.
And I did eventually findsomebody who agreed to
essentially monitor me and workwith me and, um, so then we just
kind of started to build, builda healing team, and so you're
good now, or Well, in April ofthis year we went to and I spent
(14:20):
, well, we went and spent threeweeks at Hope for Cancer in
Cancun, mexico, and so I wentthrough there three weeks of
treatment there and I was toldthat there are no active signs
(14:42):
of cancer in my body and, giventhe thumbs up permission from
them, so obviously it's stillsomething that we need to
monitor.
I do still have a nodule uh,they're calling it on my thyroid
, but it's shrunk considerably,um, and so we're doing some
targeted therapies to try to,you know, reduce the size of
that even more.
But yeah, that's where I'm atright now.
Yeah, that's much better, isn'tit?
Speaker 4 (15:03):
And for those that aren't familiar with Hope for
Cancer, their approach isintegrative.
But everything that Eric hadreceived there was 100% holistic
, percent, um, holistic.
(15:23):
So we started a path ofholistic healing and here we are
with a remission result.
So it's, it's a beautiful wayto heal.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yes, yes, that's a great place.
I'm pretty familiar with that.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I've had, in fact, dr jimenez on the podcast before a
couple times so good, well, andwe were blessed uh, he's not
there all the time, right, uh,but we were blessed when we were
there.
That, uh, him and his wife werethere the week that, one of the
weeks that we were there.
So, um, one of my finalmeetings was with him and, um,
that's pretty great experience,yeah just a great, great doctor
(15:54):
he's such a nice guy, has such atender spirit about him.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Yes, oh, yes.
I mean really, when you walk into the Hope for Cancer Clinic,
that's the feeling you get.
It is such a beautiful, loving,healing place that they created
there.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Spiritual place, spiritual place.
It's like a, it's a retreat,basically.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Yeah, yeah, you go to heal.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, it's a lovely place too, isn't it?
I haven't been there, but oh,it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Your view is as it are.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
If you have to be in the hospital, Cancun beachside
is not a bad place to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's true.
Now, debbie, you had adiagnosis also, right?
I Well.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Debbie, you had a diagnosis also, right, I do, and
I'm still going through it.
So we're at this place nowwhere, again, routine exam about
two months ago showed a couple,a few masses on my thyroid and
(16:57):
I was told that I should have abiopsy.
And again, everything happensfor a reason and everything that
I've been learning with my dadand with Eric, we knew that
that's not the path that we'regoing to take.
I know that it's there.
I know that I have some bloodmarkers that are elevated, which
is, you know, cancer is alwaysthere.
(17:19):
What I've got going on, itfalls under the umbrella of
thyroid disease and I could workwith that because I believe
that you can heal the bodyholistically and we just have to
build the immune system back upto reactivate the thyroid to
kill whatever is going on withthose nodules.
So I'm at a place right nowwhere I'm building my team and
(17:45):
starting that path and what thatmight look like for me.
But I know that everything thatI've been learning for the past
five years has led me to whereI am right now and I know that
this is a healing path.
And it also happens that I'mgoing to be starting the Healing
Strong meetings in this area aswell, and so I get to share
(18:07):
with others that what I'm doingfor my healing as well.
And so it's just.
Everything is God's timing, andI'm walking this path with an
open mind and an open heart andknow that everything that's
coming to me is meant to be, andI'm just going to walk forward
with it.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right, right Now did I understand.
You also were diabetic.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I was.
I had, well, I had a conditionthat required me to take insulin
and I had that for decades.
And I had I've been on that thebig pharma hamster wheel since
I was in my young 20s, because Ididn't know any other way.
And the more that I waslearning when my dad was
(18:55):
diagnosed was that I didn't needto have those medications.
I needed to fix how I waseating, how I was living my life
, my faith in God and thatrelationship with him.
And so in that time, when mydad was diagnosed, I chose to
(19:15):
get off all of medication.
I went 100% whole food,plant-based.
I fired my doctors, I found theones that aligned with my way
of thinking of healingholistically, and I'm no longer
and I haven't been for fiveyears on any type of insulin.
My A1C, which is the diabeticcursor, went from a 6.1 to a 5.2
(19:38):
.
And so I did that, just walkingthe path holistically.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, it's funny because my cousin this year I'll
probably tell the story a lotnow because it just happened but
his A1C was 12 point something.
I mean it was way up there andhe is scared to death of needles
, so that was his motivation.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Yes, exactly.
When you're faced withsomething big, right, then your
why changes?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yes, and he went.
We told him about goingplant-based and he dove in
headfirst 100% Six months laterhe's down to 5.4, I think it was
100%.
Six months later, it's down to5.4, I think it was.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
That's so beautiful and that's something that I'm
excited to share with my newgroup here in the Pacific
Northwest about whole food,plant-based and juicing, and it
really is just.
I'm really excited just to beable to impart what I know and
share so others can adopt thisin their own life.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Right Now.
Your dad never did go withholistic.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
He didn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
My parents wouldn't either if that ever happened,
because that's just the mindsetespecially that generation and
in fact my generation growing up.
The doctors, whatever they say,you just figure they have lab
coats.
We don't, that's right.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
They say A hundred percent.
And my dad believed with ahundred percent and trusted what
his beloved doctors weretelling him to do, and so you
know, he followed that path andwe chose to do something
different.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right.
Well, and I think that's animportant thing to make note of
is you know, when we chose to dothis, you get a lot of pushback
from those in your circle.
You know it's ingrained in usfrom the time we're little kids
that this is the way you dothings.
The doctor, you know thedoctor's right.
They're going to give you theprescription and everything is
going to be okay.
(21:36):
And when you start sayingyou're going to do something
different than that, especiallywhen it's in direct
contradiction to that, then alot of times people treat you
like you're out of your, you'velost your mind.
That was a real thing.
That we had to deal with waspeople that are like what are
you doing?
And not supportive, and thatwas all part of the lessons that
(21:58):
we learned along the way.
Is that sometimes you have tochange your circle?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, and they mean well, because they want you to
live.
But they think that's all thereis.
They almost treat you likewhat's wrong with you.
You're kind of arrogant thatyou think you know more than a
doctor.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yes, yeah, yes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, but then there you are.
Both of you are pretty healthy,so I think you're doing a good
job.
I'll give you a thumbs up Allright, we like it.
So how did you find out aboutHealing Strong?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
We've been following Chris' work now for several
years and instrumental in a lotof the way that we heal now, and
so when I go back to revisitsome of the things that Chris
Work has in his podcast or anyof the things that he posts out
(22:47):
there, I go back and reread, andI stumbled across the Healing
Strong and the nonprofit and Istarted to read everything that
this nonprofit organization didand I knew that I had to be part
of this.
It aligns 100% with the waythat we live our life and how we
(23:10):
move forward, and I couldn'thave imagined landing in a place
where I was so completely meantto be, and so that's kind of
how we found Healing Strong.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Right?
Was there not a group in yourarea?
Are you starting one?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
I am starting one and my first day is going to be I
believe it's well, I think it'sAugust 26th, that's a Monday.
That's going to be our veryfirst meeting and I'm going to
be our very first meeting andI'm going to share Chris Swart's
protocols and weave inscripture and it's just going to
be beautiful.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's exciting.
I had to start one myself inGreenville, south Carolina,
because there wasn't any andit's just not something I would
normally do.
But I thought, know, I thought,hey, I just, I just healed from
cancer, so I really need togive back.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Hopefully someone will.
Yeah, someone will take over.
You know, once I start thegroup and that's been like four
years now no one's taken overyet.
That's okay, I'll just.
I'll just keep opening the doorto the place and someone's
eventually going to jump upthere and say, hey, let me take
over.
Until then, I feel like Godwants me to do this.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
That's right, so you feel called to do it, and I love
that.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Where do you see this going?
Are you going to follow thecurriculum at all?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
I'm 100% going to follow the curriculum.
I'm going to add in anythingthat I feel that best supports,
whatever, any of the membersneed.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Okay, have people signed up yet.
Have you like advertising?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I have two so far, so got to start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, some people start with just themselves, so
you're doing great.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And if that's the case, I'll sit there for the
hour and that's my time to sitwith God and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
You can encourage yourself.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Well, maybe Eric will , come I probably would.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
I'd have one, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, because you've got a great story and that
obviously will encourage peopleand unfortunately there are
people with cancer everywherewho found out it's becoming more
and more popular.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
You know, I think the statistic is something like one
out of every two people, andit's horrible.
And so the more that we can putthe word out there that there's
multiple ways of healing, or atleast try to integrate that in
with what you're doing now isbetter than what they're
currently doing.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, since the government declared war on
cancer decades ago, it's justgotten worse.
So we definitely need to dowhat God, basically what God
says in his word.
I mean, he pretty much knowshow our bodies work and he gave
us our immune system for apurpose I mean just about
(26:02):
anything.
It's so odd and I find myselfconstantly have to rethink
things, even though I know thatthe body heals itself, but I
still my mind wants to go backto.
Well, you know, maybe I need todo this procedure or that
procedure.
In fact, I went throughimmunotherapy because I didn't.
I wasn't going to do chemo, butthey never offered that and
(26:24):
they said that, well,immunotherapy is a new thing.
That kind of builds up your ownimmune system and helps it, you
know, battle the cancer and itworks pretty well with melanoma,
which is what I had.
So I went ahead and took that,mostly because insurance covered
it, and it dried up my eighttumors in just the first couple
of months and I responded wellto it.
(26:45):
However, it is still medicationand most people have side
effects to it.
I mean, I thank God that Ididn't really have anything.
I had diarrhea for two years,but other than that, I can get
around that.
Yeah, and I'm cancer-free now.
I changed my diet, of course.
(27:06):
I cut out sugar and doing a lotof juicing and all kinds of
stuff that was not put in mymouth before, like ginger and
all this.
Now I love it.
It's great my body startscraving these things.
That is telling you, hey, thiswas healthy all along.
Why weren't you giving it to me?
(27:26):
Right, I thought Twinkies werehealthy.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Right and right.
We didn't know and we had tocompletely learn a different way
of eating and whole food plantbased.
That's not easy and it's tightthrough me, and so I'd really,
for the last five years, havestudied this and how I can make
this so it could be ourlifestyle rather than an
occasional thing that we do, andit's been tough going at times,
(27:54):
but I feel like where we're atright now.
I feel like I've finallyfigured it out.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Right, You're certified right.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I am certified in orthomolecular functional
nutrition.
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, that was going to be my guess.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Where did you get certified through?
And again, I found her when Iread her book Eat Real to Heal
back in 2019.
And she's somebody that has alot to offer and has done a lot
of great stuff in this world andI felt, and still feel,
completely honored to have hadthat year that she taught.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
How did your kids respond?
You said you had six kids.
How did they respond to yourdiagnosis?
Did it kind of freak them out?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Well, there's six of them, right, and they're a range
of ages and they all kind ofresponded differently in their
own way.
Yeah, I would say if I had to.
They're all pretty quiet aboutit.
Even, you know, throughout thewhole period it's not something
they really wanted to talk abouta lot.
We would kind of have to pry it.
(29:03):
You guys should talk about this.
And they're all pretty quietbut very supportive.
I mean, we made a lot ofchanges in our lifestyle and
they were supportive all alongthe way, all six of them, but
pretty quiet, not real vocalabout sharing how they felt
about it or, you know, any typesof fears or anything like that.
(29:26):
But you know, and I wondersometimes how much of that,
we're pretty positive and wedon't really do negativity or
things like that, and sosometimes I wonder if maybe they
were.
They didn't want to come acrossas a downer or you know, I
don't know, but, um, yeah, theydidn't share too much, but yeah
they didn't share too much.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
They also took a lot of cue from us, because we
walked this path.
You are healing.
There was no other way.
And so our attitude we walkedin love and light.
This was the way that we weregoing to heal and we felt 100%
confident of that, and so I'dlike to think that that's what
our kids saw, that's what theywere feeding off of us.
(30:09):
Um, we had no fear.
We walked with no fear and theysaw, they watch us yeah,
there's probably a lot of truthto that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Um well, there was some fear the first three months
well, that's, uh, that's okaybut you know, once we reached
surrender, then there was nomore fear, and I stay still that
I personally view the wholeexperience as a gift.
I view it as a gift from Godand I look at it, the changes
(30:37):
that it's forced us to make inour lifestyle.
We're completely differentpeople just three and a half
years later than when we gotthis diagnosis, and I view it as
a gift.
It gave me three gifts,actually.
It gave me the gift of livingin gratitude, it gave me the
gift of living in grace andgiving grace where I didn't
always do that before, and itgave me the gift of giving, and
(31:03):
I wouldn't have put those threethings at the top of my list
four or five years ago, right,and so for me and I think you
share this sentiment it's been abeautiful journey, and so
you're probably right.
I mean, they saw our confidenceand they saw that we're living
in gratitude and joy every day,so why shouldn't they be?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
That's a good point, because people our age and older
that's where you get thepushback.
But when you have kids andthey're watching you and they're
feeding off, like you say, youknow how you're responding to it
.
So I mean you're teaching awhole nother generation though,
like hey, when I'm going througha valley, you know, I know how
to act now because I've seen myparents do it and, like you say,
(31:40):
most people, they're betterafter cancer.
No one wants cancer, obviously,but once you go through a deep
valley like cancer and as soonas you get your diagnosis, you
are scared to death.
I mean, I cried like a littlebaby for like an hour and then I
was fine, of course, but beingthe caliber of a man that I am,
(32:01):
I can relate.
But I was scared.
I thought, man, I'm not goingto make it.
They gave me a month or two tolive.
I thought I'm not going to makeit to Christmas because this
was in September.
But then, all of a sudden, likeGod, filled me with this peace
because there's all thesedifferent things that happened
during this time, because, youknow, I had to live it out in
front of a radio audience of500,000 people, so I couldn't be
(32:24):
quiet about it.
But all these different thingshe kept putting in my path that
made me realize.
It's always like he's winkingat me, saying, hey, I'm here, I
got it.
I knew this was going to happenwhen we were born.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yes.
Isn't that amazing, the smallmiracles that he brings into
your life every day, that Ialways kind of look at it now
and think prior to this we weretoo busy to see all those or to
notice all of those.
But once you achieve surrenderand you kind of slow your life
down and you open your eyes,they're there all the time.
And the people that he bringsinto your life, for maybe just a
(33:01):
specific thing it's sobeautiful.
For maybe just a specific thingit's so beautiful.
I mean just the people thathave come into our lives that we
would have never been incontact with, but they came and
they served a purpose and it'sjust.
It's been beautiful, right.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
We woke up.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
We became awake.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yep, yeah, priorities change.
It goes to relationships ratherthan, you know, being
productive in your business,which is important, of course,
but I, rather than beingproductive in your business
which is important, of course,but I mean you realize how much
more important that relationshipwith your kids and your family
and a circle of friends thatsupport what you're doing Right
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You're all doing a good job Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's made us focus moreon the experience than the
outcome.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Living in gratitude for today, today's, the gift.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Well, you guys got it together.
I can't help you at all.
You know what you're doing.
No marriage counseling here, sohow can people get a hold of
you?
The website Healing Strong.
I look for it out here.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, I own the Healing Strong website and you
can also if they are into socialmedia.
You can find me at purefoodygal, but my email is on there as
well, the Healing Strong, so ifthey go to that website they can
find me.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Is your group in Vancouver or Portland?
Speaker 4 (34:24):
It'll say Healing Strong PNW, so Pacific Northwest
, with the Vancouver Washingtonas the address.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It was a pleasure talking to you all.
It was encouraging.
I didn't need it encouraging,but I got encouraged anyway, so
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Thank you, jim, thanks Jim, wonderful.
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong
podcast, a part of the HealingStrong organization.
We hope you found encouragementin this episode, as well as the
confidence to take control ofyour healing journey, knowing
that God will guide you on thispath.
Healing Strong is a nonprofitorganization whose mission is to
(35:01):
connect, support and educateindividuals facing cancer and
other diseases throughstrategies that help to rebuild
the body, renew the soul andrefresh the spirit.
It costs nothing to be a partof a local or online group.
You can do that by going to ourwebsite at healingstrongorg and
(35:23):
finding a group near you, anonline group, or start your own,
your choice.
While you're there, take a lookaround at all the free
resources.
Though the resources and groupsare free, we encourage you to
join our membership program at$25 or $75 a month.
This helps us to be able toreach more people with hope and
(35:47):
encouragement, and that alsocomes with some extra perks as
well.
So check it out.
If you enjoyed this podcast,please give us a five-star
rating, leave an encouragingcomment and help us spread the
word.
We'll see you next week withanother story on the I Am
Healing Strong podcast.
We've always been believers, but I wouldn't say
that prior to your dad gettingsick, it wasn't as much of a
part of our life as it is nowand I think it was pretty
profound.
When Barry got sick, we theonly way.
It was like Debbie said earlier.
It was gruesome and it was fearbased and there was a lot of
fear and we knew and I rememberthis conversation we needed God
(00:22):
in our life and the only way wegot through that period was by
surrendering to Christ and byintentionally going through each
day and looking, specificallylooking for the beauty in each
day, because there wasn't a lotand we had to find it.
Like Debbie said, glory to God.
I mean, he showed us beautifulthings every single day in a
(00:44):
world of such ugliness.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast,
a part of the Healing Strongorganization, the number one
network of holistic cancersupport groups in the world.
Each week we bring you storiesof hope, real stories that will
encourage you as you navigateyour way on your own journey to
health.
Now here's your host stage fourcancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Today's episode.
I have a husband and wife duoand they have a unique story
because it's coming from alldifferent directions.
All these diagnoses Talkingwith Eric and Debbie Ems Is that
how you say your last name?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Ems.
Very well done.
We didn't even have to spell itfor you.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, it's just more than one M, so I guess M plural
right, there you go, Perfect.
That works in my family becauseall my kids we have four kids
and their initials are M and Mall of them.
So good.
So we can be the Ems also.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
That's right.
I love it Already connected.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, and you guys are all the way on the other
side of the country.
I'm sitting here in SouthCarolina sweating like crazy and
you're up in the beautifulNorthwest.
Have you always been there?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Well, I was born and raised in California and I'm so
grateful that I found my way uphere, because Chili is amazing,
but he is the Born and raised.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, not born, but raised here, lived here my whole
life.
Okay, so how'd?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
y'all meet.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Mutual friends Right, it's always those friends that
always know how to connect you.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Seems like another lifetime ago.
Yeah, none of my friends helpedme with mine.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
In fact, when I saw my wife for the first time my
friends were fixing her up withsome slick salesman guy.
I thought, thanks for thinkingabout me.
She fell for me, just chased meuntil I said okay, okay, I'll
marry you.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Uh-huh, I wonder if she would say that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Hey, don't worry about it, you didn't need any
help, yeah.
So anyway, you guys have agreat story.
I believe it kind of startedwith your dad, debbie.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yeah, it started with my dad, and shall I just jump
right into it?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Jump on it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Okay, well, you know, when my dad was diagnosed in
2019, this was a world that wewere so unfamiliar with because
we didn't have anyone in ourcircle that was healing with
cancer, and so when my dad wasdiagnosed with a glioblastoma
(03:15):
brain cancer, we really onlyknew one way to take, which was
the prescribed way of surgeryradiation and chemotherapy and,
honestly, it was a time where itwas absolutely horrifying to
watch.
It was such a brutal way oftreating his cancer and it was
(03:38):
in that time that I started tolook for something different,
because I couldn't be convincedthat this was the only way.
It just seemed too barbaric.
And my best friend at this timeshe handed me a book called the
Truth About Cancer by TyBollinger, and I read this book
(04:00):
ferociously I could not getenough of it, and it really
started the trajectory of thereis another way to heal, and
we're just starting the path.
And from there it led me to EatReally Heal by Nicolette Roche,
which again is healing the bodyholistically, using food as
(04:23):
nutrition, and that just againstarted us down another path of
healing, and so I was already in.
But when you have a circle ofpeople that have only been
taught one way, there was a lotof walls that we came across,
and so my next step was tointroduce this to my husband,
(04:47):
who, you know, was open.
Right Everything that we do inour life, we like to say that we
walk with an open mind and anopen heart, and so he gave it a
shot.
He read the same books that Iread, and then he started to
watch the same documentariesthat I was watching, and I think
(05:08):
one of them that was reallypowerful to him was Game
Changers, and I feel like thisis probably better for you to
talk about, because it was aprofound step for you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I guess it was.
I mean, so at this time we'dbeen reading all this
information and Debbie was justall in and she was trying to get
her parents on board with thisdifferent way of lifestyle and I
think at the time we didn'treally know so much about whole
food, plant-based, but she wasconvinced she was going to go be
(05:44):
vegan.
And at the time I remember like, well, that's great, I'll
support you, but I'm out, andshe was watching Game Changers.
I'll never forget this.
Actually, I was getting readyfor bed, I was in the bathroom
and she's laying in bed watchingthe Game Changers and I'm kind
of listening to it.
I'm not really watching it andI'll never forget that.
They're talking about this studythat they did with.
(06:06):
Uh.
Well, first there was thisgentleman, he was in his 90s and
he said I've been whole foodplant-based, I'm a cancer
survivor and the flag stillrises, and so who's this guy?
And then they're doing thisstudy with these uh collegiate
baseball players from stanfordand they they were measuring
their uh nocturnal erections, Iguess, if I can say that, and so
(06:31):
I'm listening to this, and onegroup ate the chicken burritos
and the beef burritos and thenthey would measure it at night
and then the other group ate thewhole food plant-based burritos
and they would measure them.
And after I hear the outcome ofthis study, I remember I looked
at her and I'm like, all right,I'm in and we've been some
version of whole foodplant-based ever since, and that
(06:52):
was what 2019, I think 2019.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
That's right.
That's right.
So, whatever it was going totake, it definitely was enough
for him to start the same path,and we've been walking it ever
since.
And again, everything happensfor a reason, and in this time,
in this period, that's when weaccepted Jesus Christ and we've
(07:16):
been following his path eversince.
Our relationship with God hascompletely changed and we
wouldn't have been able to getthrough some of the things that
we've been facing without Him,and so we give Him all of the
glory because, not so long aftermy dad's diagnosis in 2021, I'm
(07:41):
going to let Eric jump in,because this next phase is Him.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, yeah, I, I mean , there's a lot of truth to that
.
We, we've always been believers, but I wouldn't say that prior
to your dad getting sick, um, itwasn't as much of a part of our
life as it is now and I thinkit was pretty profound.
When barry got sick, we, theonly way.
It was, like debbie saidearlier, it was gruesome and it
(08:04):
was fear-based, and there was alot of fear and we knew and I
remember this conversation weneeded god in our life and the
only way we got through thatperiod, um, was by surrendering
to christ and by intentionallygoing through each day and
looking, specifically lookingfor the beauty in each day,
(08:27):
because there wasn't a lot andwe had to find it.
And, like Debbie said, glory toGod.
I mean, he showed us beautifulthings every single day.
In a world of such ugliness.
Your relationship with your dad, those those last few months,
were just.
It was a beautiful thing, yes,and so I just wanted to ask I
(08:48):
appreciate that.
Thank you so then I guess fastforward a little bit.
In january of 2021, totallyrandomly, we found a mass in my
thyroid and Debbie's prettyintuitive, and she would tell me
(09:08):
, sometimes I see this thing inyour neck.
And she would tell me that shecould feel it.
And I was always like, ah,you're just making stuff up,
whatever.
So I think it was during COVID.
It was during COVID, we're at myprimary care doctor and he had
just gotten an ultrasoundmachine and he was all proud of
(09:29):
this new machine and he was like, oh, let's play around with it.
And debbie said we'll put it onhis neck.
And so he did, and he foundthis mass and we talked about it
and whatever.
And I essentially just said,well, thanks for the information
.
And we left it alone for a year.
We continued to monitor it, butwe left it alone and finally,
after a year, we had noticed inlooking at it on the ultrasound
(09:53):
that it had grown a little bitand both the doctor and Debbie
were like, look man, if I wasyou, I'm getting this biopsied.
And at the time we didn't reallyknow another way.
I don't think I would make thatdecision now.
But then, uh, I did, I had abiopsied and and was diagnosed
with uh papillary thyroidcarcinoma which you know, even
(10:16):
with the information we had wasit was scary, but again, god
works in mysterious ways and, um, I heard loud and clear from
God that it wasn't for Barrywho's Debbie's dad the
information we learned thesepast two years.
It wasn't for him, because wetried to get them to go that
(10:36):
route as well and they didn'tnecessarily believe all of that
stuff, and it was overwhelminglymade clear to me that it wasn't
for him, it was for me, and sothat's kind of where my journey
down this path started.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
What year was that you were diagnosed?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
2021, january 2021.
Not too long ago, no, not toolong ago.
And you know, know, one of thefirst things I noticed once I
got the official diagnosis waskind of looking at the medical
industry, I guess, if you will.
(11:16):
It was very fear-based and itmade me feel like I mean, mean,
I had a representative fromOregon Health and Sciences
University, a surge from thesurgeon's office.
They were on the phone with mewithin 24 hours.
I mean I felt like, if you'veever had a sales job, I felt
(11:37):
like a warm lead and they wereall over me and they made me
feel like I didn't really haveany time.
We've got to get this in.
I can get you in later thisweek or early next week.
And I felt a lot of pressure to.
They wanted to surgicallyremove my thyroid and they
wanted to put me on four monthsof radiation treatment.
And I remember the decidingfactor for me that I didn't want
(12:02):
anything to do with it was whenshe told me that when we did
the radiation for 48 hoursafterwards I would have to be
quarantined from my familybecause the levels of radiation
were too toxic for them.
And it just struck me, itbecame so clear and I was like
wait a minute, we've just thrownlogical, rational thinking out
(12:23):
of the window.
If it's too toxic for them,then how is it not too toxic to
do directly to me?
Like it just didn't make sense,and so I knew I was out.
I didn't know what we weregoing to do, but I knew I wasn't
going to do that, right.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So what did you end up doing?
Did you go with the truth aboutcancer?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Our original plan was that we were going to do the
Gerson therapy Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And if you're familiar with the Gerson therapy
, it's a very strict commitmentand that's really challenging.
It's such a beautiful way toheal but you have to be
completely committed to it andthat was.
It was much.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
It was a lot.
A little bit of that.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
It was a lot.
And we have six kids and at thetime they were, you know, a
little bit younger.
They were all, I think.
They were all still in thehouse, or most of them still in
the house.
And so we're you know, we livea busy lifestyle with small
business owners and ultimatelywe decided that wasn't the right
path.
But at first that's what wethought we were going to do, and
(13:33):
so then we figured, okay, well,we need a team, you know, an
oncologist or somebody tosupport us through this Right,
this right, and I had to.
I talked to five oncologistsand laid out what I wanted to do
before I found the sixth onewho would even work with me.
The other five didn't wantanything to do with with, uh,
(13:56):
they basically they didn't sayit was a death sentence, but
they basically said theycouldn't do it or wouldn't do it
.
And I did eventually findsomebody who agreed to
essentially monitor me and workwith me and, um, so then we just
kind of started to build, builda healing team, and so you're
good now, or Well, in April ofthis year we went to and I spent
(14:20):
, well, we went and spent threeweeks at Hope for Cancer in
Cancun, mexico, and so I wentthrough there three weeks of
treatment there and I was toldthat there are no active signs
(14:42):
of cancer in my body and, giventhe thumbs up permission from
them, so obviously it's stillsomething that we need to
monitor.
I do still have a nodule uh,they're calling it on my thyroid
, but it's shrunk considerably,um, and so we're doing some
targeted therapies to try to,you know, reduce the size of
that even more.
But yeah, that's where I'm atright now.
Yeah, that's much better, isn'tit?
Speaker 4 (15:03):
And for those that aren't familiar with Hope for
Cancer, their approach isintegrative.
But everything that Eric hadreceived there was 100% holistic
, percent, um, holistic.
(15:23):
So we started a path ofholistic healing and here we are
with a remission result.
So it's, it's a beautiful wayto heal.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yes, yes, that's a great place.
I'm pretty familiar with that.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I've had, in fact, dr jimenez on the podcast before a
couple times so good, well, andwe were blessed uh, he's not
there all the time, right, uh,but we were blessed when we were
there.
That, uh, him and his wife werethere the week that, one of the
weeks that we were there.
So, um, one of my finalmeetings was with him and, um,
that's pretty great experience,yeah just a great, great doctor
(15:54):
he's such a nice guy, has such atender spirit about him.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Yes, oh, yes.
I mean really, when you walk into the Hope for Cancer Clinic,
that's the feeling you get.
It is such a beautiful, loving,healing place that they created
there.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Spiritual place, spiritual place.
It's like a, it's a retreat,basically.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Yeah, yeah, you go to heal.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, it's a lovely place too, isn't it?
I haven't been there, but oh,it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Your view is as it are.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
If you have to be in the hospital, Cancun beachside
is not a bad place to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's true.
Now, debbie, you had adiagnosis also, right?
I Well.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Debbie, you had a diagnosis also, right, I do, and
I'm still going through it.
So we're at this place nowwhere, again, routine exam about
two months ago showed a couple,a few masses on my thyroid and
(16:57):
I was told that I should have abiopsy.
And again, everything happensfor a reason and everything that
I've been learning with my dadand with Eric, we knew that
that's not the path that we'regoing to take.
I know that it's there.
I know that I have some bloodmarkers that are elevated, which
is, you know, cancer is alwaysthere.
(17:19):
What I've got going on, itfalls under the umbrella of
thyroid disease and I could workwith that because I believe
that you can heal the bodyholistically and we just have to
build the immune system back upto reactivate the thyroid to
kill whatever is going on withthose nodules.
So I'm at a place right nowwhere I'm building my team and
(17:45):
starting that path and what thatmight look like for me.
But I know that everything thatI've been learning for the past
five years has led me to whereI am right now and I know that
this is a healing path.
And it also happens that I'mgoing to be starting the Healing
Strong meetings in this area aswell, and so I get to share
(18:07):
with others that what I'm doingfor my healing as well.
And so it's just.
Everything is God's timing, andI'm walking this path with an
open mind and an open heart andknow that everything that's
coming to me is meant to be, andI'm just going to walk forward
with it.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right, right Now did I understand.
You also were diabetic.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I was.
I had, well, I had a conditionthat required me to take insulin
and I had that for decades.
And I had I've been on that thebig pharma hamster wheel since
I was in my young 20s, because Ididn't know any other way.
And the more that I waslearning when my dad was
(18:55):
diagnosed was that I didn't needto have those medications.
I needed to fix how I waseating, how I was living my life
, my faith in God and thatrelationship with him.
And so in that time, when mydad was diagnosed, I chose to
(19:15):
get off all of medication.
I went 100% whole food,plant-based.
I fired my doctors, I found theones that aligned with my way
of thinking of healingholistically, and I'm no longer
and I haven't been for fiveyears on any type of insulin.
My A1C, which is the diabeticcursor, went from a 6.1 to a 5.2
(19:38):
.
And so I did that, just walkingthe path holistically.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, it's funny because my cousin this year I'll
probably tell the story a lotnow because it just happened but
his A1C was 12 point something.
I mean it was way up there andhe is scared to death of needles
, so that was his motivation.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Yes, exactly.
When you're faced withsomething big, right, then your
why changes?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yes, and he went.
We told him about goingplant-based and he dove in
headfirst 100% Six months laterhe's down to 5.4, I think it was
100%.
Six months later, it's down to5.4, I think it was.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
That's so beautiful and that's something that I'm
excited to share with my newgroup here in the Pacific
Northwest about whole food,plant-based and juicing, and it
really is just.
I'm really excited just to beable to impart what I know and
share so others can adopt thisin their own life.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Right Now.
Your dad never did go withholistic.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
He didn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
My parents wouldn't either if that ever happened,
because that's just the mindsetespecially that generation and
in fact my generation growing up.
The doctors, whatever they say,you just figure they have lab
coats.
We don't, that's right.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
They say A hundred percent.
And my dad believed with ahundred percent and trusted what
his beloved doctors weretelling him to do, and so you
know, he followed that path andwe chose to do something
different.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right.
Well, and I think that's animportant thing to make note of
is you know, when we chose to dothis, you get a lot of pushback
from those in your circle.
You know it's ingrained in usfrom the time we're little kids
that this is the way you dothings.
The doctor, you know thedoctor's right.
They're going to give you theprescription and everything is
going to be okay.
(21:36):
And when you start sayingyou're going to do something
different than that, especiallywhen it's in direct
contradiction to that, then alot of times people treat you
like you're out of your, you'velost your mind.
That was a real thing.
That we had to deal with waspeople that are like what are
you doing?
And not supportive, and thatwas all part of the lessons that
(21:58):
we learned along the way.
Is that sometimes you have tochange your circle?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, and they mean well, because they want you to
live.
But they think that's all thereis.
They almost treat you likewhat's wrong with you.
You're kind of arrogant thatyou think you know more than a
doctor.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yes, yeah, yes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, but then there you are.
Both of you are pretty healthy,so I think you're doing a good
job.
I'll give you a thumbs up Allright, we like it.
So how did you find out aboutHealing Strong?
Speaker 4 (22:27):
We've been following Chris' work now for several
years and instrumental in a lotof the way that we heal now, and
so when I go back to revisitsome of the things that Chris
Work has in his podcast or anyof the things that he posts out
(22:47):
there, I go back and reread, andI stumbled across the Healing
Strong and the nonprofit and Istarted to read everything that
this nonprofit organization didand I knew that I had to be part
of this.
It aligns 100% with the waythat we live our life and how we
(23:10):
move forward, and I couldn'thave imagined landing in a place
where I was so completely meantto be, and so that's kind of
how we found Healing Strong.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Right?
Was there not a group in yourarea?
Are you starting one?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
I am starting one and my first day is going to be I
believe it's well, I think it'sAugust 26th, that's a Monday.
That's going to be our veryfirst meeting and I'm going to
be our very first meeting andI'm going to share Chris Swart's
protocols and weave inscripture and it's just going to
be beautiful.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's exciting.
I had to start one myself inGreenville, south Carolina,
because there wasn't any andit's just not something I would
normally do.
But I thought, know, I thought,hey, I just, I just healed from
cancer, so I really need togive back.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Hopefully someone will.
Yeah, someone will take over.
You know, once I start thegroup and that's been like four
years now no one's taken overyet.
That's okay, I'll just.
I'll just keep opening the doorto the place and someone's
eventually going to jump upthere and say, hey, let me take
over.
Until then, I feel like Godwants me to do this.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
That's right, so you feel called to do it, and I love
that.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Where do you see this going?
Are you going to follow thecurriculum at all?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
I'm 100% going to follow the curriculum.
I'm going to add in anythingthat I feel that best supports,
whatever, any of the membersneed.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Okay, have people signed up yet.
Have you like advertising?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I have two so far, so got to start somewhere.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, some people start with just themselves, so
you're doing great.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
And if that's the case, I'll sit there for the
hour and that's my time to sitwith God and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
You can encourage yourself.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Well, maybe Eric will , come I probably would.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
I'd have one, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, because you've got a great story and that
obviously will encourage peopleand unfortunately there are
people with cancer everywherewho found out it's becoming more
and more popular.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
You know, I think the statistic is something like one
out of every two people, andit's horrible.
And so the more that we can putthe word out there that there's
multiple ways of healing, or atleast try to integrate that in
with what you're doing now isbetter than what they're
currently doing.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, since the government declared war on
cancer decades ago, it's justgotten worse.
So we definitely need to dowhat God, basically what God
says in his word.
I mean, he pretty much knowshow our bodies work and he gave
us our immune system for apurpose I mean just about
(26:02):
anything.
It's so odd and I find myselfconstantly have to rethink
things, even though I know thatthe body heals itself, but I
still my mind wants to go backto.
Well, you know, maybe I need todo this procedure or that
procedure.
In fact, I went throughimmunotherapy because I didn't.
I wasn't going to do chemo, butthey never offered that and
(26:24):
they said that, well,immunotherapy is a new thing.
That kind of builds up your ownimmune system and helps it, you
know, battle the cancer and itworks pretty well with melanoma,
which is what I had.
So I went ahead and took that,mostly because insurance covered
it, and it dried up my eighttumors in just the first couple
of months and I responded wellto it.
(26:45):
However, it is still medicationand most people have side
effects to it.
I mean, I thank God that Ididn't really have anything.
I had diarrhea for two years,but other than that, I can get
around that.
Yeah, and I'm cancer-free now.
I changed my diet, of course.
(27:06):
I cut out sugar and doing a lotof juicing and all kinds of
stuff that was not put in mymouth before, like ginger and
all this.
Now I love it.
It's great my body startscraving these things.
That is telling you, hey, thiswas healthy all along.
Why weren't you giving it to me?
(27:26):
Right, I thought Twinkies werehealthy.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Right and right.
We didn't know and we had tocompletely learn a different way
of eating and whole food plantbased.
That's not easy and it's tightthrough me, and so I'd really,
for the last five years, havestudied this and how I can make
this so it could be ourlifestyle rather than an
occasional thing that we do, andit's been tough going at times,
(27:54):
but I feel like where we're atright now.
I feel like I've finallyfigured it out.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Right, You're certified right.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I am certified in orthomolecular functional
nutrition.
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, that was going to be my guess.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Where did you get certified through?
And again, I found her when Iread her book Eat Real to Heal
back in 2019.
And she's somebody that has alot to offer and has done a lot
of great stuff in this world andI felt, and still feel,
completely honored to have hadthat year that she taught.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
How did your kids respond?
You said you had six kids.
How did they respond to yourdiagnosis?
Did it kind of freak them out?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Well, there's six of them, right, and they're a range
of ages and they all kind ofresponded differently in their
own way.
Yeah, I would say if I had to.
They're all pretty quiet aboutit.
Even, you know, throughout thewhole period it's not something
they really wanted to talk abouta lot.
We would kind of have to pry it.
(29:03):
You guys should talk about this.
And they're all pretty quietbut very supportive.
I mean, we made a lot ofchanges in our lifestyle and
they were supportive all alongthe way, all six of them, but
pretty quiet, not real vocalabout sharing how they felt
about it or, you know, any typesof fears or anything like that.
(29:26):
But you know, and I wondersometimes how much of that,
we're pretty positive and wedon't really do negativity or
things like that, and sosometimes I wonder if maybe they
were.
They didn't want to come acrossas a downer or you know, I
don't know, but, um, yeah, theydidn't share too much, but yeah
they didn't share too much.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
They also took a lot of cue from us, because we
walked this path.
You are healing.
There was no other way.
And so our attitude we walkedin love and light.
This was the way that we weregoing to heal and we felt 100%
confident of that, and so I'dlike to think that that's what
our kids saw, that's what theywere feeding off of us.
(30:09):
Um, we had no fear.
We walked with no fear and theysaw, they watch us yeah,
there's probably a lot of truthto that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Um well, there was some fear the first three months
well, that's, uh, that's okaybut you know, once we reached
surrender, then there was nomore fear, and I stay still that
I personally view the wholeexperience as a gift.
I view it as a gift from Godand I look at it, the changes
(30:37):
that it's forced us to make inour lifestyle.
We're completely differentpeople just three and a half
years later than when we gotthis diagnosis, and I view it as
a gift.
It gave me three gifts,actually.
It gave me the gift of livingin gratitude, it gave me the
gift of living in grace andgiving grace where I didn't
always do that before, and itgave me the gift of giving, and
(31:03):
I wouldn't have put those threethings at the top of my list
four or five years ago, right,and so for me and I think you
share this sentiment it's been abeautiful journey, and so
you're probably right.
I mean, they saw our confidenceand they saw that we're living
in gratitude and joy every day,so why shouldn't they be?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
That's a good point, because people our age and older
that's where you get thepushback.
But when you have kids andthey're watching you and they're
feeding off, like you say, youknow how you're responding to it
.
So I mean you're teaching awhole nother generation though,
like hey, when I'm going througha valley, you know, I know how
to act now because I've seen myparents do it and, like you say,
(31:40):
most people, they're betterafter cancer.
No one wants cancer, obviously,but once you go through a deep
valley like cancer and as soonas you get your diagnosis, you
are scared to death.
I mean, I cried like a littlebaby for like an hour and then I
was fine, of course, but beingthe caliber of a man that I am,
(32:01):
I can relate.
But I was scared.
I thought, man, I'm not goingto make it.
They gave me a month or two tolive.
I thought I'm not going to makeit to Christmas because this
was in September.
But then, all of a sudden, likeGod, filled me with this peace
because there's all thesedifferent things that happened
during this time, because, youknow, I had to live it out in
front of a radio audience of500,000 people, so I couldn't be
(32:24):
quiet about it.
But all these different thingshe kept putting in my path that
made me realize.
It's always like he's winkingat me, saying, hey, I'm here, I
got it.
I knew this was going to happenwhen we were born.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yes.
Isn't that amazing, the smallmiracles that he brings into
your life every day, that Ialways kind of look at it now
and think prior to this we weretoo busy to see all those or to
notice all of those.
But once you achieve surrenderand you kind of slow your life
down and you open your eyes,they're there all the time.
And the people that he bringsinto your life, for maybe just a
(33:01):
specific thing it's sobeautiful.
For maybe just a specific thingit's so beautiful.
I mean just the people thathave come into our lives that we
would have never been incontact with, but they came and
they served a purpose and it'sjust.
It's been beautiful, right.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
We woke up.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
We became awake.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yep, yeah, priorities change.
It goes to relationships ratherthan, you know, being
productive in your business,which is important, of course,
but I, rather than beingproductive in your business
which is important, of course,but I mean you realize how much
more important that relationshipwith your kids and your family
and a circle of friends thatsupport what you're doing Right
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You're all doing a good job Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's made us focus moreon the experience than the
outcome.
Right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Living in gratitude for today, today's, the gift.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Well, you guys got it together.
I can't help you at all.
You know what you're doing.
No marriage counseling here, sohow can people get a hold of
you?
The website Healing Strong.
I look for it out here.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, I own the Healing Strong website and you
can also if they are into socialmedia.
You can find me at purefoodygal, but my email is on there as
well, the Healing Strong, so ifthey go to that website they can
find me.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Is your group in Vancouver or Portland?
Speaker 4 (34:24):
It'll say Healing Strong PNW, so Pacific Northwest
, with the Vancouver Washingtonas the address.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It was a pleasure talking to you all.
It was encouraging.
I didn't need it encouraging,but I got encouraged anyway, so
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Thank you, jim, thanks Jim, wonderful.
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong
podcast, a part of the HealingStrong organization.
We hope you found encouragementin this episode, as well as the
confidence to take control ofyour healing journey, knowing
that God will guide you on thispath.
Healing Strong is a nonprofitorganization whose mission is to
(35:01):
connect, support and educateindividuals facing cancer and
other diseases throughstrategies that help to rebuild
the body, renew the soul andrefresh the spirit.
It costs nothing to be a partof a local or online group.
You can do that by going to ourwebsite at healingstrongorg and
(35:23):
finding a group near you, anonline group, or start your own,
your choice.
While you're there, take a lookaround at all the free
resources.
Though the resources and groupsare free, we encourage you to
join our membership program at$25 or $75 a month.
This helps us to be able toreach more people with hope and
(35:47):
encouragement, and that alsocomes with some extra perks as
well.
So check it out.
If you enjoyed this podcast,please give us a five-star
rating, leave an encouragingcomment and help us spread the
word.
We'll see you next week withanother story on the I Am
Healing Strong podcast.
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