Ep199: Living With Cancer for 30 Years, Then Her Doctor Said: "It's Gone!"

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you hadn't done what you've now done, mm hmm, would you be
alive right now? No, yeah, it's just that simple.
Yeah, I little retro caravan from 1967 that I've tore around
all over the place. My fan podcast with Rabbit.

(00:24):
I got an e-mail just recently, it was just this week actually
from a couple that have been following the pod van.
Actually, we have history going right back to when I was on the
radio with Julie and they said we'd like to come on and tell
you a bit about our story. Now, usually when I get those,
they're crazy people. And these ones were as well.

(00:47):
And but my kind of crazy. John and Nick.
Hi, guys. There's a lot of history, which
is funny to hear between us. But I wanted to start with a
super dramatic question because I've seen.
Yeah. And it's to you because I've
seen an hour long interview withyou on YouTube.

(01:09):
And my question for you is, if you hadn't done what you've now
done, would you be alive right now?
No. Yeah.
No, I no. It's just that simple.
Yeah. I wouldn't have been alive, no.

(01:31):
And that's all we've got time for.
No, I I can honestly say our journey in the last 16 months
would have ended not in a very positive way.
And you both were kind of accepting of that?

(01:53):
Yeah, absolutely. Right.
You got to that point. Yeah.
So we'll go through all of that and what's happened.
It's a crazy story. But before we do, what's the
history between? So you guys used to listen on
the radio? Yeah.
You actually listen to the. I think you said that you listen
to the podcast on the job site. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So I'm, I'm a Carpenter by

(02:14):
trade. We actually spoke on the phone,
on the radio because you were talking about carpentry and how
you'd like doing DIY and all that sort of stuff.
I was made redundant back in 2018 from an IT job of, you
know, 20 plus years. Couldn't get another job in the
industry. Really.
Yeah, it was just time of year. It was November, so it's right

(02:34):
before Christmas. I don't know if that was it or
what, but Nikki was running a interior design business as well
as a hair salon. So we had other sort of building
jobs going. And I started working with the
Carpenter on the weekends. And then Nikki just sort of said
to me, well, what do you want todo?
And I said, well, why don't I just do carpentry?
So I went and got an apprenticeship with a builder,

(02:56):
had a huge pay cut for the threeyears that it took to do that
and then here I am now running my own business doing carpentry
and loving it so. We were talking outside the pod
van just before jumping in abouthow the things come along that
at the time are so horrible, andthen you can look back and it's
actually the best thing, yeah. Yeah, it's like you said.

(03:18):
I mean, when I was made redundant, I on the phone and
Nikki like, like you bawling my eyes out, like just what do I
do? Like I was the main money earner
at the time. Yeah, that sort of.
And to hear your husband, you know, so heartbroken and lost
and, you know, it was sad to hear his voice that way.

(03:39):
And I, I just thought, no, we'renot going to let this situation
bring us down ever because he worked hard and he was good at
what he did. But as I said to him, it was a
long time as well where he wasn't happy in the job and he
just kept going in, you know, grinding it like everybody does.

(04:00):
They go to work, they grind and get get through their day the
best way they can. Yeah, being the other person,
you're still working. I had my businesses and I was
lucky to be able to say, you know, I was in a successful
business. Come on, I don't care what you
do. I just want to be here.

(04:20):
I wanna love you and we're gonnaget through this no matter what.
I found while watching this interview with you guys on
YouTube, there's so, so many similarities between you 2 and
Sav and I Yeah. And there was a moment where I
don't know if you've heard, I have spoken about it.
I think over in it was in another city when I had a

(04:41):
feeling that I was going to get that meeting every two years.
Your contracts up in radio and you've it's never a given.
And I tell that to people and they're like, if the ratings are
going great and everything's going good, then why would they
put seen it happen so many times?
Yeah. And that.
Was a big shock when that happened to you.

(05:02):
It was like you were #1 like, yeah.
Number one and, and to be followers of, you know, Rabbit
and Julie in the morning, you'd wake up, you know, at 5:30 and
you knew it was gonna come on inthe radio like the morning radio
show. And it was exciting to hear it.
But then all of a sudden and it was funny.
It was a good way to start your day.
It was great. But to hear it end, we were sad.

(05:25):
It was sadness for you, it was sadness for the listeners, but
it was an understanding and we knew what you were feeling
because we had lived a situationsimilar.
But to have that morning finish,it didn't feel right and you
were wondering where's Rabbit gone?
Like where has Rabbit gone? Because Rabbit was a start of

(05:49):
your day. He made you smile and laugh, so
it was a really good feeling. That was a big thing that was,
you know, and I've talked all about my anxiety and everything
in my mental health. So that was a horrible time for
me. But one of the toughest things
through that was I wasn't allowed to tell anybody what I
was doing. For starters, I didn't know what
I was going to be doing. But then once I started

(06:11):
formulating this plan, which really when I look back at it
and I look at the photos, I mean, it's a nice surprise.
I don't muck around. I think I finished on air on the
9th of December. December.
It was the first week, yeah, because we hadn't even gotten
into Christmas. And I'm like, yeah, where's he
gone? Yeah, well, I was driving down
to Melbourne to go and pick up this little caravan.

(06:33):
Unreal. OK, I had the pod van back
before Christmas. Yeah, right.
And started working on it up on the street and yeah, again.
But I couldn't talk about what Iwas going to be, couldn't be
saying I was going into podcasting or anything.
Yeah, just too scared of. I don't know if anything would
be done or. But you, you were an honest
person. You lived like an honest world.
You were honest within yourself.And you, you abided by rules.

(06:56):
So you didn't want to say? More scared of them taking my
money. I had long service leave and
holidays to be paid out still. We need that haven't.
Got that yet? That's for the pod van and.
I knew I was going from the paycheck on December 15th to
nothing, you know, for the next one, and it's tough.
Yeah, it is tough. Yeah, and you know, like you

(07:17):
said, I've had so many people come up to me around that time
saying they knew exactly what I was going through because they
had gone through the same thing as well.
The graphic designer who designed the pod van logo from
Archangel Design, he'd been through the exact same thing
with the business there. I.
Remember you talking about it inone of your podcasts?
Yes, so many, it's happened to so many people.

(07:38):
And if it hasn't happened to you, you, you can't understand
it because it's more than just the job.
Like where it was for me was my identity.
Everybody knew Rabbit. Everyone.
Everyone knew Rabbit and Jewel. The radios was your life radio.
Was my life, my entire career, over 30 years of being on the

(08:01):
radio and that moment where I realized all the other brekkie
shows had named their what they were doing in the market and
that meant we'd have to move. We've moved. 18 times like.
That I can't remember the the total now, yeah.
But I knew that we weren't goingto be moving again.
And so isn't the end of radio. That's the thing, too, as a

(08:21):
listener, which you probably don't quite hear or understand
too. We knew, like the listeners,
that you'd purchased the house. You were doing things on the
House. The two kids were at school.
You know, Sav had her job. Like, you came home, you cooked,
you did. You laughed.
You had this connection with your family on the coast.
Yeah. So people lived your life
through radio as well as throughRabbit and Julie.

(08:44):
And when it just disappeared, I could not fathom how harsh your
emotions on your family and yourlifestyle would have been how
you felt. There's no answer to that.
And nobody knows these situations and nobody can even
tell you you shouldn't be anxious or you shouldn't be
depressed. I'm going to say that word or

(09:06):
flat or lost because you don't have the answers to what's next.
What am I going to do and how amI going to feel worthy of keep
going to support my family? Yeah, that's the thing.
You don't know at that time. And I'm a very positive person.
I always, my sister always says,you know, you're a jammy

(09:29):
bastard. Like everything just works out.
If you're like, well, I, I couldchoose to look at so many things
like when I move to a new market, to a new station or
whatever, I just make the most of it and go, this is great,
this is great. I don't focus on the bad.
There's always bad things there.Is there is, but you've got to
focus on the positive. Yeah, but that time totally

(09:49):
different. Yeah.
Also the thing I was going to say about how you're so similar
with what you said to John was when in this other city, when I
had the feeling the thing was coming with the radio station
and I was really upset over because I didn't know what was
going to be next. Just had a baby and Sav said to
me, I loved you and you earned $21,000 a year and I will again.

(10:15):
It doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't.
It doesn't matter. We'll we'll make it work.
As long as we're together. She said never forget the line.
She said, do you want to go in there tomorrow and tell them to
shove it up their ass? Go for it.
And all of the pressure came offthe shoulders because it was
just like. You don't want to let your
partner down. Very similar, actually.

(10:36):
Really. Because Nikki said to me the
same thing if you want to tell him to.
And tell him to shove that up here.
Hello. She said go for.
It you go for it because there'snothing we can't get through.
There's nothing. Don't you just feel the weight
come off the shoulders then as well?
It's like you kind of feel like,OK, well, I've got to pass
through, yeah. Yeah.

(10:56):
Love when you find that person, though, and you can be yourself.
Yeah, and laugh, really laugh when I talk about belly laugh
and cry and be vulnerable and have your weakest moments.
And they don't judge you. Yeah.
And they just love you. You 2 holding hands in here?
I think you're the first couple that's held hands in the pod

(11:17):
bed. And you've been together since
high school. Oh, you knew each other from 13?
Yeah, we get together in high school.
No, Nikki. Oh, really?
Nikki just left to start her apprenticeship.
Yeah. Oh OK.
So I was in year 10, yeah, and Nikki was starting her
apprenticeship when we first. We finished year 10, oh year 11,
started a year 11 and I started my apprenticeship.
Yeah, yeah, OK. But always friends at school,
same group of people just growing together through high

(11:40):
school. Like John's sister was one of my
closest friends, but I always had like a bit of a connection
to John. We just got on we.
All had the same friends. So yeah, even though after we
broke up after that, yeah, we all went to the same parties.
Yeah, kept in because we were together after school.
Yeah. And then we broke up after a
year and a half and we just wentour own way, but stayed friends,

(12:00):
so. And he was with somebody, I'd be
single, I was with somebody here, was single.
And it was literally like this lifestyle we were leaving
passing ships in the night. Until what age?
21. Yeah, OK.
Yeah. And then it was just like, bang,
yeah. Just we were both single.
Single. And.

(12:21):
Yeah, and I actually turned. It's like a ROM com.
Yeah, you came back from a Take That concert.
I did take that. We were living at home wish, I
was living at home wish with a house full of other guys.
So yeah, five bedroom house, five guys.
You can imagine what it was like.
Yeah, I think he's come back dropping a cousin of one of the
the mates off from the Take Thatconcert.
And we just sort of started talking again and have a look

(12:43):
back since really. Yeah, so I've been sitting here
thinking, am I gonna chop all ofthis out?
Not not really talking about what we came on for, but.
We started going If you hadn't done what you'd done, would you
be alive today? No.
No. Anyway, let's have some laughs.
Well, that was so serious. That's principle after it to

(13:05):
this. I was thinking at one point
through there, someone's sittingthere going, yeah.
Look, what about? What about the first?
And I have been sitting here thinking am I gonna chop this
out and put this as a separate section or something?
But no, I think no. Where we go from here?
Yeah. Now, now we all know you guys.
You know, we know what you'd. Be honest, that answer that I

(13:26):
gave you, no, I would not be here today has a lot to do with
that little story you just heard.
Because without that story and the love that we have and the
respect that we have for each other and the positive thoughts
that we now have towards life, Iwouldn't be sitting here alive.
I would not have that. And stories like yours, watching

(13:48):
that whole hour long chat this morning, then I come and sit in
here and we start talking about,you know, when I lost my job on
the radio on that. You can, I can look back on that
and go, that's nothing when you're here, what you've been
through. I don't believe Robert.
This is honest. Honestly from my heart, I don't

(14:08):
believe anybody situation in life is worse than anybody
elses. I actually believe with all my
heart that most people have a degree of heartache and they go
through a lot of things. It's just what they can tolerate
and there should be no level of what people should be judged at.
You should go and basically handle life the way you can

(14:31):
handle it and nobody should be judged for that.
Doesn't matter if you're you've been through what we've been
through or what you've been through.
I think we all go through our own heartaches.
Nobody should be judged. I did an episode with the ex
paramedic Adrian Davis just recently and he said that thing
and he hears it all the time of people going, oh, you know,

(14:54):
women will say thank God my husband was home because when
something has happened, it's because I, I wouldn't have been
able to do whatever the thing was in this emergency.
And he's like, but you would have, you know, yeah, that's the
thing. You deal with things when you
need to. That's whatever comes along in
your life. You, you deal with that.

(15:14):
Yeah, it may not be the same as.Someone.
Else's, yeah. So the second thing that I was
going to say to you after my opening statement, OK, was now
this interview will not be like your other one.
Thank God. So I had a timer.
I didn't have a timer running onit, but I was well aware while

(15:36):
watching. You talk to Dave Mack.
Yeah. And it was 28 minutes before he
said anything. Yeah.
He's that's, that's his style. He kind of, yeah.
He just lets you tell your story.
Obviously if you have a less responsive person he'll jump in
and prompt with questions and stuff, but generally it's
letting the person tell their story.
So that's his thing. That's because I was watching

(15:59):
this just going. I mean, First off, mad respect
to him to be able to sit in the silence.
Yeah. And yeah, just go with that.
I was in awe of the two of you talking for 28 minutes about
this, not prompted with questions or anything.
Makes a little more sense now that you know that's his style.

(16:20):
You just get on and you tell your story.
And so, yeah, that was going to be my note.
It's not quite going to be like that, but I have asked my wife
to watch your whole video because that's just blown away
by the whole thing. I think if you go straight into
it saying what the what you're doing with your lifestyle, I

(16:44):
don't know, is that a thing where some people can look at
you a bit like you're crazy? Yeah, you're a Nutter.
Yeah, a couple of nutters, Totally.
Yeah, It's also why I wanted to establish they're not.
They're really not. No, but it's hard to comprehend
what we do because people, they just think what they're doing

(17:08):
that to get that outcome. Yeah.
And in such a short time compared to the long story that
we had that came behind it, Yeah.
How can it work? But it does work and.
And that's all the time we've got for today.
Just keep finding the worst timeto end, please.
I love that you've joined me on my cryptic journey.

(17:30):
You're like, oh, OK, we're not telling people.
Until the next episode. Before I'm gonna run out of
space. We never found out what the
thing was. Ah, where do we even?
Start. Well, basically, I guess it
comes back down to John and I are carnivores.

(17:51):
That's it. There you go, It comes back down
to. Finish it there.
But no, we ate the carnivore way.
But with that we found carnivoredue to the fact that I have had
in the past, I'm gonna rephrase that cancer and.
Yeah, but let's go back through.The all of it.
Yeah, it started like. 16 I. Was 16.

(18:13):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And what was that? My cancer, yeah, what I had
found again in the uterol area, they'd found cancer cells in my
uterus when I was 16. They'd removed them operable,
not having to have any treatmentand so forth.
So that was very good. And then it was again at 19, I
had the second bout again the same area kept attacking my

(18:37):
uterus and basically growing, you know, little tumours that
just kept coming up and contained, which was great.
And then they removed them and still just operable, which was
fantastic. Great.
In that time period, you know, I'd had amount of surgeries that
had, I had to remove everything had damaged that area.

(18:59):
So I was not able to have children and they told me that I
would never carry a child. What age is this?
This is. Around 19.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 19 to 20. You get back together in 2121,
he. Knew all this because John came
and saw me in the hospital. Oh, really?
Yeah. Yeah.
So every time, like I went in at16 and John came and saw me.

(19:21):
Then the first time I was diagnosed with my mum was there,
my sisters. And he thought it was great
because I was on all this pain relief medication.
And he was like, you know, just ask all these questions.
I found out. But he saw the journey from the
beginning and growing together and being kids and like, then
going into this state of mind where, OK, I can't have children

(19:47):
and still at 21, I trying very hard not to get emotional, OK,
Because I tend to get the tears drop every now and then.
So I'm very sorry. I know you can now.
Yeah. I know what you.
Can get the tears up and then they phase two Rep so but The
thing is that I admired him evenmore at the fact that when we do
get back together like because we were together as kids and

(20:09):
then we broke up and then we gotback together at 21.
He still want to be with me and I couldn't have children and.
I was just in awe of how much hereally cared for me and loved
me. For a woman to have a strong man
that's powerful and he was this gentleman.
Like he was beautiful, kind, loving and just saw me.

(20:34):
I was blessed, instantly blessed.
But we were together and we got married and it was great.
And then we had our first child.I fell pregnant and I was
utterly gobsmacked to the point where it's a funny story in the
beginning because when I found out I was pregnant, I, I rang

(20:54):
John I. Said you can't be you.
Can't be. You're not supposed to be.
But I said to him, I've got to tell you, I'm pregnant.
And he goes, what? And then he said, hold on a
minute, say again. I said, I'm pregnant.
And he goes, you can't be, you can't be pregnant.
I said, well, I'm pregnant. Do I need to tell you how it
happened? Because it's like, I'm pregnant.

(21:15):
And he was like, Oh my God, Oh my God.
It was amazing. I was in disbelief.
So was he. And then the pregnancy went on
and it was not a successful pregnancy.
Second trimester, we lost our daughter.
So I'd given birth to our first daughter and she didn't make it.

(21:35):
And then I'd had that. Was very hard for you.
That was very hard for me. I I went quite into a pit of
despair because I'd felt like I'd let him down.
I gave him a glimpse, glimpse ofhope for our marriage and giving
him a child would have been likethe icing on the cake.
Isn't it funny how you say I felt like I'd let him down?

(21:56):
There's no way he would think that.
And anyone else outside of your mind would go.
That's silly. Yeah.
You're not letting anyone down. No.
But as a woman, like, like, and you love this person so much,
you want to give him the gift oflife.
Like, you want to see half of him and half of me walking
around on this earth, as crazy as it is.

(22:18):
But you still want that. You want to see that.
Yeah. And and then we went on to, you
know, talking about it and I said, no, I don't know if I
could go again this. It really did my head in.
I actually went into quite a depressive state.
And I'm a very, very positive person.
Very. Don't think we were married at
that point, were we? I don't know.

(22:39):
We were engaged to be married. We brought the, I brought the
wedding forward because obviously that was quite a hard
time. Yeah, so I said to her, well,
let's let's get married. Let's have something positive.
Yeah. And I was like, no, no, I don't
want to get married. I don't want to be with you.
I don't want to. I don't want us anymore.
And really, Yeah, I said it's time to work away.
Again. Yeah.

(23:00):
Yeah, I said you need to have more in your life.
You deserve more. Like you deserve way more.
So I'm going to let you go. I love you that much.
I want you to go and find it. There's kind of a lot of back
history and I know with your podcast you talk about mental
health and all that sort of stuff.
There's a lot more to Nikki's story before as well with the

(23:21):
father and that sort of stuff. And that kind of is why she's
like you deserve more, I'm not good enough, that sort of thing.
Yeah, that's from that so. I mean, that episode I did with
Heather recently where she talksabout your childhood trauma
comes your adulthood trauma witheverything and every way, every

(23:42):
part of who we are as adults wasshaped from something.
Yeah. And that can be positive as
well. Yeah.
Yes, positive and and negative, yeah.
The way you react in situations as a result of.
Post traumatic stress. Yeah, yeah.
Well, just everything that's happened to you in your life
shapes you and the way you reactto things.
And I actually live by that motto that what breaks you makes

(24:03):
you. That's my motto.
What breaks you will make you a better person.
And I always believed, even though my past tense, because I
came from a divorced family. I came from, you know, a father
who was an understanding, he just did not comprehend how
people's emotions and feelings were.
I just lived with that. I carried that like it was my

(24:25):
fault that he was this way and so did my sisters and and so
forth. But The thing is that I didn't
want him to be let down. And that did come back from my
past and and so forth. But he was the stronger man and
the stronger person in our relationship.
Brought our wedding forward withthe help of my mum and they just
did it. And I'm like, no, I don't want

(24:45):
to get married. You're.
Still. Saying that, yeah, I'm like, no,
I don't want this, I don't want this.
But he was like, tough, I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not going anywhere. So you're gonna have to put up
with me. Wow.
So he pushed me through this dark time and again.
He had my back and he pushed me through and and off we went and
got married and it was wonderfullike.
What age is this? 202323 We were, yeah.

(25:10):
So after the wedding, everything's going great, yeah.
I'm still. Hard for her.
I want another kid. I wanted to try again.
And I didn't want children. And she wasn't quite there yet,
but again, I just persisted. Yeah.
And. It was really hard to the loss
like of our daughter. It took my heart like it broke

(25:33):
me. And I've I've never been broken.
I've never been broken. But like your child is, yeah,
it's horrible. It's really hard.
And to see her. And then you hold her and she's
gone. You go okay, like what am I here
for? Another thing from the episode

(25:55):
with Adrian, he was saying that because he's got PTSD and he
said that trauma doesn't know dates.
It doesn't get any easier. No, I've had so many other
things since then I've had to battle through and deal with and
and made me stronger. It basically what it did.
It just kept me going and made me forget.

(26:16):
But there's times in my life where it comes up and then all
of a sudden it just yeah. And you just have to ride the
roller coaster. You have to.
OK, so cancer doesn't just like,disappear.
No it doesn't. No no.
So mine is a blood cancer and basically it, it just creeps

(26:37):
through the body and all of a sudden bang off it goes.
But I had a like a susceptibility to that area
being weak and that's where it just kept coming up.
So I'd had endometriosis, I'd had polycystic ovary syndrome,
and I just had a weakness in that area.
But it came up and there was allthese little tiny tumors, but

(26:57):
they never sort of went away. They stayed sort of dormant.
If you would want to say it thatway, it's the best way to
explain it for people that you don't understand.
So after we got married, John really wanted a baby.
So I was like, OK, I need to look into this and I need to
step up and let's have a baby and get my head around.

(27:19):
It's OK, It's OK. We can do this together and.
When she made that decision 2 weeks later, she was pregnant.
No, I had my reason. I had a register, I had a driver
very long. I had a reconstruct, A utero
reconstruction prior to that twoweek happiness that John just
explained. And that was two weeks of

(27:42):
happiness and it worked and my doctor was really happy with it.
And he was like, you know, don'tdon't worry about it, just
everything's repaired, everything's good, you've healed
well, this was like a year on. So I let my body sort of recoup
and then we feel pregnant with our daughter who is here today
with us. She's 26 on Friday this week.

(28:05):
Oh wow. Yeah, we had Ariana and
Beautiful. Name.
Thank you. Never heard that name.
Yeah, Ariana, of course, but yeah, Ariana.
No I I do love my girls names. I live and breathe that I love
their names. Cayenne was our first.
Cayenne was our first daughter, right?
And Ariana is our daughter like today here on this earth.
So that was great. But.

(28:25):
She was premature. She.
Was premier, so I felt pregnant.All good. 11 weeks I thought,
this doesn't feel right. Went to the doctor's and he's
like, oh, you're starting to dilate.
You're going to miscarriage. 11 weeks yeah, I was starting to
have miscarriage and he was likeno, no, no, no, no, no.
So we've been through too much to get to this point into
surgery. I went.

(28:46):
They basically did sutra stitch to keep my uterus closed through
the cervix. Yeah.
So they close the cervix. So you close the door. close the
door. You're.
Not coming out, you're staying. In there?
Yeah. You're staying in there and
you're baking away. Baby, This bun.
I'm done. That's it.
And that was it. I was hospitalized and I

(29:07):
couldn't move. I wasn't allowed to do anything.
For how long? Till I had her.
So I went into labour at 23 weeks and four days.
Yeah, I'm not good on this stuff, but I'm pretty sure
what's it meant to be? What's a normal?
40 weeks I. Thought it was 40.
Yeah, 23. Four days.
Yeah, Yep, Yep. So. 600 grams or something?

(29:30):
592g. Yeah.
Yeah, wow, I've had blocks of chocolate bigger than that.
So you put your two hands together and that was her from
head to toe. She's sort of.
No. That's sort of big, you know?
Yeah, tiny. Just tiny.
You know how right from the start of this, we haven't fully
gone into all the detail? Like, we've teased a lot of

(29:51):
things and that I love that we know that she turns 26 on Friday
because everything you're sayingright now feels like it's about
to be a horrible twist. In this story, no.
This one, no, this one works outOK.
Yeah. Is she healthy?
She's so. Healthy.
Very good. Really.
Yes. We were told otherwise.
We're told, you know, blindness.Yeah.

(30:11):
Mental. Yeah, problems.
Again, she wanted to be here early.
Oh yeah, and she's wanted to be here ever since.
So she's she's proved them all wrong.
All wrong is. She always early to things like.
She's on time all the time. She's on time, yeah.
All the time, yeah. Doesn't like to be late.
Doesn't like to be late. Yeah.
And and she's and she's pretty very determined.
Yeah, very. You know, you look at her and

(30:32):
the only thing that would give her away, she's 5 foot nothing.
That's it, really. She's tiny.
That's it. Do you know, have you looked
into what's the earliest someone's had a baby in their?
I can't think you mean gestational period.
That's. Exactly what I was gonna say,
but I thought it was gonna be wrong 'cause I had gestational
period in my. Life.
The earliest I've ever heard of yeah was 22 weeks, Yeah.

(30:54):
And what were you, 2623? 24 days.
Four days, yeah. Really like, have you looked it
up or that's. Yeah.
No, no, I looked it. No, I looked it up 'cause at the
time I was. I was at the time she was one of
the youngest she was. She was the youngest at the
hospital 'cause we had her at Westmead.
Wow. And they were unbelievable.
They were phenomenal. She.
Was born in August 1st. 1st of August.

(31:16):
And we didn't get her home till December.
Yeah. Oh right, she had to continue
cooking. In there.
She was in the incubator for a little while, yeah.
In the fake oven, yeah. And in the humi crib and
basically she goes from intensive care 123 and then they
go to special care and and then she's gotta learn everything
outside the womb. So she didn't know how to suck

(31:37):
and feed. She didn't know how to like hand
movements, like all her coordination.
Didn't hear her cry until she was.
At least eight weeks. Yeah, 'cause she had a tube down
the throat. So and we knew she was in pain,
her face was crying. But you couldn't.
You couldn't hear her. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. But some tough times there,
yeah. I know the rest of what's coming

(31:59):
in your story and and that's enough.
The rest of the story you've gone through this as well, like.
Yeah, but what breaks you makes you so to me, I believe going
through all of that and her being sick and she was
incredible fighting. She was there every day.
I just wanted to love my baby like, and any mother, any mother

(32:22):
and any father would do exactly that for their children.
I don't, you know, doubt that atall.
Yeah, but you were there every day.
Yeah, I just, I had to believe at the time I was going to walk
away with my baby in my arms. And that's what kept me going.
And I would, I would sit with her and I, I would tell the

(32:43):
nurses the more contact I have with her through my through the
humidity crib because everythingwas closed down.
They got the oxygen going in there.
And like she was had a main arterial line in her arm and you
could see through her chest. Her heart was pounding like her
ears hadn't even popped because I was still stuck to her head.
And we laugh about it now, but like her bottom and her front

(33:06):
area was all one because there was no progression of growth.
There was nothing. So it was incredible.
And I said to them, you need me to, I need to touch her as much
as I can so she can feel my touch and know that mum's here
today like every day. And I would stay for her cares.
And then I would, you know, rushoff and grab a coffee or as soon

(33:27):
as. Nikki was allowed to do stuff
with her. Yeah, she got it in there.
And you've heard those Heather episodes.
That's the it's hands so important.
It's so important. And as much as they're not
necessarily forming the thoughtsabout, oh, that's mom and boba,
Yeah, the neural pathways are connecting and that's.
That's right. It's the touch, it's the smell.
It's everything. Yeah.

(33:47):
It's really important I am safe,yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because she wasn't in my
room, I would talk to her so shecould hear my voice still, like
she was in my womb and I was touching her and doing her cares
and like, putting a little blankhere from whatever I needed to
do. I just wanted.
I just wanted my baby. Yeah.
Yeah. And.

(34:08):
And there was never any conversation around her.
My biggest rule in my family wasif you're gonna have a
conversation at all, it's not tobe around Orianne.
You go outside and you talk. It's not positive yet and.
Right. No positive.
If it's not positive at all or you go in and you say basically,
you know, look at her, she's, you know, doing well and so
forth, and you can see her. But everything else happens out

(34:29):
the front. So don't come inside and have
any negative. No negative, none, because I
didn't want that. I believed in positive.
She's getting better. She's growing.
Yeah. I'm having my baby come home.
Did you know at the time that you were doing this thing?
Because it's, I mean, just in the last year of talking to
Heather, I've learned so much about this whole neural pathways
being formed. And you can change them as you

(34:51):
go on in life, but it takes work.
But your core being is established in the first four
years and your beliefs and how safe you feel and all of these
things. Did you know what you were
doing? No, then no, I had no idea.
I just knew what loss was and I knew what gain I would get by

(35:16):
making sure this beautiful daughter I have in front of me
was going to feel all the love that lives in my heart for her.
That's it. I still to this day, I'll grab
her and I'll kiss and hug her and I say, God, I love you.
Like I could squeeze the love out of you and into my from my
heart, into you because you're crazy.
Mama said one day you'll feel the same love.

(35:38):
Yeah. And you'll understand.
And it's still like that. It's still we laugh, we talk,
but we're super close and. She knows all these stories.
Yeah, yeah. She lived it.
Yeah. She's she knows her story.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's so that's well, that's great.
Let's end the story there. Everything.
And they all lived. Happily ever after.

(35:59):
Have you been to Guandalan Bowling Club?
They're right there on the shores of Lake Macquarie.
They do delicious meals upstairsin the Four Shore Bistro and
Cafe which is run by the Dish Catering Group so you know it's
good stuff and you can dine out on the balcony looking out over
the lake. It is beautiful.
They got the cute little 4 the beer garden.

(36:29):
You wanna find out what's happening at the club, check out
their Facebook page or visit gwandalenbowlingclub.com. dot AU
King, Kamper Mitre Chan have been big supporters of the Pod
Dan podcast right from the start, and you get all the stuff
from them that you'd expect to. You get plans, you get all the
Weber stuff, you get all the steel gear, the amazing
principal kitchens, but it's thestuff that you don't expect

(36:51):
like. That because they come in with
46,000 colour sample swatches. She's been in colour for her
kitchen cupboards. I drew a little down to 4
colours for her and that took him out an hour and a half.
She got very emotional because she was so inundated with
colours. Towards the end she was kind of
picking up the colours again. I said no stop.
I've seen photos, seen videos. Her husband's come in and gave
me a big hug, saying thank you so much, 'cause you're getting

(37:12):
very emotional about it and she's super happy.
That's what she got. And the mighty helpful King
Campbell, Mighty Jen podcast with Rabbit.
Six months after I had Ariana, Iactually had found out I was not
feeling very well after I had got her home and I was very

(37:33):
tired and very lethargic, just feeling very off all the time
and just not right. So I went and saw my doctor, who
I'd already seen my oncologist in the past, and I said to him,
I need an appointment, run the bloods, let's check things out.
And long behold, they found cancer.
And I just knew it was back. Yeah.

(37:54):
So. I've spoken to others on the
podcast as a young girl, Molly Croft from Dubbo as she was,
and, yeah, from a young age withcancer, and she knows that with
hers. Yeah, it'll be back.
Yeah, she knows that. Yeah.
It's just a matter of when. Yeah.
I can't imagine living like that.
Well, you just got to leave every day to the fullest, don't

(38:16):
you? Yeah, like you don't.
But that can be with anyone. Who says that cancer's going to
take you? Who says you can't get by boss
tomorrow? Who says you can't say goodbye
to your family in the morning and then like never see them
again? So you can't live like that?
I I'm not a believer that a specific disease takes you.
It does not define you at all. Yeah, no.

(38:39):
No way. So yeah, I was sick.
I found out again, had big surgery, went through
chemotherapy, did the whole lot with a baby and John was there
again. Once again bless him and he was
like signed up for the contract of here we go.
What were you doing work wise atthe time?
I was IT IT and you were hairdressing.

(38:59):
Yeah. You said in the interview that I
saw that no one knew. Nope.
Through that whole time that youwere working.
No, I'm very, very discreet withmy life, family of course and.
Friends no. Clients.
No. No.
Very. I had a handful of people.
I'm, I'm a little bit of a keep everything in a box type of

(39:21):
person. And I don't believe everybody
needs to know your story to basically, you know, just know
your business because that's people want to know your
business full stop. And in the hairdressing
industry, damn, do we hear some good stories.
Yes, I've told her she needs to write a book.
Memoirs on a hairdresser. Yeah, yeah.
But yeah. Yeah.

(39:41):
Got some good stories. Did you hear the hairdresser
episode that I did? No.
I had a hairdresser in and she one of the stories she told was
a lady came in and was going to pay her good money to ruin
someone else's hair. Oh my God.
Like. The two friends had a.
Hair. They had a fallout, yeah.
And I want you to destroy her hair.

(40:02):
Yeah. And I'll pay you.
Yeah. Forget it.
Oh my God, how much was it? And she goes, not enough.
No, no, no. I mean to end the cell on to.
End the business. She's been in there for 20
something years. Yeah, over 20 years.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. At this point, how old are you
there? You're mid 20s. 72627 yeah and

(40:24):
yeah, with Ariana home and, you know, just getting through it
and then, you know, having the surgeries, going through
chemotherapy. My mum and my husband and my
family support us a lot. I went through that and then it
was good, all great, wonderful. Never disappeared.
I always had cell activity, slight high dose, knock it over,
get rid of it and then it would flare up again like and it just

(40:47):
never disappeared. And that's the problem that when
you have these diseases or thesediseases such the one I have of
the cancer, it doesn't disappear.
Does. He have a name, your one.
I never ever. I don't remember it to be
honest. Because it's not one thing.
I try and block it out because, you know, again, this sounds
ridiculous. I don't want to accept it.

(41:10):
Yeah, I don't want to be labeled.
So I would just say to them, I don't want to know what it is,
how it is. People, if it were me, I would
research the living days out of it.
Well, I'm a person that would dwell on it and worry about it,
and then I would get too involved in what it can do, and
I don't wanna live like that. I wanna be positive and keep

(41:31):
going. Yeah.
I like it, yeah. Rather than dwell on it, I can't
do anything about it. I'm moving on and I'm living.
Yeah. So then everything was good.
They lived again. That's what kind of kept her
alive at that point, 'cause she just work, family.
That was it, yeah. So you're going off and having
chemotherapy? Yeah, by yourself as well.
I believe that, yeah, big time. I don't like, again, the focus

(41:56):
on me. I don't like it.
I've always been that way. Always.
Well. We're doing a whole podcast on
it, so I'm sorry. Well.
But again, part of this journey is and again, what?
We approached you and now. Approached the other guy is we
need to share this story. Yeah, yeah, I totally get that.
And that's something I've learntto do for others.
It's OK to be vulnerable to if we.

(42:19):
Can help if we can help. Others 100%.
That's what I've found through this podcast is I have had
people directly contact me one only a couple of weeks ago who
finally after over a year went to see the doctor.
I've been in a horrible mental health state for all this time.
Every time we'd hear one of those episodes and I really
that's me. I need to go and see someone has

(42:41):
done it is now on some medication and stuff and I do
need, I just thought last night I need to check in see how he's
going on. And, you know, just if you can
touch somebody, yeah, you've helped somebody in the day.
And the thing that I'm so grateful for is life and my
family and being who I am today and happy with myself.

(43:08):
Like that's, it's a hard thing to explain, but to go through
heartache and depression becauseI did suffer depression two
years ago, but I'll get to that.I did suffer a terrible,
terrible breakdown. And it was the journey I had
gone through that you're like listening to right now.
And then, you know, because I was having in my 30s, I had the

(43:28):
surgery, got through chemo, Ariana's growing, John and I
getting through life. I've got the business and
everything's hunky Dory. That's and I.
Lived happily. Ever.
Exactly. And that's that's basically how
we knew life though the week before my 40th birthday, same
symptoms are coming around. And this time it was really bad.
And I thought this is not normalnow this is really not feeling

(43:52):
good. And then bleeding and I had
yeah. And it showed sign big time.
I was at work and I thought, oh,and I had a massive bleed and
I'm like, no, this is not normal.
This is not normal. And I was feeling very nauseous.
And again they rushed me into hospital and they found out I
had ovarian cancer. It had taken off.
So I had a hysterectomy. They took my ovary.

(44:16):
I it had travelled into my uterus, had gone into my bladder
by this stage. So I had a partial bladder
removal. All of that section was gone.
I went through, came through outof surgery, went through
chemotherapy. It was stage 3.
So it was aggressive and it was going to this was it, this was
it. I had to come to terms now in my

(44:37):
head. Did you really?
Yeah, but that by that time I thought every time you've your
little head, you're coming back stronger and stronger.
And you know, again, I'll mention I was eating greens and
healthy and salads and I would go to the gym and I would work
out and I would push myself to breaking where I would come home

(44:58):
and collapse. But I knew that day I'd gone for
my walk and I'd worked and I'll come home and I'll do something
on the treadmill. Or I was like you.
I was a Commander Steve girl. I saw that in your interview
when you said you did. I did 2 boot camps in the face.
I I made note of that. I was like I.
Did I? Did the game commando fit thing

(45:19):
I did you know when did you knowthat I did.
It was. I was.
Just on air. You on air?
Alright. And I was like go rabbit.
And you'd done that by then? Yeah, you'd already done that.
Yeah, yeah, I'd already been. That was I that I was 43, I
think when I was in the absolutebest shape I've been in my life
and I felt amazing. Yeah.
And following that program, wow,12 weeks of.

(45:41):
Challenge. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, I went to his boot camp for.
Four days. So you'd literally doing every
single thing that Steve wants you to do.
Yeah. And I, when I got better in
between, you know, the 30 mark and the 40 mark of having the
two cancers and the surgery and so forth, I said to John, I'm
setting challenges, I'm setting goals.
We're going, we're living. And he's like, OK, I'm like, in

(46:04):
that one year I did Tough Mudderin November, January, I did the
overland track in Tasmania, and then I went in March and did
Steve's and I was just all in six months.
Yeah, following year I went and gone back.
I'm gonna go do it again. He's like, are you crazy?
Came home broke and I said Nah, let's do it again.

(46:24):
It's funny when you're into it. Yeah, but I went to the gym and
I 5-6 days a week. I was eating salads and my meat
and my vegetables, everything. Fruit, nuts, no carbs, no sugar
stayed away because sugar and carbohydrates feed cancer.
It's just a proven fact. The higher is it, yeah, the more

(46:44):
sugar you consume and the more carbohydrates you feed your
body. It's basically like putting fuel
on the fire and off it. Went.
So is that why you were doing? Our clean, as clean as I could
and as I keeping your heart rateup.
You were. Yeah, all the time.
I've never, I've always been shapely and I've never been a
skinny girl, but I was never like really huge.

(47:08):
But I still ate healthy and I thought I was doing everything.
Good. Yeah, what we thought we were
doing was right. And I had researched because
with chemotherapy we got all this poison going into your body
and they're giving you other substances to keep your body
going. And you have like, and I
suffered really bad iron problems.

(47:30):
So I would pass out a drop of hat with low blood pressure.
And I was having iron infusions.I was having the works, like,
give me a cocktail, baby. And I just drank it.
And that's how it was. Yeah.
But I thought I've got to keep my body as clean as I could.
So I did. And I would eat and do and
exercise and do everything they said.
And it still came back more aggressive than ever.

(47:50):
So by that time, I just said to John, all right, we're doing it
big surgery, chemotherapy. But if it doesn't work, I'm out.
I'm I'm done. I can't keep living life.
During this process, obviously the chemo's damaging the rest of
the body, so she had kidney issues, she had liver issues,
all that sort of stuff as well. So at one point they had to take

(48:11):
her off chemo. Yeah, to let my kidneys recoup
we're. Going to go into failure.
So it's like, well, you've got to come off chemo, which means.
The cancer, it was going to SLA again.
And this happened over a period of time.
So I'd had my surgery, they got it all out.
That was the first 1-10 weeks later I ended up back in surgery
because it had still like spreadand I didn't realize.

(48:31):
And then I went back in and theytook that out and got rid of it
back through chemo. And that happened over like
probably 5-6 years and then it disappeared.
It was all gone. You know, success, great, done
it and then it was good, great living life.
Got a phone call when I had my bloods checked because you have
to go in for regular check UPS and they found a secondary and

(48:54):
it was nowhere down that area ofmy uterol area.
So I had it on my spine. They can tell us from the blood.
Oh, OK. So you've got activity, the
blood, blood triggers, the bloodshows that there's something
going on in the body, it's not right or your levels are out.
And then basically you you have a scan done and it verifies
everything. Yeah, it.
Was in your spine. One was on my spine and one was

(49:15):
behind the right side of my eye and inoperable.
Just because the location too too risky too.
Too risky to go behind my right eye and on my spine.
And I thought, OK, we're spreading now.
We're leaving the the traditional area of where you've
always been and now we're movingon.

(49:36):
And I that's the big conversation.
I said to John, I'm not going through chemo.
I can't do all this. I can't keep living my life like
this. It's not worth it.
Like is that quality? Because I'd seen her go through
everything, I accepted that is. That right?
Because as I said, she hid it well from everyone else.

(49:58):
But obviously living with her, being with her, I saw the worst
of it and it's not nice. It's not nice to see, to see the
person you love the most in the world go through that.
It's I said it's your decision ultimately because it is your
body, it's your life. I can't, I can't make you keep
going through that. So.
Yeah, yeah. And I just said to him, I kind

(50:19):
of love you. I sort of said I'd rather have,
you know, sort of the cliche thing.
I'd rather have 6 good months with you than have you for five
years in agony and sick and, youknow, on the toilet all the time
and. Vomiting and yet some days like
I couldn't get out of bed. When they say inoperable the the
spine one and the other one we threw the chemo and that can it

(50:41):
go away though? Yeah, I had chemo.
That was the. Sort of plan of attack was to
hit it with the chemo to shrink the.
Chemo, but if it doesn't work. I'm out, Yeah.
I gave them a certain time doingthat.
Yeah. And then I'm out.
I am out. I'm really out, though.
And I spoke to my doctor and I said I'm out.
After this round, I'm out. And this was like another two
years in. So here I was now at like, no,

(51:04):
it's actually probably later than what I first initially
thought because they start to blend.
This is the problem. But I was closer to 50.
So I'm not going into the secondphase of my life in my 50s and
having to still live like this. And everybody else doesn't know
what it's like to live like this.
And I do good, do a good front. I do like I used to have the

(51:26):
Super shortest hair ever, white blonde.
I would like really short shave it do everything to prevent
people from making me look like I had cancer and.
Is that your actual hair? It's my hair now and This is why
I long. Is it?
Yeah, and I actually, I have letit go because it's been 2-2
years of no more treatment. So I just went.

(51:49):
I'm growing my hair. I'm going to look like a girl.
I'm not going to have shaved heads and short hairstyles
anymore. I want long hair and I want to
look like a girl and she. Always did look like a girl.
Well. Yeah, I'm not going to say.
From the hairdressers first baby.
And so that was it. And then by the time we decided

(52:11):
that that was it done, we went up and we saw John's auntie and
uncle in Queensland and we were up there for four days and we
knew that they had had a change of lifestyle.
And I saw them and John did, andwe both stood there literally,
and went, Oh my God, they look fantastic, like the best they've

(52:33):
ever looked. Yeah, and how old are they?
Late 50s, early 60s at that time, no, they're.
They're older than that. Yeah, sorry, late 60s.
Late 60s. Late 60s.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they looked amazing though.
They were glowing and they were colour in their cheeks and they
looked incredible from head to toe and they just had a glow

(52:54):
about them that was health and they were happier and and they
were off medication and antidepressants and all these
things and it was really, reallybeautiful to watch.
Anyway, we listened to what theyhad to say over the four days
and literally they had decided to go carnival our Auntie D.
Been doing for six months. Mark would have been doing it

(53:15):
for nine months. What was interesting about the
interview that I watched, you never really talked about what
the carnival died because that whole channel isn't about that.
You don't need to go into that thing.
Yeah, exactly. So, but a lot of people are only
just starting to hear about carnival and they're starting to
research carnival. So people, most people go, what

(53:37):
is it? And I say the best thing you can
do is actually follow, you know,Doctor Ken Berry or, you know,
Dave Mack like we did, and Sean Baker.
And there's people out there that are doctors and their
carnival and the research that'sgone into it and the amount of
information that is out there, honestly, it's hard to ignore.

(53:59):
Wait, I feel like we've jumped forward a bit because you're
you're up there in Queensland. Yeah.
And you did that for the four days?
Yes, and we were watching these people while we were with them,
they introduced. Us to.
See them on like. Feels very.
Cultic You've got to watch this.Yes, very, very.
Yeah, very to the point where you.
Sort of go. But The thing is.

(54:23):
But The thing is, you thought, here we go.
It's another fad. Look, another way of phrasing it
is it's very low carb or no carb.
My question this is purely for me, I've done keto a bunch of
times and I know it's good for me and I feel incredible when
I'm on keto. It's so restrictive.

(54:43):
Found the thing with keto is I could go weeks, perfect.
And I'm doing the pinpricks on the finger and reading my blood
sugar, glucose and. And that is a blood glucose,
yeah. Ketones, yeah.
Measuring the ketones, yeah. All it would take is something
that I would eat and it would kick me out of ketosis, yeah.
And then it can take days to getback into it.

(55:04):
Nearly a week. Yeah, And then you get the keto
flu and all that, and you feel gross.
And yeah, I know that once I getinto it, I'm good.
But then it just says I'm kind of OK.
I saw you in the interview, John.
You said that you're very all right doing this.
I'm 100% yeah, doing this and that's what I would do yeah,
with that as well. Yeah, but it was but it was I

(55:26):
was on and I'd go great. And I'd drop a bunch of weight
and I'd the inflammation and andthings, you know, instead of
going up the stairs and my kneescreaking and being sore yeah
man, couple of weeks into that and I'm like, yeah, I feel
fantastic yeah. The brain fog like just so
clear, so clear in your thoughts.
It's it's crazy. Yeah, it.

(55:47):
Kind of was just the next look from Frito.
It is. It's just that next step up.
Yeah, in which White likes. How's it different?
So for those who don't know, So for keto, it's yeah, pretty much
restricting all sugars and there's carbs.
No carbs, no sugar really. No carbs?
No. Sugar very low.
Yeah, you. Have though you have like a few
strawberries and you're over. Yeah.

(56:09):
Which that was one of the biggest things that I struggled
with is because I love fruit. Yeah, I was the same.
I was the same. It's a real rabbit hole once you
start looking at it. But fructose, this fruit is one
of the worst things you can have.
Yeah, yeah. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah. So last night, sitting down on
the couch and then on the way here, I was thinking these two
are gonna wreck my Saturday night because I've been working

(56:34):
so hard lately that I've been looking for a reward that night.
Some chips and chocolate, I'm having a movie session with the
kelpie and more. And you're gonna look at the
chocolate you put in your mouth,and you'll go John and Nicole.
Damn. Now, I'm gonna block you guys
out if I don't pay any attentionto it.
It doesn't exist. But.

(56:54):
But here's the thing. Yeah.
And then Sunday morning, I just,I'm not a drinker, no, but I
presume it's like. When you have a hangover.
And you just go, why am I like this?
I'm such an idiot. And then I'll do it again.
The difference I feel, 'cause I was Paleo, I was keto.
I I'd done all of them, yeah, all of them just to get my like,
my health back in check. John was a person that he would

(57:17):
just eat, bless him, whatever I cooked.
He was very, you know, that's just Nick's cooked dinner.
I'm going to eat it. He was never really like, AI
want this, I want to do that, I want to do that.
He always knew I was like, try and keep the carbs down, try and
keep sugars down. And that's just how it was.
Yeah. We had blowouts, of course.
We were called normal. And that's where people do eat
chocolate. And people, you know, have a

(57:38):
Saturday night chocolate fest with chips in their dog and
whatever they want to do. And that's called Saturday
night. And most people hit like the
drink and they'll have a great night.
But when you know how the poisons of the sugar and the
alcohol and the carbohydrates and all of these things, you're
consuming processed food, processed food.

(57:59):
That's the big one. Big.
One see Massive. What it sounds like we're
talking about at the moment is weight loss, and that is a
that's a part of it. Yeah, but it's not the key
element. Of the food must be on there
I'll I'll point out what did youwhat are you down about 15 kilos
yeah is that right yeah which issuper impressive yeah and then

(58:19):
Nick says her. No, no, no, no, no.
But. Yeah, but I had, don't forget,
3636.2. But The thing is I had a lot of
inflammation and a lot of that toxicity in my body.
So my body had sort of swelled to a degree of holding onto all
this toxicity so. It's also kind of different.
It's not just the weight loss. No, it's the body composition

(58:40):
changes, Yeah. As well.
The whole body changes though. Like, I don't go to the gym.
Yes, I'm a Carpenter by trade, but I was doing that before.
Yeah, Yeah, I was still puffy inflamed.
Yeah. Now it looks like I go to the
gym. Yeah.
Yeah. And flat tummy, yeah, yeah, no,
it's like if I if I went to the gym, it'd be great.
I was just about to say, but again, it just is a way of life

(59:03):
and you don't need to. And The thing is, I went to the
gym and I was training and I wasdoing everything and guess what?
Nothing. Nothing.
You came back from that trip to Queensland and went let's keep
doing that. Did you feel good after the four
days? No, Mickey did.
No. The.
Thing The thing is when you do keto or carnivore like it, it is

(59:25):
a detox, especially if you do the carnivore right.
And in the community of the carnivores they basically say if
you can do 30 days, great, but preferably do 90 days and stick
to it. It resets your body completely.
Completely though. So because of everything Nikki's
been through for so long, obviously her body's full of
toxins. Yeah.
So she had what they call oxalate dumping, all that sort

(59:46):
of stuff. So she didn't have a pleasant
time for the first No. Wait, how?
So when was the previous round of chemo in relation to the trip
to Queensland for your? Birthday, and it would have been
probably a year before. And you're still carrying all of
that in your body. It takes a long time for your

(01:00:06):
body to read toxicity. But you came back from
Queensland and decided to carry on.
Yes, because I had decided I hadmy treatment and I'm like, you
know what? I can't keep living like that.
I'm just I'm out. And then when we went and then
we heard about how a life changing way of eating could
benefit, my thought was I had nothing to lose.

(01:00:28):
I've just finished all this rubbish I've put into my system
through the medical profession. Listen to the professionals and
I have and I'm very respectful of them and I did everything
they asked of me. But I'm still got this outcome
of not getting any better. And I knew that like I it was
not going down. It had gone up and I went, I'm
out, I'm done. So that's where when we were at

(01:00:49):
and we were talking with Curt and Dee and I just said to John,
we've got nothing to lose. That's just changing.
They had some minor health issues which, yeah, had
resolved. Yeah.
Resolved. My uncle had gout colitis.
And he suffered terrible depression.
And depression as well. Really.
Both of them. Depression.
Yeah. Yeah.
Auntie has neuralgia, which hasn't gone, but is more

(01:01:12):
bearable. Yeah, and then you, we watched a
couple of the videos. They said you've got to watch
these. So we watched them from the
Youtubers and. And the big one for me was I
thought, I'm going to do the four days with them, be
respectful of it, I want to giveit a go, come back.
And I was still oxalating and feeling rubbish.
I had the flu, I was feeling achy.
I was in the bathroom 20 times aday.
Seriously. It was horrible.

(01:01:33):
Yeah, but I went well, it must be a lot in my system to get rid
of. And John didn't suffer like
that. He didn't go through all of
that. Yeah.
And so I knew it was telling us something.
It was telling us, OK, he didn'teat like he ate like I ate.
But he didn't have everything else go into his system.
I did. So that's why I was feeling
these repercussions a lot longer.

(01:01:54):
And, and I could see what was happening.
Within three months, I started to really feel good.
And in that time period I had suffered a terrible breakdown as
well. That's when my life had changed
completely in in the August and I just, I had a massive
breakdown. I couldn't do it anymore.
This is it. And that's when I stopped

(01:02:15):
treatment. So it was August we've and then
we've gone. No, we're fine.
But before the Queensland trip, yeah, yeah, I had retired out of
hairdressing in the August and Ihad suffered a terrible
breakdown because I knew I wasn't getting any better as
well. I had some business issues that
went South and I basically had had A and I was like, I'm out,

(01:02:38):
I'm out of. Breaking point, wasn't it?
I couldn't do everything and anything anymore.
That's the truth. I felt like I had.
Just place. Very.
And I deflated. I went to a place that you
shouldn't go to. Yeah.
And I was on depressants and I was seeing, like, my
psychologist and I was, you know, needing help desperately,
I think. I listened to one of your other

(01:02:59):
podcasts. It was the same sort of thing.
I think the guy was the one thatwas depressed, but he said it
was his wife that saved him. Yeah, she came home.
Yeah, it's the opposite. I came home, yeah.
Yeah, different time. It was daily Mac, the
firefighter. Yeah, I.
Listened to that the other day. John came home.
Very similar story. I came home and.
And he stopped me. Oh, really?
Yeah, I just couldn't. I couldn't see the light anymore

(01:03:24):
and I felt really comfortable where I was in this dark place.
It's. The same thing.
Like you'll be better off without me.
Yeah, it'll be easier for you ifI'm not here.
That's a. Really common one, yeah.
Yeah, and I felt comfortable with the decision, which was
quite scary to me. Well, that I mean, Julie talked
about that in her book the second-half of it.

(01:03:46):
Good. I was wondering if you'd get
that she right in the middle of such a serious topic, that thing
of yeah, when she walked away from the stadium and was yeah.
And something literally snapped.She just went.
Everyone else will be better offwithout me.

(01:04:08):
Yeah, and that's exactly right. That's where I went.
And if you haven't been there, it's very hard thing to
understand. You can't understand, Yeah.
But I was comfortable with it and I had thought, I've been
through cancer, I've had heartache with my children, I've
loved, I've given I am a good person.
I cannot do everything and anything anymore because the

(01:04:31):
only person that was suffering was me.
I was never happy. I was always lost.
I always felt like I was striving to get somewhere and I
just couldn't get anywhere. Or I got a glimpse of hope and
it was taken away from me straight away.
So it was this roller coaster and I just said I'm sick of
riding the roller coaster. And they were my words.

(01:04:51):
I'm out. And you sort of said, I'm going
to go, I'm going to go, but I want to go.
Not the way it's going to take me sort of thing as well.
So there was that kind of element to it.
Wow. But it's a bad place to be and
you know that's you go there, but you feel very comfortable
with that. August.
It wasn't till April that you went to.

(01:05:12):
Following April, yeah. Yeah.
What was the time like through there?
Did you? It was bad.
I was. It was bad.
Through all that time, yeah, I stayed at home a lot.
I did not. I didn't leave the house.
I I basically would have my sessions with my like my
psychiatrist. I was constantly I did a lot of
cooking and not the carnival way.

(01:05:34):
Baking of. Yeah, and I was always My
daughter was always with me, or John was always with me.
I was never alone. I was never allowed to be left
alone. That was by design, yeah.
So I just and then I started to basically say, you know what,
I've got to try and breathe. So I'd go outside to the garden
for a little while. That was my place to go and I'd

(01:05:55):
go back in the house and I never.
Vent at that. Point I didn't paint the whole
house. That was my therapy and I felt
very secure at home. I loved my home.
I knew it was one place that nothing could hurt me.
I was being hit left, right and centre on the outside world.
So I stayed home. I just wanted to be home.
Isn't it amazing how I says all the time with people?

(01:06:16):
You look at anybody, that guy sitting in his car right there,
you don't know what's going on in his life and you don't know
what has happened. No, you turning up here today
and we've had some laughs and everything and just looking at
you guys, you have no idea the whole story of you guys and
where you were at. Yeah, at that point, Yeah.
And where you were at at that point as well.

(01:06:37):
Yeah, it was. For John, I can't imagine like
I'm the broken one with the, youknow, with the mental health and
and that I can't imagine what itwould be like to be the partner.
Yeah, I I'm with you. Sorry, how?
Much. How would it be for Sav?
How is it for John? And I have you.
Asked her that at any point. We don't talk much.

(01:07:02):
No, not really. She has said that, you know,
it's hard. It's so hard to watch and to not
be able to fix it. Yeah, that would be my.
More so from a man's point of. View.
Yeah, that would be my thing. That would be my thing with her.
If it were the other way around,I would want to fix it where she

(01:07:23):
hasn't tried to fix me, yeah. No, but women don't want to fix.
We're there to let you know we love and support you.
Yeah, and we have your back. Go back to that job thing, it is
way back at the start there. And that's exactly right.
We we see our. I've tried not to fix because
obviously it's not something I can't fix because I've I have
tried to do the other thing and that's just be there and

(01:07:44):
support. And it's very hard for John
because I am a little bit more of a I'm quite independent in
our marriage still. So I did my treatment by myself.
I drove myself to my own scans. I would not let him come near
me. And the reason I did that, which
I will stand by this day, that Idid the right thing 100%, no

(01:08:05):
matter what anybody else would think, is I kept my loved ones
and my families away from the clinic and away from the cancer.
You know, Society of walking into the hospital and seeing
everybody and we're all looking the same and we're all sick and
we're all there for other reasons.
But the people that come in to support them, they breakdown,
they can't cope with it, they'renot going through it.

(01:08:26):
So it's a person that then is going through the cancer that
then has to support their family.
Heard that happens a lot, yeah. And I went in by myself and I
said to him, I love you more than you'll ever know.
And I said this to Ariana and I said, but I'm doing this journey
by myself still. And they were like, but we're
here. And I said, great, I'll see you

(01:08:47):
when I get home because I need you more there and I need you at
home and I need you to look at me as mum and I need you to look
at me as your wife, Nikki, your best friend of life.
That's what we've always said. And that was how I left it.
And it was great because if I could come home, I didn't feel
like I had. That.
I had the cancer and I, I was going through this hardship and

(01:09:09):
going to work like I would disappear.
I'd be doing people's hair and Iwouldn't feel good.
And I would just, you know, say to my stuff, I'll be back in a
minute. And I was gone for 20 minutes,
half an hour. And I was in the bathroom and I
would pull myself together and I'd like, you know, off we go
again and just keep going. And the busier you kept your
mind, the healthier I was. It didn't do me any good in the

(01:09:30):
end when I did have my breakdownbecause I then thought I am
empty of positivity, I'm empty of strength.
So I crashed and I went. I didn't just yeah, I went way,
way down. We.
Sort of briefly touched on beinga hairdresser.
It's very draining that way as well, so imagine.
Yeah, the stories that you're hearing everyone, yeah, Yeah.

(01:09:54):
So, OK, well. Now we've got a.
Good picture of where you are at.
Then you went to Queensland and then you kept going on it.
Yeah, 4 What's that over a year there was April 4th.
April 4th 2025. So it was a year exactly from
the time we're in Queensland, seeing our family on the four

(01:10:15):
day journey of learning about carnival, coming home and kept
cleaning our bodies and stickingto the carnival way and just
being adamant. And then I was having my blood
tests done and my doctor was astounded by the results.
He couldn't believe it. Only three or four months after
April. Basically I had my bloods done.
He was like you've got to come in this and you have a scan due.

(01:10:38):
And I was like OK. And he was like there is a huge
change. I've never seen it move like
this, ever. It's 40%, wasn't it?
Yeah, 40% reduction. Reduction in both tumours.
The tumour in the eye and the tumours.
And on my spine. And I was feeling better about
it, like I was feeling not as tired.
So are you going in and getting?Are you going to get a scan or?

(01:11:00):
Yeah, it's due for my scan. Oh, OK, so you.
Have a blood test done always. Always bloods do the.
Track to keep a track of my ironand everything else that's going
on in my body and my cholesterols and all of these
things. And then I have my scan done and
he was like, that was a huge change.
And I was like, Oh well, this ishope.
This is great, but you hadn't told him about.
No, what? You hadn't told him I wasn't

(01:11:21):
going to. Tell you this was a year of.
No, this was like not even 445 months after the April, oh
right, so September of last year, right.
Yeah, Was when you started getting the the those kind of
results? The good results, yeah.
So I was like, OK. And then I said to him, well,
you're not going to be happy with what I've done.
And he's like, OK, well, what are you doing?

(01:11:42):
Because whatever you're doing, it's working.
And I said to him, John and I and the family have gone
carnival and he's like, what? You're doing what?
And I said, we're doing carnival.
And he said, oh, you know, it's a lot of red meat.
And I said, there's no medical evidence out there that meat
actually causes cancer. And he looked at me like, and I

(01:12:03):
was telling my doctor this. And I said to him, you've seen
the results. He said, yeah.
I said, would you have known I was doing carnival?
He said no. I said, do you think it was the
medication? I'm not on medication.
I'm done. So what's this telling you?
It's my lifestyle. Things are changing.
I'm cleaning my body out. He was like, OK, OK, like, we'll
just see how it goes. He was a bit of a skeptic.
Of course, it went on again. And then basically it was coming

(01:12:27):
up to the April of the year. And I said to him, like, how are
we going? And he was like, OK, let's run
your bloods again. Yeah, how are you feeling?
I said, I'm feeling great. He goes, you've lost so much
weight. You look alive.
You're not yellow. You're not pale.
Have you passed out in the last six months?
I said not once so. No iron infusions.
No iron infusions at all. I'll just reference the beeping

(01:12:49):
in case my audio processing doesn't take it out.
We're aware it's beeping. Thank you the.
Pop Van's about to lose power and we're trying to wrap.
I knew. It was.
Coming. See, this is the thing, right?
This happened on episode 1. I remember.

(01:13:10):
I'm nearly at episode 200 and here we are.
I love it still. Alright, we're back.
I'm not gonna pretend that didn't happen.
There's no way to episode 1 of this podcast.
I ran out of power and Julie laughed at me.
Now I've come such a long way. Exact same thing just happened

(01:13:32):
in the middle of talking about it and the lights all went out
and everything. OK, well we up to April 4th.
Yeah. The 4th of April 2025, it was
due to have like just another blood test done and he wanted to
run to see if there was really asignificant change from the
September of the following year,if it's still happening, if it

(01:13:53):
was still coming down. So we did all the testing, like
all the testing of what we needed to do.
And then the next thing I heard him say you need to come in now.
I want to see you now. And I'm like, OK, is it bad?
He goes, I'm not saying anything, I just want to see you
and it's. Got to be face to face, did you?
Really. Yeah, didn't, no, so.

(01:14:14):
You were you thinking it was bad?
No, I just thought go with your gut, go with how you know your
body, go with knowing that you feel good.
It can't be negative. It's got to be good.
It's got to be good. So I went in and I was smiling
and he was smiling and he came up and he actually hugged me and

(01:14:34):
he was very emotional and he wasstarting to cry and he said it's
gone, it's gone. It's there's no sign, there's
nothing. There's no active cells gone.
He said to me, I can see scar tissue there, like there was
something there. He said there's no cell
activity, It's gone. And of course, like I welled up

(01:14:56):
in tears of not believing what he said to me.
And I, I was standing up and then I sat down and I said to
him, just repeat yourself one more time because I've got to
listen to exactly what you said.And he said there is no cell
activity in your body at all. It's gone now.

(01:15:18):
I've never heard those words ever.
So I was very happy. Emotional, of course, but happy
teeth, happiness. And he was like, I can't believe
this. I can't believe this.
He said, if I had not have knownyou from the time you were like
a teenager and we've gone through our journey together,
Nicole, and you've done all of this and you've done everything

(01:15:42):
I've asked of you. And then you've done what you've
needed to do and not told us andbasically didn't listen to the
medical profession at all. I wouldn't have known what you
were doing. And he said congratulations,
you're in the clear. And.
This has come from getting rid of all carbs, all all sugars so.

(01:16:02):
Essentially, yeah. What we eat is majority red
meat. So yeah, beef or lamb, mint.
Pork, pork, beer. Mint.
Yeah, Chicken, fish, cheese. And prawns.
Cheese if you want. Eggs.
Cheese. Yeah.
Yogurt. Greek yogurt.
Yeah. Yeah.
Any cheese you would like? Hard cheese?
Yeah, it's good. Essentially no plants, no no

(01:16:23):
fruit. Like no veg no fruit.
No processed. Vegetables.
None. You said in that interview
something around 'cause I know what you're talking about when
you said this vet when I was on keto, yes, and I'd be feeling
fantastic and then eat somethingand the.
Inflammation come back? Yeah, the everything, that
creaky knees, all that sort of stuff you said in there.
I had a bit of lettuce or something and yeah, yeah,

(01:16:45):
vegetable, a vegetable. Yeah, being on the journey, we
were eating the meat and doing everything we want to.
And there was a point I said to John, I want just I want to try
if I if I could have some a salad.
And I made a small bowl like lettuce and cucumber and like a
few cherry tomatoes. And it tasted really mentally
and it didn't taste right to me.And I thought, no, I don't like

(01:17:09):
it. And I ate maybe half.
I thought, no, because maybe I thought it's just my taste buds
not being used to it. And the next day I woke up and I
was aching in my joints, in my shoulders, and my knees were
aching. And I actually felt sick, like I
felt like I was going to get theflu.
And I said to John, I feel horrible.
And he goes, It's the grain, sort of.

(01:17:31):
That's crazy. Yeah, and we've tested it on
other things, like we had some frozen yogurt when we were in
Bali. Yeah, not good.
Upset Belly. Because you have cleansed and
detoxed your body. Yeah.
Gotten rid of the sugar. Yeah.
When you do have something, yourbody's not that that toxicity.
Yeah, yeah. So as.

(01:17:51):
Soon as you have a little bit, your body just goes, well, what
are you doing? What like this is bad?
Whereas we've trained our bodiesto sort of accept it up until
this point. You know what I mean?
So you just, you just go, oh, that's normal.
That's right. And I hurt here or whatever, but
that's kind of normal. I'm getting old.
Yeah, that. Sort of thing.
And you know it's not normal. It's not normal.
It's actually not. And you know, processed food is
deadly. It is absolutely so dangerous.

(01:18:15):
If they could honestly write exactly what was on the back of
that packet and not put it in number form, no one would touch
it. No one would put it in their
mouth. And you know, sugar is 100 times
more addictive than cocaine, yetwe let everybody in our
households and our family eat itso.
And it starts from the beginning.
Like even your baby formula has sugar in it.

(01:18:36):
Yeah. So right from that get go.
You should really be getting thekids on some steak.
Yeah, bit of Wagyu. Chewing.
Chewing on the lamb. Chops.
Yeah. Chicken legs.
And that's, that's kind of, you know, as we've gotten into it
and we've lived this way now for16 months.
Yeah. People saying, you know what?
What do I feed my my baby? Yeah, it is.
Literally let him chew it on a bone.
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, don't.

(01:18:59):
Don't blend up the the the veggies and all that sort of
stuff, no. Don't you?
Bitch. Bit of meat to chew on.
Yeah, it's. Not you guys back in the day to
tell my mum I didn't have to eatmy veggies.
I know, but that's. That bad for me.
That's and that's the thing. As a young child, your taste
buds are telling you, yes, it's a bad thing.
How many times you see your child spit out the broccoli and

(01:19:22):
they go like, yuck, that tastes yucky.
And what's the first thing they'll do?
They'll go and pick up the meat or they'll pick up the chicken
leg. They'll null on the bone.
That's what they want. But we gave them the broccoli,
the pureed veggies. Yeah.
And you know what? Why are the veggies bad?
Well, but I as soon as I said that and I saw your face as I

(01:19:43):
thought, OK, I. It's another it's another
chapter that you need to look into that's.
What I was gonna say, if you're interested in this, you go do
urine research. Absolutely.
And look. Into it.
I mean, you're not here to preach to anybody or anything.
It's really just telling your story.
Oh. We aren't.
So that others could look into it absolutely if they want to.
That's exactly right. One of the simplest way one of

(01:20:03):
the doctors puts it is animals have claws and teeth to defend
themselves. Plants don't.
They have toxins. Every plant has toxins in it
because it wants to stop things eating it.
Doctor Shaffy, he has his. He's.
Got a famous one if you want to Google it.
Plants are trying to kill you, yeah.
It's just very interesting. Yeah.

(01:20:24):
And again, as we've said, we don't, we don't preach.
We practice, but we don't preach.
And you know, we'll go into workand not like a lot of the guys
will say to us, what are you eating today?
And we go loin beef chicken withsome cheese.
And they're like, oh, what are they?
And I go, I make bacon fingers now, and they go bacon fingers.

(01:20:44):
I go, yeah, bacon. You wrap the.
Cheese. Bacon kind.
Yeah, and you put bacon. That's the thing, Bacon's good.
Yeah, and you put Parmesan cheese on it and you make it
crunchy and barter. Yeah, tallow.
Really. See, I've, I've been through a
lot of this with doing the keto,yeah.
Yeah, keto's a very good way to do it as well.
It's very low carb, so you got abit of carbs from your veg and
stuff, so that's fine. But as I said, in the community,

(01:21:05):
a lot of people just say if you can just do that clean carnival
for the 30 or 90 days, yes. And then if you wanna bring
stuff back in, bring it back. See what it does to your body.
Like do you get that pain back? Like, you get your avocados,
they're a good fat. Eat your avocados.
Don't be scared of them. Yeah, absolutely.
Seed oils and all. That's a whole.
Yeah, don't. Yeah.
Seed oils we'll come back to that one anyway look, I I think

(01:21:29):
a big there's a lot to it and myonly hesitation in talking to
you guys was that no, that was before I watched the video over
here story is that I thought it could be a preachy thing of
you've gotta do this. It's so amazing.
Oh my God, it's beeping again. Let's wrap it up then, guys.
Thank you so much for. That for jumping.
Really appreciate the opportunity.
I've enjoyed the chat. Yeah, it's been great.

(01:21:51):
Thank you. All we can say is we've done it.
I've actually reversed type 2 diabetes as well.
Nicki's cancer free. Give it a go.
Yeah. You have nothing to lose.
What have you got to lose? I'm gonna start feeding the Pod
Van Steak podcast with rabbit.

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