September 27, 2024 • 51 mins
In this episode of Solving Healthcare, hosted by Dr. K, we revisit our chat with the remarkable Sindy Hooper. A triathlete and advocate for cancer awareness, Sindy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 but continued to compete in Ironman races, raising funds for research and inspiring many with her resilience. Recently, Sindy passed away, and in this re-run episode, we revisit her incredible journey, her battle with cancer, and her reflections on the healthcare system's role in supporting patients.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Saga nine sixty am or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Turned my music.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm from the streets where to her coastination.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
We are on episode three hundred. We are five years
into our show and I want to dedicate this one
to Cindy Hooper. She passed away unfortunately on September twelfth
from our pancreatic cancer. And those that have heard or
(00:53):
know anything about Cindy, she was diagnosed many years ago,
actually over ten years ago, and despite that, she was
able to complete an iron Man triathlon on chemotherapy.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Race.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't want to understate the number, but I want
to say over two hundred and fifty thousand for pancreatic
cancer research.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And has been an.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Absolute inspiration, an absolute example of resilience, positive mindset and determination.
And we've just lost an unbelievable spirit. And I couldn't
think of a better way to represent our five years
(01:47):
and or three hundredth episode by by doing a dedication
to Cindy's. So you're going to hear our episode that
we did back in twenty nineteen. It was episode nine
for us and I hope you guys can find some
(02:10):
inspiration in it, find that ability to overcome when you're
not feeling like doing the things that you need to do.
Think of Cyddy when you are having a rough time,
to think of Cindy when you're I don't know, I'm
(02:35):
just She's been such a light and for so many people,
and it's really sad to see her goal. But I
think if any of us can keep a little piece
of city in our hearts, we'd be that much better off.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So listen.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I hope you enjoyed this episode if you've never heard
it before, and if you've heard it before, or it's
worth a repeat.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Lesson and.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Cindy, we miss you, we love you, thanks for all
that you've done, and we'll never forget you. Puadcast Nation,
we are back and we wanted to reissue one of
our most inspirational shows with Cindy Hooper, pancreatic cancer survivor,
(03:25):
iron man triathlete, someone that took her nutrition, took her
physical health, took her mental health to another level to
be able to overcome pancreatic cancer, and she's she's a
living warrior, and there's so many lessons to learn from her,
and we were inspired to do this our last couple episodes.
(03:45):
One we did with doctor Stephen Tucker looking at how
lifestyle choice is, what we eat, exercise, how that can
affect cancer outcomes. We also did one on last week
on cancer rehab, how important that is getting your hearts
wrong in the outside of the box, thinking that doctor
Yard and company put in place to improve their counter outcomes.
(04:07):
So yeah, we wanted to bring back our episode with
Cindy Hooper just to serve as an inspiration to so
many And before we get into it, just wanted to
give a quick shout out to the fundraiser Cindy's doing
November First, She's running fifty K raising money for cancer
research at the Ottawa Hospital. Her continued efforts, I gotta say, man,
it's just at another level. She's raised I think over
(04:30):
two hundred and twenty five thousand for cancer research at
the Ottawa Hospital. So what a what a special human being.
Before we jump in the episode, don't want to tell
you about our sponsor Better Help. They are providing reliable, efficient,
timely online counseling with some of the best counselors in
the world. These are some crazy times, and I think,
you know, being in the heid of pandemic, I know
(04:51):
meant to health and my opinion's not talked about enough.
And I know a lot of people struggling. So go
to Betterhelp dot com back slash solving healthcare, get ten
percent off sign up fees. They are there for you. Okay,
So without further delay, ladies and gentlemen, Cindy Hooper, welcome, Cindy.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
How are you good?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Happy to be here?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh? Well, I'm sure you are. This is your house.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I got to tell you everybody, this is one of
the most beautiful cribs I've seen in a long time.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Mind you.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
To get here, I had to fill up my car twice.
I don't know, Like this is far but beautiful. Like
what are we looking out on right now?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
So we're in Canada. First of all, we're not out
in I don't know where any thinks he drove.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
To, but.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
We're in Kannada Lakes and our house backs onto the
Canada Beaver Pond, which is an absolutely beautiful area.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
No, it's beautiful out here. So where to begin? I like,
people need to hear your story. I know you've had
a lot of press a lot of recognition for your story,
which is amazing the fund raising that you've done. But
I want to hear the listeners to hear from you.
(06:07):
Where did it all start, what happened? How long ago
did it all begin? And how are you doing now?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Where did it all begin? I guess you don't want
me to go all the way back to nineteen sixty
two when I was born in Chuchel. You're probably talking
about the start in twenty thirteen when I was diagnosed
with pink credit cancer.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Yeah, So it was January twenty thirteen. I was extremely healthy,
in really great shape. I just finished an iron Man
and in the month of December I started getting these odd,
vague signs and symptoms that something was up, but it
was nothing major until my eyes went jaundiced and John
(06:48):
thought I might have gallstones, so he took me into
the Ottawa Hospital Civic and had a CTS or no
an ultrasound done and discovered that I had pin Credit cancer.
So that was completely shocking and devastating. As I said,
I had very few signs and symptoms, none of the
risk factors, and I also don't have any family history
(07:10):
of cancer. So the fact that I was diagnosed with
pancredit cancer at the age of fifty and in very
good health was extremely shocking for both of us.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, and maybe give a sense to like to the listener,
the prognosis of getting such a diagnosis.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, pan credit cancer has an extremely high mortality rate.
The average survival is only six months. Seventy five percent
of people who get this cancer die within the first year,
and five year survival is only nine percent, and there
are no ten year survival stats for this cancer.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, and you know, I remember, like so I worked
with her husband, John Hooper, and hearing this news and
working in the and piet of care setting, we were
all devastated. We were like shocked, you know, somebody so healthy,
so fit, who made all the right decisions would get
(08:13):
such a horrible diagnosis. And yeah, it was. It was
a huge shock. And I can't imagine what it would
would have been like to hear that for the first time.
And so, so, you get this diagnosis and you know this,
(08:33):
you hear the stats. John knows the stats, he's a
medical professional. What next, where's your head at, what's your
approach to this massive endeavor?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
You know? It was it was so devastating. I didn't
ask a lot of questions. I was terrified. I remember
waking up each morning wishing that it was a dream,
a nightmare, and that it wasn't actually happening to me.
(09:04):
So you know that that lasted for months, this waking
up in the morning and just praying that this wasn't
happening to me. But it was. And within a couple
of days we were back at the civic for a
CT scan, and the purpose of that scan was to
take a closer look at everything to find out if
I was actually even a candidate for surgery. So about
(09:27):
eighty percent of people that get diagnosed with pancredit cancer,
it's already spread and so they can't get surgery, and
for them there isn't a chemotherapy that works very well,
and so they have a very very bad prognosis. So
I had a CT scan done pretty quickly and then
went to see a surgeon who would eventually do my surgery,
(09:50):
and he told me that I was going to be
a candidate for whipple surgery. So that was the first
huge hurdle that we made it over. So so it
was less than a week after my diagnosis, I was
in the Civic for Whipple surgery, which my surgery lasted
seven and a half hours. They removed half my pancreas,
(10:11):
a third of my stomach, gall bladder, bial duct, and
all of my duodenum. Wow. And I was in hospital
for ten days with nothing to eat or drink during
that entire time. Two epidurals to try to control pain,
which both failed unfortunately, so then I was put onto narcotics,
(10:32):
which gave me hallucinations, nightmares, vomiting. It was horrible. And
after ten days I was allowed to go home and
then that was the beginning of my six weeks of
recovery from surgery.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Will be right back on Solvent Healthcare Radio with doctor K.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty am dot col.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
You're listening to solve In Healthcare Radio with Doctor K.
Maybe give us a sense of your recovery process. And
the reason I want to mention this is because we
really haven't talked about how fit you work before going
into surgery, and I think that kind of that level
(11:46):
of fitness which not many people have, but the fact
that you were fit the mindset going in I think
has contributed was a big contributor to your recovery, so
maybe give us a sense of how how fit you
were or still are, to be honest with you.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
So before my diagnosis, I was doing triathlons, swim, bike, run,
and four months before my diagnosis, I had just done
my first iron Man triathlon, which is a four kilometer swim,
one hundred and eighty kilometer bike, and then a marathon
which is a forty two kilometer run. And I had
trained very hard for that iron Man and I did
(12:28):
very well. I was hoping to qualify for the iron
Man World Championships in Hawaii. So I met my time
goal in that iron Man, but I missed qualifying for
Hawaii by only one place. So I made it my
goal to do another iron Man and go back to
the next one and qualify for Hawaii. So that first
(12:49):
iron Man was in August of twenty twelve, and I
registered for another one pretty quickly the following summer August
twenty thirteen, which would be in Whistler, BC. That's iron
Man Canada. So I spent the fall of twenty twelve
doing a lot of training, a lot of swimming, biking
and running, you know, really pushing pushing my limits and
trying to improve my fitness. And so it was only
(13:10):
in December of twenty twelve, which would have been yeah,
three four months after my iron Man that I started
getting these vague signs and symptoms. So when I was diagnosed,
I was in really really good shape, like top notch
iron Man shape. So after my surgery, when I was
released from the hospital, I was still in a lot
(13:33):
of pain. I was on narcotics to control pain for
five weeks after I got home. But despite that, I
was still getting outside, going for walks every day, and
of course i'd go for my walk with my garment
on because I wanted to sort of have a record
of what I was doing, which is just a normal
(13:54):
thing for me. So i'd have my garment on, and
you know, the first day, i'd go for oneilometer walk,
and then a two first day, maybe the second day home,
second day home, a one kilometer walk, and then the
next day I'd do two kilometers and then i'd try to,
you know, just make the walks longer and longer, and
then throw in a little bit of jogging here and then.
(14:16):
So I was walking quite a bit pretty quickly after
my surgery, and of course I wanted to start swimming again,
but I couldn't because of the incisions, and I had
a drain in my stomach, so I had to wait
for all that to come out. But I was back
in the pool five weeks after my surgery and cycling.
(14:36):
You know, it was January, and I don't really like
indoor cycling anyways, so I was happy to wait till
the spring to get back on my bike. But yeah,
it's just very normal for me to be active and swimming,
biking or running every single day, and so when I
was released from the hospital, that was just normal for
me to want to do that.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
I got to give people the sense of how made
of a surgery that was, Like you alluded to all
the elements of your surgery, but a seven hour surgery
for where you have an abdominal incision, and I would
I don't have the stats in front of me, but
I would imagine recovery for most people that undergo such
(15:18):
a surgery. You were talking weeks, you know, and you
mentioned your epidural didn't work, so having to use systemic
narcotics to to manage your pain, which also has like
systemic you know, side effects as a result too. Like
that's heavy and Cindy, you were in hospital moving. I'm
(15:41):
pretty I feel like I saw you in hospital. I'm
not one hundred sent sure.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But moving like you were getting out of bed early.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Well, they got me
up out of bed on post top day one, which
apparently is quite normal to get up out of bed
and sit in a chair. But after that, I was
wanting to get up and walk up and down the
halls and again just my you know, type a competitive personality.
I just wanted to do a little bit more and
(16:06):
more every day, start feeling better.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So like that mindset you had of just you know,
this is a huge challenge or oppo, I don't know
what the appropriate word. It's a huge endeavor. But I'm
going to make steps each day to get myself better. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Absolutely, wow.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
So you know we get you get at a hospital.
You you know what's next. You're getting yourself stronger. You
talking about swimming, biking, running, You got to deal with
chemo and RADS. At some point, there's some dream about
still doing an iron man. I'm not great, you know
what I'm saying. So what happened next?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So, so I had six weeks to recover from surgery.
Five of those weeks still on narcotics to control pain,
and so finally on the sixth week, I started to
feel better and I was That's when I had to
start chemotherapy. So I had eighteen rounds of IVY in
hospital chemotherapy once a week every Monday at noon, I
(17:15):
would go in for chemotherapy. I'd have three sessions three weeks,
and then have a week off. So my plan was
to continue to swim and walk jog during chemotherapy and
hoping that on the week that I had off chemotherapy,
I'd feel a lot better and I'd be able to
(17:36):
do more. So it didn't quite work that well. As
I said, I kind of hoped that that third week
that I had off, i'd feel better and be able
to do more, But it was actually the reverse because
that third week is actually time off to let your
body recover from the three weeks of chemotherapy, right, So
(18:00):
I would actually feel better on my first week of
chemotherapy because I'd have had the week to recover. So anyways, yeah,
we did that cycle. I started chemotherapy mid February and
I had chemotherapy right through until mid September, and in April.
The chemotherapy was interrupted for a week a month because
(18:24):
I had to go for twenty eight days of radiation,
so every weekday for a month that was done at
the Queensway. And while I was doing radiation instead of
having the IV chemotherapy, I was taking pills oral chemotherapy
and I actually felt really good during that month. It's
(18:45):
funny now because I look back on radiation is, oh, wow,
radiation is super easy, just because you know, I'm comparing
it to how horrible the surgery was, which for me,
that was the worst part, and then chemotherapy was pretty
bad as well. Having the break from the IV chemotherapy
just seemed like it was a bit of a breeze.
(19:05):
And I was telling you earlier that I actually rode
my bike in to go to some of my radiation
appointments at the Queen's Way because I was feeling so
much better during that time and it was just such
a relief to be able to be a little bit
more active for that month.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I don't know if I've ever heard of somebody cycling
to their radiation treatment.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
They must have. Did they know you were cycling?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
A couple of them new, Yeah, what would they say, Oh,
they couldn't believe it. Just wow, you rode your bike here. Wow,
that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
So you you know you're going through all these tough treatments.
Your by the way, you also mentioned before we started,
you didn't miss a single chemo treatment.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I was very lucky, which is, as far.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
As i'm a concerned, unheard of. Really, you know, just
to give people a cent. Often your counts, your cell counts,
so your white, your blood levels, your playlets can be
affected by the chemo, and they want to make sure
that you know your levels are safe enough to receive
further rounds of chemo. And most often there's going to
(20:14):
be one or more cycles that you miss.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
And yeah, so I'd get chemotherapy on a Monday at noon,
and every Friday I would have to go into the
lab to have blood drawn. Right, so I'd get the
blood drawn on Friday. I guess it would get processed
and the physicians would see it a Monday morning and
I would either get the yes or no Monday morning
if I was going in for chemo that afternoon. And
(20:38):
it was always it was always yes, you're coming in.
Everything's good. And I could see all my blood counts
dropping right within the three weeks. Each time they would drop,
and then I'd have the week off and they'd come
up just a little bit, and then they'd drop three
more times, even to a further level, and then they'd
come up just a little bit. So each three week
(20:58):
block they would drop further and further and further, And
in my last second last cycle, the second one actually
did drop below the level that was acceptable. But they
said I was doing so well and I was strong
and feeling good that they did it anyways, and so
I was very fortunate not to miss any chemos.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All right, we'll be right back on Solving Healthcare Radio
with Doctor.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
K Out of the night, into the water. We pushed
the boat from shore, breaking the air and the stillness
of the bay.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety
sixty AM dot.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
C A.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
One AM Jewels Fast one and ONEAM Jewels Fast one
and one and one the slow MO.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
You're listening to Solvent Healthcare Radio with Doctor King. I
got to put some context into this people. So we
have Cindy Hooper who gets this horrible diagnosis, goes through
extensive abdominal surgery, goes through chemotherapy, go through radiation, goes
(22:17):
through iron.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Man and finishes it. Yeah, un believable.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Like it's like, I don't I don't know if I
could even compare this to anything. You know, what kind
of an accomplishment this was. You know, it's truly is.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
It's it's I want to say, it's a miracle that
you were able to do, But it just says so
much about you, Like what, what what made what you're
made out of? You know, that mindset, that will, that
that that drive to get better than drive to compete.
(23:04):
Even now I me and me, I've known you for
a long time, I still speech this when it comes
to hearing this story. You know, Cindy just brought another picture.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Is this you crossing?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, we're about ten feet from the finish line. This
photo was taken by iron Man. They also knew what
was going on, and they took this picture about ten
feet from the finish line, and it was just.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Like, what's going through your head as you as you're
crossing the line?
Speaker 5 (23:38):
I just can't believe it. I was so excited, so happy.
We had set a goal to try to do some
fundraising and trying to raise awareness of pankretic cancer. As
we were doing the training and coming out to do
this race, and all I thought was, Oh, my goodness,
this is going to get us more media attention. Are
(24:00):
going to be able to impact so many more people
by having completed this race.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Oh Man, and that you did, I mean, maybe that's
a natural transition to talking about what you've been able
to accomplish in terms of fundraising.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It's been, I mean, it's been incredible.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Maybe you could speak a little bit in terms of
some of the accomplishments from that perspective.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
So, as a result of Ironman Canada, we raised fifty
thousand dollars for pancratic cancer research. And then so that
was in twenty thirteen, and then the following year, I
decided that I wanted to continue to try to raise
money for the Ottawa Hospital. And I chose the Ottawa
Hospital because, I mean, it's basically the hospital that saved
(24:52):
my life. And I had heard about some research that
was going on at the hote Spital. Basically it's on
politic virus research. It's doctor John Bell's lab and his team.
They are developing viruses to kill cancer. So the goal
(25:17):
is that one day these viruses would replace traditional chemotherapy.
These viruses would have substantially fewer side effects and be
way more effective than chemotherapy. And the way doctor Bell
described it to me is that these on clitic viruses
(25:38):
would have the potential to combat really tough cancers like
pancretic cancer that don't currently have a chemotherapy that works.
And so when I heard this, I mean, that's just
a huge, huge amount of hope for me, because we
do expect that my cancer will come back, and when
(25:59):
it does come there's no more surgery that I can have,
there's no cure, and there's no treatment that works. So
when I heard that he was working on a new
treatment that could potentially fight tough cancers like pancretic cancer
and maybe offer a cure, I was completely excited about that,
and it gave me a lot of hope. So I
decided that I wanted to raise money for his lab
(26:23):
and for the research that he was doing.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, and it's unbelievable because I mean, just to echo
what Cindy mentioned, you know, going through chemo is not
easy physically, and the amount of side effects can be incredible,
Like we end up seeing a lot of patients in
the intensive care unit. Because you know, chemo takes away
(26:46):
your immune system, you get more likely to have infections
as a result, and so when and when those affections happened,
it could be quite severe, you know, and people ending
up in the intensive care unit. And so any endeavor
that can reduce that risk and actually provide a cure option,
(27:07):
you know, needs to be pursued. It needs to be celebrated.
And so yeah, I think the work that doctor Bell
is doing is incredible. And I might be talking out
of my butt here, but I think there's a lot
of in melanoma research. I believe that the advances with
the onco logic viruses are coming along well. So yeah,
(27:32):
I think this is very important work. And you know,
we'll give some reference, some show notes to some of
the work that they're doing as well. And you know,
you mentioned I just want to give you all the
props you deserve. So you mentioned raised fifty thousand at
the Iron Man Canada, but you've also raised more money
(27:53):
for the Ottawa Hospital. Do you have an idea of
how much you've been able to how much you've been
able to.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Raise, So it's been about three hundred thousand dollars that
we've raised for the hospital since I think the most
well they all the years have been fun. But in
twenty fourteen, that was the first year that I started
doing fundraising for the hospital, and I wanted to do
(28:20):
something epic, something special, and so I set a goal
to try to recruit a hundred of my family and
friends to run the Ottawa Marathon with me, and the
goal would be that we would raise fifty thousand dollars
for doctor Bell's research. So I started trying to recruit
people to run a marathon, and you can imagine most
of my family and friends were like, uh, you know,
(28:44):
how far is a marathon? And when I told them
it was forty two point two kilometers, the initial reaction
was like no. And I said, hey, you don't have
to run the whole thing. You've got five hours to
finish it, and you can finish a marathon by walking
parts of it and jogging the other parts. And I
said to them, you know, I completed a marathon as
(29:08):
part of an iron Man while I was on chemosh healthy.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's like, hey, if I'm doing this on chemo and REDS,
you should be able to do at least a third
of the of a draft or iron or an iron
Man with me.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Exactly, yeah, no, exactly, you're completely healthy. You don't have
to do a four kilometer swim and one hundred and
eighty kilometer bike. I'm just asking you to do the
marathon part and you have five hours to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, get off your arse. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
So, so my goal was to get a hundred hundred people,
and I got a lot of people saying, well, how
about a half marathon. We you know, we don't all
have to do the marathon. Some could do the marathon,
some could do the half marathon. And John even said
to me, you know, Sony, maybe you want to consider
letting people no, no, no, if I did a marathon
as part of an iron Man while on chemotherapy, you know,
(30:04):
any of my family or friends that can right now
walk two kilometers, you can do a marathon in five hours.
So people like my mom who's in her eighties, she's
she's not capable, and my sister she has some physical
disability so she can't do it. But you know what
everybody else that I know, you guys, you can walk
two kilometers, you could you could do a marathon. So
(30:27):
I persisted, and in the end I managed to convince
one hundred and thirty six people to do the marathon
with me. One hundred and thirty of the one thirty
six cross the finish line. Wow, And I would say
one hundred and twenty of them told me they would
never do another marathon person thing book.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh God.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
My two sons, who were at the time in their
mid twenties, said oh yeah, mom, we'll do the marathon
with you. They're very active and they play hockey, they
play basketball, so they didn't do any run training, but
they figured, hey, we're young and we're pretty active. We
(31:13):
can do this.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
We got this well.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
They just barely got to the finish line by the cutoff,
and they were not walking very well at that point,
and for two weeks after they were having a tough
time walking and they were like, oh my goodness, Mom,
we will never do that again. So the next year,
in twenty fifteen, I wanted to do something again at
(31:37):
Ottawa Race weekend, but so many people had said they
would never run another marathon with me. I decided, Okay,
I better open this up. So for the next next
year's After twenty fourteen, I do I formed teams for
a Ottawa Race Weekend which is in May, and people
on my team have the option of completing any distance
(31:58):
at Autawa Race Weekend, So there's a two K, five K,
ten k, and then a half marathon and marathon. And
I've had various sizes of teams over the years and
we have raised quite a bit of money every every
year since. But through Ottawa Race Weekend and the Ottawa
Hospitals Run for a Reason campaign, my team, which is
(32:22):
now called me EMC, which stands for Make Every Moment Count,
we've raised close to three hundred thousand dollars for the hospital.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
All right, we'll be right back on solf A Healthcare Radio.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
We'll talk to kick you must it's better do your
job and grown up and what's how we've grown up? There?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I take the tote the thing hopefully it's so nerds.
I take a sip of the.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yet i'd take the hit of the cat stop.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
We're really streamers live at SAGA nine sixty am dot CSI.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, I'll beel with Israelies, rap up Babs job lot.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
You listening solveing Healthcare Radio, doctor k unbelievable, unbelievable and uh.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I love the.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Putting things in the context. You know, I did this
on chemo and rads. You guys could get off your
butts and and and help us out. I think it's
truly remarkable, unbelievable how much you've raised and and uh yeah,
I don't want to commend you for that.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Our shows called solving healthcare. You know, we you know.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
The reason I wanted you on the show is want
to celebrate your accomplishments and inspire a lot of people
that are going through anything close to similar to what
you went through. But there's gotta be there's some lessons
here I think that we could we could take away.
And one of the things I wanted to commend or
(33:55):
or or point out was how your fitness allowed you
to be where you are today. Well at least be
part of why you're here today. And maybe you could
speak a bit towards that. Like, not everyone out there,
including myself, can run an or do an iron Man,
(34:15):
or even run a marathon. Like I'm telling you right now,
I would You'd be like John would be having to
treat me for every ailment ever, a broken hip, torn hamstring.
You know, I'll just be crying on the side of
the road. But how much do you think this contributed
to your scenario? Like you're six years, ten months from
(34:39):
your diagnosis, how much do you think the fitness was
an element of where you are now.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
I think the fitness was a big part of how
I've managed to survive pan credic cancer this long. It
certainly was a huge factor in how well I recovered
from surgery and how well I made it through chemotherapy
and radiation. So my surgeon said that, you know, first
(35:12):
of all, the surgery was a lot easier because I'm
so lean. I guess it makes doing the actual surgery
a lot easier. And then after in hospital, you know,
they try to get you up quickly, they try to
get you walking quickly. All those things they have a
huge impact on how well you recover from a big surgery.
(35:33):
And so it was just easier for the staff to
get me up and get me up walking because I
was motivated to do that and it was just part
of my normal routine. So because I got up moving
and walking really quickly after surgery, that enabled me to
recover quickly from surgery and get onto my chemotherapy routine
(35:57):
quickly as well. And then with chemo therapy, my chemotherapy
doctor had said to me that I would expect to
miss at least one chemotherapy, if not two or three,
because of how devastating it is on blood counts. But
I didn't miss any I was able to get in
all eighteen rounds as scheduled. And you know, she said
(36:22):
that that is very rare that that happens, and she
attributed that to as well to my fitness and the
fact that I was staying very active through my treatments.
So I definitely think that that my fitness played a
big role in my recovery from surgery and getting through
chemotherapy and radiation. And I would encourage anyone, you know,
(36:49):
I mean even somebody that's not going through anything. You know,
just be try to be fit, Try to be healthy.
You know, you don't have to be doing marathons or
iron Man's but you know, half an hour of exercise, guys,
at least four or five times a week, whatever you enjoy,
you know, whether that's walking or cycling or gardening, you know,
all these are various forms of exercise, and being fit
(37:12):
is extremely important in maintaining your good health. And if
you get sick in how well you're going to be
able to cope with that sickness. And for people going
through cancer going through chemotherapy treatment, I know that the
first feeling is to just lay on the couch, because
(37:34):
you know, we do. We feel so tired and so
nauseous and so horrible going through chemotherapy that that is
the natural thing to do. And that's what most people do.
I mean, when I was going in for my chemo
follow ups and I would tell my doctor what I
was doing, they were just astounded because, you know, she
(37:58):
would say that most people that are going through chemotherapy
just spend most of the time on the couch in
the house, being very inactive. So I would encourage everybody
you know going through chemotherapy, radiation, or whatever whatever treatment
it is, just try to stay active. Try to get outside.
The fresh air on your face, the sunshine just makes
(38:20):
you feel so much better. Just go for a little walk.
It doesn't have to be far, even if it's just,
you know, fifteen minutes. Do what you can to keep moving,
stay active, stay healthy, and I think it will make
a big, big difference for everybody.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I mean, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
And I think Not only is it patients that stay
active are they physically stronger and able to deal with
more adversity. I also think like the amount the effect
it has psychologically, like as you mentioned, being outside having
that sunshine not and I'm just I don't want to
(38:59):
speak for you, but also like when you're lying down
on the couch, what are you thinking about? You're thinking
about all this potential negative outcomes and so on. When
you're staying active here it allows you to have a
more positive mindset as well, you know, and being in
the moment, being able to appreciate your surroundings.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
And just something different to focus on. Right, I think
you're right. When I would be in the house laying
on the couch, I'm thinking about, Oh, my goodness, you know,
how did I get cancer?
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Why me?
Speaker 5 (39:30):
Why did this happen? Oh? I have to go for
another chemotherapy next week. I feel so sick. I feel horrible.
I think I'm going to throw up again. You know,
I would go outside and as soon as I'm outside
walking or swimming or biking, what am I thinking about? Oh?
This feels so much better. You know, how much activity
(39:50):
can I do? What are my chances of being able
to do this, iron Man. It just gave me something
to think about, something to focus on other than my cancer.
And when I was outside being I was with my
family or friends, right, I wasn't alone by myself sitting
on the couch, and I was in with a group
of people that was being active, and it just you're right,
(40:10):
it just gives you a much more positive mindset, and
I think that's huge.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Yeah, And I also want to emphasize, like, even if
you got a terminal illness, I think there's some positive
like this is still worth going through because you know,
I actually think what you're doing, your approach will improve
your quality of life, maybe even like also your quantity
(40:35):
of life, but also your quality of life the experiences
you're having while going through such a tough time, you know,
So there is a lot of upside of being active,
being around people, getting outside. So yeah, I really, I
really hope the listener takes that to heart. So, Cindy,
(40:56):
any other lessons or else you've learned going through all
of this craziness in the last almost seven years that
you'd want the listener to know about.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
I think the biggest thing that's changed for me and
my husband John is how we look at life. It
is so completely different than the way we used to
look at life. I mentioned before that there aren't any
ten year survival stats for pancredic cancer, and I met
(41:34):
six years and ten months. So, you know, I just
feel like every month that passes is another month that
I'm cheating death. Really, I go for CT scans every
six months to check for cancer return and these scans
are extremely scary, and every time we get the news
(41:59):
that cancer hasn't returned, it's just this huge relief and celebration,
celebration of life. And we're just so thankful that every
six months I get this incredible news that I'm going
to get another six months. And so we just look
(42:23):
at this next six months as this huge gift, and
we think and we plan on how we want to
spend that time. You know, where do we want to
travel to, Who do we want to spend time with,
what do we want to do? Maybe this is going
to be the last six months that we have to
do this, And so our life is much more intentional,
(42:47):
much more grateful, and we just stop thinking and worrying
about the little things that people shouldn't spend time worrying about.
You know. So it's just really made our life so
much richer than it used to be. And I guess
(43:09):
I just wish that everybody could live life like this.
It's a shame that you have to go through such
a horrible experience, and I guess continue to have this
threat of a cancer coming back to be able to
appreciate life. But I guess I just wish that everybody
could live life a little bit more gratefully and with
(43:34):
a more positive outlook and be more thankful for the
things that they do have instead of, you know, wishing
for more or putting off things you know a lot
of people put off. I say too. I've traveled a
lot since getting sick, and my favorite place on Earth
(43:54):
still is Hawaii. It's such an incredible place. And I
say to people that, you know they're thinking about planning
a trip, well have you been to Hawaii? And they'll
say no, They're like, oh, but it's so far and
you know you have to take two weeks off work
to go there. I'm like, you have to do it,
like it's it's incredible, it's beautiful and you might never
(44:18):
ever get the chance, right, whether it's because you're getting
older and you might not be able to travel, or
you might get sick, or something might happen. And you know,
I think people do that a lot. They put things
off because they think they have so much time. I remember,
before I got sick, I used to think about, you know,
when what I was going to do. When I was
eighty five, I used to think about, Oh, it's going
(44:39):
to be so great when my kids get married. I'm
going to get to go to their wedding and I'm
going to get to, you know, play with their kids
and have grandchildren. You just everybody just assumes that they're
going to live, you know, for a long time. That's
that's natural. But as soon as something happens to you
like this, you don't think like that anymore. I never
think about, you know, ten years from now. So you know,
(45:07):
that part is really hard because it's scary. But it
certainly makes John and Night live life a lot more intentionally.
And that's that's the gift. That's the really good part
of this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
You must see a lot of beauty and other things too,
Like just all the little things are that much more meaningful.
Speaker 5 (45:28):
It's like everything is magnified. Yeah, you know, when there's
a really beautiful sunny day. It's just so thankful for
it and being able to experience it and have another day,
have another month. Like it's huge. It's huge. Every every
fall when we close the pool, I watch the pool
guys closing it, just thinking, oh, please let me be
(45:50):
here next summer, healthy, to be able to enjoy another summer.
And then after Christmas putting away the Christmas tree. Same thing.
I'm putting away the Christmas tree and my only thought
is please let me be able to be here next
year to put the tree up again.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
So you know, it's continuous, it never ends, and like
I said, it's pretty scary, but it really is. Uh,
it really is a beautiful way to live life.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I like to think that, being in our line of work,
that we we take that to heart. But you know,
sometimes you need reminders like this, you know. I you know,
in our line of work, obviously we see people passing
you know, without warning or you know, on an fairly
regular basis, and so we try and learn from that.
(46:39):
But hearing this, I mean I was even telling you
before we started, when we had our pre interview. You're
telling telling me how when people cut you off, like
you're less likely to react or whatever. I still cuss
out those guys. I need to I need to work
on that. I'm like true a velocity. But it's really
(47:00):
good to hear be reminded of this because we all
need to hear it. We all need to be more grateful.
We all need to appreciate more of the little things.
We're here for a short time. We don't know how
long we're here for. I know certainly when I after
we talked, I saw my boys, they got an extra
hug for sure when I walked in the door, and
mommy got a bit of a and I love you here.
(47:23):
And you know, it's such an important, valuable lesson to
hear that we need to be more grateful. So Cindy,
I got to thank you for agreeing to do this.
It meant a lot to me, you know, and I
think our listeners are gonna take a lot away from
(47:43):
our conversation. You've done amazing work increasing the awareness for
pancreatic cancer, raising money for pancreatic cancer, for innovative treatments.
You've inspired. I know any buddy that you've touched in
the last seven years that you can't help to be
(48:06):
inspired to be stronger, fitter, you know, like I'm gonna
I'm gonna lift have you after this, boy, I'll bet
you like things are going to get real. And it's
I'm so glad you agreed to do this and meant
the world to me.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
Well, thank you for asking me and having me on
the show. I I just really appreciate any opportunity that
I have to share my story. And I guess, I
guess another really big thing for me and sharing my
story is being able to offer hope to other pank
credit cancer survivors. When I was diagnosed, I you know,
(48:46):
the first thing I do is go searching for survivors, right,
and I couldn't find anybody that had lived more than
a couple of years. I would go on the pank
Credit Cancer Canada website at the time, they have a
survivor's page, and all of the stories were actually written
by friends and family members of people that who had
(49:10):
pancredic cancer and had passed. And I was like, wow,
this is grim, Like there isn't even anybody alive to
write their own story and put it on this website.
So I continue to search, and I mean to this day,
I only know for people that are alive with pancredic
cancer more than two years after their diagnosis. So for me,
(49:34):
it's really important for me to be able to get
my story out and that's why I'm very active on
social media, especially Instagram, trying to reach out and get
my story of survival out there so that for other
people that get diagnosed it offers hope, whether it's themselves
or their family members. So thank you for inviting me
and giving me this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Absolutely, And I got to ask, does John Norham here?
Speaker 5 (50:01):
Yes? He does.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Does he know that I was doing the interview topless?
Speaker 5 (50:05):
No? I didn't, Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Sorry, John, I just had to happen. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
Thanks again, Cindy, I really appreciate it. Well, that was phenomenal.
I hope you guys enjoyed that. Thanks for tuning in
a couple of last things. In terms of lessons to
be learned from this show, once again, at all levels, administrative,
from a clinician level, from.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
The general public.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
You know, the value of staying active and being fit
is paramount to recovery, to battling whatever illness that you
have in front of you, to stay seen throughout your
journey to have that ability to be more resilient and
deal with the mental side of things. Staying active will
help with all aspects of that. The other lesson I
(50:57):
would say is your best life. As Cindy would say,
cherish your life. You know, life is short, and I
hope we all don't need to go through such a
horrible diagnosis to be able to realize that. So let's
learn from Cindy and the others that have gone through
such a tough time. So thanks once again. Follow us
(51:20):
on Twitter at quodcasts, follow us on our Facebook page.
It never hurts to leave a rating or a five
star rating if if you're updoored on iTunes or on
Apple podcasts. That helps grow the show. So thank you
in advance and any comments you can leave at quodcast
ninety nine at gmail dot com. All right, guys, thanks
(51:42):
again for listening.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on Saga ninety
six am dot co.
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Saga nine sixty am or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Turned my music.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm from the streets where to her coastination.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
We are on episode three hundred. We are five years
into our show and I want to dedicate this one
to Cindy Hooper. She passed away unfortunately on September twelfth
from our pancreatic cancer. And those that have heard or
(00:53):
know anything about Cindy, she was diagnosed many years ago,
actually over ten years ago, and despite that, she was
able to complete an iron Man triathlon on chemotherapy.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Race.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't want to understate the number, but I want
to say over two hundred and fifty thousand for pancreatic
cancer research.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And has been an.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Absolute inspiration, an absolute example of resilience, positive mindset and determination.
And we've just lost an unbelievable spirit. And I couldn't
think of a better way to represent our five years
(01:47):
and or three hundredth episode by by doing a dedication
to Cindy's. So you're going to hear our episode that
we did back in twenty nineteen. It was episode nine
for us and I hope you guys can find some
(02:10):
inspiration in it, find that ability to overcome when you're
not feeling like doing the things that you need to do.
Think of Cyddy when you are having a rough time,
to think of Cindy when you're I don't know, I'm
(02:35):
just She's been such a light and for so many people,
and it's really sad to see her goal. But I
think if any of us can keep a little piece
of city in our hearts, we'd be that much better off.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So listen.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I hope you enjoyed this episode if you've never heard
it before, and if you've heard it before, or it's
worth a repeat.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Lesson and.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Cindy, we miss you, we love you, thanks for all
that you've done, and we'll never forget you. Puadcast Nation,
we are back and we wanted to reissue one of
our most inspirational shows with Cindy Hooper, pancreatic cancer survivor,
(03:25):
iron man triathlete, someone that took her nutrition, took her
physical health, took her mental health to another level to
be able to overcome pancreatic cancer, and she's she's a
living warrior, and there's so many lessons to learn from her,
and we were inspired to do this our last couple episodes.
(03:45):
One we did with doctor Stephen Tucker looking at how
lifestyle choice is, what we eat, exercise, how that can
affect cancer outcomes. We also did one on last week
on cancer rehab, how important that is getting your hearts
wrong in the outside of the box, thinking that doctor
Yard and company put in place to improve their counter outcomes.
(04:07):
So yeah, we wanted to bring back our episode with
Cindy Hooper just to serve as an inspiration to so
many And before we get into it, just wanted to
give a quick shout out to the fundraiser Cindy's doing
November First, She's running fifty K raising money for cancer
research at the Ottawa Hospital. Her continued efforts, I gotta say, man,
it's just at another level. She's raised I think over
(04:30):
two hundred and twenty five thousand for cancer research at
the Ottawa Hospital. So what a what a special human being.
Before we jump in the episode, don't want to tell
you about our sponsor Better Help. They are providing reliable, efficient,
timely online counseling with some of the best counselors in
the world. These are some crazy times, and I think,
you know, being in the heid of pandemic, I know
(04:51):
meant to health and my opinion's not talked about enough.
And I know a lot of people struggling. So go
to Betterhelp dot com back slash solving healthcare, get ten
percent off sign up fees. They are there for you. Okay,
So without further delay, ladies and gentlemen, Cindy Hooper, welcome, Cindy.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
How are you good?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Happy to be here?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh? Well, I'm sure you are. This is your house.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I got to tell you everybody, this is one of
the most beautiful cribs I've seen in a long time.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Mind you.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
To get here, I had to fill up my car twice.
I don't know, Like this is far but beautiful. Like
what are we looking out on right now?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
So we're in Canada. First of all, we're not out
in I don't know where any thinks he drove.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
To, but.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
We're in Kannada Lakes and our house backs onto the
Canada Beaver Pond, which is an absolutely beautiful area.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
No, it's beautiful out here. So where to begin? I like,
people need to hear your story. I know you've had
a lot of press a lot of recognition for your story,
which is amazing the fund raising that you've done. But
I want to hear the listeners to hear from you.
(06:07):
Where did it all start, what happened? How long ago
did it all begin? And how are you doing now?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Where did it all begin? I guess you don't want
me to go all the way back to nineteen sixty
two when I was born in Chuchel. You're probably talking
about the start in twenty thirteen when I was diagnosed
with pink credit cancer.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Yeah, So it was January twenty thirteen. I was extremely healthy,
in really great shape. I just finished an iron Man
and in the month of December I started getting these odd,
vague signs and symptoms that something was up, but it
was nothing major until my eyes went jaundiced and John
(06:48):
thought I might have gallstones, so he took me into
the Ottawa Hospital Civic and had a CTS or no
an ultrasound done and discovered that I had pin Credit cancer.
So that was completely shocking and devastating. As I said,
I had very few signs and symptoms, none of the
risk factors, and I also don't have any family history
(07:10):
of cancer. So the fact that I was diagnosed with
pancredit cancer at the age of fifty and in very
good health was extremely shocking for both of us.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, and maybe give a sense to like to the listener,
the prognosis of getting such a diagnosis.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yeah, pan credit cancer has an extremely high mortality rate.
The average survival is only six months. Seventy five percent
of people who get this cancer die within the first year,
and five year survival is only nine percent, and there
are no ten year survival stats for this cancer.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, and you know, I remember, like so I worked
with her husband, John Hooper, and hearing this news and
working in the and piet of care setting, we were
all devastated. We were like shocked, you know, somebody so healthy,
so fit, who made all the right decisions would get
(08:13):
such a horrible diagnosis. And yeah, it was. It was
a huge shock. And I can't imagine what it would
would have been like to hear that for the first time.
And so, so, you get this diagnosis and you know this,
(08:33):
you hear the stats. John knows the stats, he's a
medical professional. What next, where's your head at, what's your
approach to this massive endeavor?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
You know? It was it was so devastating. I didn't
ask a lot of questions. I was terrified. I remember
waking up each morning wishing that it was a dream,
a nightmare, and that it wasn't actually happening to me.
(09:04):
So you know that that lasted for months, this waking
up in the morning and just praying that this wasn't
happening to me. But it was. And within a couple
of days we were back at the civic for a
CT scan, and the purpose of that scan was to
take a closer look at everything to find out if
I was actually even a candidate for surgery. So about
(09:27):
eighty percent of people that get diagnosed with pancredit cancer,
it's already spread and so they can't get surgery, and
for them there isn't a chemotherapy that works very well,
and so they have a very very bad prognosis. So
I had a CT scan done pretty quickly and then
went to see a surgeon who would eventually do my surgery,
(09:50):
and he told me that I was going to be
a candidate for whipple surgery. So that was the first
huge hurdle that we made it over. So so it
was less than a week after my diagnosis, I was
in the Civic for Whipple surgery, which my surgery lasted
seven and a half hours. They removed half my pancreas,
(10:11):
a third of my stomach, gall bladder, bial duct, and
all of my duodenum. Wow. And I was in hospital
for ten days with nothing to eat or drink during
that entire time. Two epidurals to try to control pain,
which both failed unfortunately, so then I was put onto narcotics,
(10:32):
which gave me hallucinations, nightmares, vomiting. It was horrible. And
after ten days I was allowed to go home and
then that was the beginning of my six weeks of
recovery from surgery.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Will be right back on Solvent Healthcare Radio with doctor K.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty am dot col.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
You're listening to solve In Healthcare Radio with Doctor K.
Maybe give us a sense of your recovery process. And
the reason I want to mention this is because we
really haven't talked about how fit you work before going
into surgery, and I think that kind of that level
(11:46):
of fitness which not many people have, but the fact
that you were fit the mindset going in I think
has contributed was a big contributor to your recovery, so
maybe give us a sense of how how fit you
were or still are, to be honest with you.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
So before my diagnosis, I was doing triathlons, swim, bike, run,
and four months before my diagnosis, I had just done
my first iron Man triathlon, which is a four kilometer swim,
one hundred and eighty kilometer bike, and then a marathon
which is a forty two kilometer run. And I had
trained very hard for that iron Man and I did
(12:28):
very well. I was hoping to qualify for the iron
Man World Championships in Hawaii. So I met my time
goal in that iron Man, but I missed qualifying for
Hawaii by only one place. So I made it my
goal to do another iron Man and go back to
the next one and qualify for Hawaii. So that first
(12:49):
iron Man was in August of twenty twelve, and I
registered for another one pretty quickly the following summer August
twenty thirteen, which would be in Whistler, BC. That's iron
Man Canada. So I spent the fall of twenty twelve
doing a lot of training, a lot of swimming, biking
and running, you know, really pushing pushing my limits and
trying to improve my fitness. And so it was only
(13:10):
in December of twenty twelve, which would have been yeah,
three four months after my iron Man that I started
getting these vague signs and symptoms. So when I was diagnosed,
I was in really really good shape, like top notch
iron Man shape. So after my surgery, when I was
released from the hospital, I was still in a lot
(13:33):
of pain. I was on narcotics to control pain for
five weeks after I got home. But despite that, I
was still getting outside, going for walks every day, and
of course i'd go for my walk with my garment
on because I wanted to sort of have a record
of what I was doing, which is just a normal
(13:54):
thing for me. So i'd have my garment on, and
you know, the first day, i'd go for oneilometer walk,
and then a two first day, maybe the second day home,
second day home, a one kilometer walk, and then the
next day I'd do two kilometers and then i'd try to,
you know, just make the walks longer and longer, and
then throw in a little bit of jogging here and then.
(14:16):
So I was walking quite a bit pretty quickly after
my surgery, and of course I wanted to start swimming again,
but I couldn't because of the incisions, and I had
a drain in my stomach, so I had to wait
for all that to come out. But I was back
in the pool five weeks after my surgery and cycling.
(14:36):
You know, it was January, and I don't really like
indoor cycling anyways, so I was happy to wait till
the spring to get back on my bike. But yeah,
it's just very normal for me to be active and swimming,
biking or running every single day, and so when I
was released from the hospital, that was just normal for
me to want to do that.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
I got to give people the sense of how made
of a surgery that was, Like you alluded to all
the elements of your surgery, but a seven hour surgery
for where you have an abdominal incision, and I would
I don't have the stats in front of me, but
I would imagine recovery for most people that undergo such
(15:18):
a surgery. You were talking weeks, you know, and you
mentioned your epidural didn't work, so having to use systemic
narcotics to to manage your pain, which also has like
systemic you know, side effects as a result too. Like
that's heavy and Cindy, you were in hospital moving. I'm
(15:41):
pretty I feel like I saw you in hospital. I'm
not one hundred sent sure.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But moving like you were getting out of bed early.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Well, they got me
up out of bed on post top day one, which
apparently is quite normal to get up out of bed
and sit in a chair. But after that, I was
wanting to get up and walk up and down the
halls and again just my you know, type a competitive personality.
I just wanted to do a little bit more and
(16:06):
more every day, start feeling better.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So like that mindset you had of just you know,
this is a huge challenge or oppo, I don't know
what the appropriate word. It's a huge endeavor. But I'm
going to make steps each day to get myself better. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Absolutely, wow.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
So you know we get you get at a hospital.
You you know what's next. You're getting yourself stronger. You
talking about swimming, biking, running, You got to deal with
chemo and RADS. At some point, there's some dream about
still doing an iron man. I'm not great, you know
what I'm saying. So what happened next?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So, so I had six weeks to recover from surgery.
Five of those weeks still on narcotics to control pain,
and so finally on the sixth week, I started to
feel better and I was That's when I had to
start chemotherapy. So I had eighteen rounds of IVY in
hospital chemotherapy once a week every Monday at noon, I
(17:15):
would go in for chemotherapy. I'd have three sessions three weeks,
and then have a week off. So my plan was
to continue to swim and walk jog during chemotherapy and
hoping that on the week that I had off chemotherapy,
I'd feel a lot better and I'd be able to
(17:36):
do more. So it didn't quite work that well. As
I said, I kind of hoped that that third week
that I had off, i'd feel better and be able
to do more, But it was actually the reverse because
that third week is actually time off to let your
body recover from the three weeks of chemotherapy, right, So
(18:00):
I would actually feel better on my first week of
chemotherapy because I'd have had the week to recover. So anyways, yeah,
we did that cycle. I started chemotherapy mid February and
I had chemotherapy right through until mid September, and in April.
The chemotherapy was interrupted for a week a month because
(18:24):
I had to go for twenty eight days of radiation,
so every weekday for a month that was done at
the Queensway. And while I was doing radiation instead of
having the IV chemotherapy, I was taking pills oral chemotherapy
and I actually felt really good during that month. It's
(18:45):
funny now because I look back on radiation is, oh, wow,
radiation is super easy, just because you know, I'm comparing
it to how horrible the surgery was, which for me,
that was the worst part, and then chemotherapy was pretty
bad as well. Having the break from the IV chemotherapy
just seemed like it was a bit of a breeze.
(19:05):
And I was telling you earlier that I actually rode
my bike in to go to some of my radiation
appointments at the Queen's Way because I was feeling so
much better during that time and it was just such
a relief to be able to be a little bit
more active for that month.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I don't know if I've ever heard of somebody cycling
to their radiation treatment.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
They must have. Did they know you were cycling?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
A couple of them new, Yeah, what would they say, Oh,
they couldn't believe it. Just wow, you rode your bike here. Wow,
that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
So you you know you're going through all these tough treatments.
Your by the way, you also mentioned before we started,
you didn't miss a single chemo treatment.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I was very lucky, which is, as far.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
As i'm a concerned, unheard of. Really, you know, just
to give people a cent. Often your counts, your cell counts,
so your white, your blood levels, your playlets can be
affected by the chemo, and they want to make sure
that you know your levels are safe enough to receive
further rounds of chemo. And most often there's going to
(20:14):
be one or more cycles that you miss.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
And yeah, so I'd get chemotherapy on a Monday at noon,
and every Friday I would have to go into the
lab to have blood drawn. Right, so I'd get the
blood drawn on Friday. I guess it would get processed
and the physicians would see it a Monday morning and
I would either get the yes or no Monday morning
if I was going in for chemo that afternoon. And
(20:38):
it was always it was always yes, you're coming in.
Everything's good. And I could see all my blood counts
dropping right within the three weeks. Each time they would drop,
and then I'd have the week off and they'd come
up just a little bit, and then they'd drop three
more times, even to a further level, and then they'd
come up just a little bit. So each three week
(20:58):
block they would drop further and further and further, And
in my last second last cycle, the second one actually
did drop below the level that was acceptable. But they
said I was doing so well and I was strong
and feeling good that they did it anyways, and so
I was very fortunate not to miss any chemos.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All right, we'll be right back on Solving Healthcare Radio
with Doctor.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
K Out of the night, into the water. We pushed
the boat from shore, breaking the air and the stillness
of the bay.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety
sixty AM dot.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
C A.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
One AM Jewels Fast one and ONEAM Jewels Fast one
and one and one the slow MO.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
You're listening to Solvent Healthcare Radio with Doctor King. I
got to put some context into this people. So we
have Cindy Hooper who gets this horrible diagnosis, goes through
extensive abdominal surgery, goes through chemotherapy, go through radiation, goes
(22:17):
through iron.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Man and finishes it. Yeah, un believable.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Like it's like, I don't I don't know if I
could even compare this to anything. You know, what kind
of an accomplishment this was. You know, it's truly is.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
It's it's I want to say, it's a miracle that
you were able to do, But it just says so
much about you, Like what, what what made what you're
made out of? You know, that mindset, that will, that
that that drive to get better than drive to compete.
(23:04):
Even now I me and me, I've known you for
a long time, I still speech this when it comes
to hearing this story. You know, Cindy just brought another picture.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Is this you crossing?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, we're about ten feet from the finish line. This
photo was taken by iron Man. They also knew what
was going on, and they took this picture about ten
feet from the finish line, and it was just.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Like, what's going through your head as you as you're
crossing the line?
Speaker 5 (23:38):
I just can't believe it. I was so excited, so happy.
We had set a goal to try to do some
fundraising and trying to raise awareness of pankretic cancer. As
we were doing the training and coming out to do
this race, and all I thought was, Oh, my goodness,
this is going to get us more media attention. Are
(24:00):
going to be able to impact so many more people
by having completed this race.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Oh Man, and that you did, I mean, maybe that's
a natural transition to talking about what you've been able
to accomplish in terms of fundraising.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It's been, I mean, it's been incredible.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Maybe you could speak a little bit in terms of
some of the accomplishments from that perspective.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
So, as a result of Ironman Canada, we raised fifty
thousand dollars for pancratic cancer research. And then so that
was in twenty thirteen, and then the following year, I
decided that I wanted to continue to try to raise
money for the Ottawa Hospital. And I chose the Ottawa
Hospital because, I mean, it's basically the hospital that saved
(24:52):
my life. And I had heard about some research that
was going on at the hote Spital. Basically it's on
politic virus research. It's doctor John Bell's lab and his team.
They are developing viruses to kill cancer. So the goal
(25:17):
is that one day these viruses would replace traditional chemotherapy.
These viruses would have substantially fewer side effects and be
way more effective than chemotherapy. And the way doctor Bell
described it to me is that these on clitic viruses
(25:38):
would have the potential to combat really tough cancers like
pancretic cancer that don't currently have a chemotherapy that works.
And so when I heard this, I mean, that's just
a huge, huge amount of hope for me, because we
do expect that my cancer will come back, and when
(25:59):
it does come there's no more surgery that I can have,
there's no cure, and there's no treatment that works. So
when I heard that he was working on a new
treatment that could potentially fight tough cancers like pancretic cancer
and maybe offer a cure, I was completely excited about that,
and it gave me a lot of hope. So I
decided that I wanted to raise money for his lab
(26:23):
and for the research that he was doing.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, and it's unbelievable because I mean, just to echo
what Cindy mentioned, you know, going through chemo is not
easy physically, and the amount of side effects can be incredible,
Like we end up seeing a lot of patients in
the intensive care unit. Because you know, chemo takes away
(26:46):
your immune system, you get more likely to have infections
as a result, and so when and when those affections happened,
it could be quite severe, you know, and people ending
up in the intensive care unit. And so any endeavor
that can reduce that risk and actually provide a cure option,
(27:07):
you know, needs to be pursued. It needs to be celebrated.
And so yeah, I think the work that doctor Bell
is doing is incredible. And I might be talking out
of my butt here, but I think there's a lot
of in melanoma research. I believe that the advances with
the onco logic viruses are coming along well. So yeah,
(27:32):
I think this is very important work. And you know,
we'll give some reference, some show notes to some of
the work that they're doing as well. And you know,
you mentioned I just want to give you all the
props you deserve. So you mentioned raised fifty thousand at
the Iron Man Canada, but you've also raised more money
(27:53):
for the Ottawa Hospital. Do you have an idea of
how much you've been able to how much you've been
able to.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Raise, So it's been about three hundred thousand dollars that
we've raised for the hospital since I think the most
well they all the years have been fun. But in
twenty fourteen, that was the first year that I started
doing fundraising for the hospital, and I wanted to do
(28:20):
something epic, something special, and so I set a goal
to try to recruit a hundred of my family and
friends to run the Ottawa Marathon with me, and the
goal would be that we would raise fifty thousand dollars
for doctor Bell's research. So I started trying to recruit
people to run a marathon, and you can imagine most
of my family and friends were like, uh, you know,
(28:44):
how far is a marathon? And when I told them
it was forty two point two kilometers, the initial reaction
was like no. And I said, hey, you don't have
to run the whole thing. You've got five hours to
finish it, and you can finish a marathon by walking
parts of it and jogging the other parts. And I
said to them, you know, I completed a marathon as
(29:08):
part of an iron Man while I was on chemosh healthy.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's like, hey, if I'm doing this on chemo and REDS,
you should be able to do at least a third
of the of a draft or iron or an iron
Man with me.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Exactly, yeah, no, exactly, you're completely healthy. You don't have
to do a four kilometer swim and one hundred and
eighty kilometer bike. I'm just asking you to do the
marathon part and you have five hours to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, get off your arse. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
So, so my goal was to get a hundred hundred people,
and I got a lot of people saying, well, how
about a half marathon. We you know, we don't all
have to do the marathon. Some could do the marathon,
some could do the half marathon. And John even said
to me, you know, Sony, maybe you want to consider
letting people no, no, no, if I did a marathon
as part of an iron Man while on chemotherapy, you know,
(30:04):
any of my family or friends that can right now
walk two kilometers, you can do a marathon in five hours.
So people like my mom who's in her eighties, she's
she's not capable, and my sister she has some physical
disability so she can't do it. But you know what
everybody else that I know, you guys, you can walk
two kilometers, you could you could do a marathon. So
(30:27):
I persisted, and in the end I managed to convince
one hundred and thirty six people to do the marathon
with me. One hundred and thirty of the one thirty
six cross the finish line. Wow, And I would say
one hundred and twenty of them told me they would
never do another marathon person thing book.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh God.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
My two sons, who were at the time in their
mid twenties, said oh yeah, mom, we'll do the marathon
with you. They're very active and they play hockey, they
play basketball, so they didn't do any run training, but
they figured, hey, we're young and we're pretty active. We
(31:13):
can do this.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
We got this well.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
They just barely got to the finish line by the cutoff,
and they were not walking very well at that point,
and for two weeks after they were having a tough
time walking and they were like, oh my goodness, Mom,
we will never do that again. So the next year,
in twenty fifteen, I wanted to do something again at
(31:37):
Ottawa Race weekend, but so many people had said they
would never run another marathon with me. I decided, Okay,
I better open this up. So for the next next
year's After twenty fourteen, I do I formed teams for
a Ottawa Race Weekend which is in May, and people
on my team have the option of completing any distance
(31:58):
at Autawa Race Weekend, So there's a two K, five K,
ten k, and then a half marathon and marathon. And
I've had various sizes of teams over the years and
we have raised quite a bit of money every every
year since. But through Ottawa Race Weekend and the Ottawa
Hospitals Run for a Reason campaign, my team, which is
(32:22):
now called me EMC, which stands for Make Every Moment Count,
we've raised close to three hundred thousand dollars for the hospital.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
All right, we'll be right back on solf A Healthcare Radio.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
We'll talk to kick you must it's better do your
job and grown up and what's how we've grown up? There?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I take the tote the thing hopefully it's so nerds.
I take a sip of the.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yet i'd take the hit of the cat stop.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
We're really streamers live at SAGA nine sixty am dot CSI.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, I'll beel with Israelies, rap up Babs job lot.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
You listening solveing Healthcare Radio, doctor k unbelievable, unbelievable and uh.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I love the.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Putting things in the context. You know, I did this
on chemo and rads. You guys could get off your
butts and and and help us out. I think it's
truly remarkable, unbelievable how much you've raised and and uh yeah,
I don't want to commend you for that.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Our shows called solving healthcare. You know, we you know.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
The reason I wanted you on the show is want
to celebrate your accomplishments and inspire a lot of people
that are going through anything close to similar to what
you went through. But there's gotta be there's some lessons
here I think that we could we could take away.
And one of the things I wanted to commend or
(33:55):
or or point out was how your fitness allowed you
to be where you are today. Well at least be
part of why you're here today. And maybe you could
speak a bit towards that. Like, not everyone out there,
including myself, can run an or do an iron Man,
(34:15):
or even run a marathon. Like I'm telling you right now,
I would You'd be like John would be having to
treat me for every ailment ever, a broken hip, torn hamstring.
You know, I'll just be crying on the side of
the road. But how much do you think this contributed
to your scenario? Like you're six years, ten months from
(34:39):
your diagnosis, how much do you think the fitness was
an element of where you are now.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
I think the fitness was a big part of how
I've managed to survive pan credic cancer this long. It
certainly was a huge factor in how well I recovered
from surgery and how well I made it through chemotherapy
and radiation. So my surgeon said that, you know, first
(35:12):
of all, the surgery was a lot easier because I'm
so lean. I guess it makes doing the actual surgery
a lot easier. And then after in hospital, you know,
they try to get you up quickly, they try to
get you walking quickly. All those things they have a
huge impact on how well you recover from a big surgery.
(35:33):
And so it was just easier for the staff to
get me up and get me up walking because I
was motivated to do that and it was just part
of my normal routine. So because I got up moving
and walking really quickly after surgery, that enabled me to
recover quickly from surgery and get onto my chemotherapy routine
(35:57):
quickly as well. And then with chemo therapy, my chemotherapy
doctor had said to me that I would expect to
miss at least one chemotherapy, if not two or three,
because of how devastating it is on blood counts. But
I didn't miss any I was able to get in
all eighteen rounds as scheduled. And you know, she said
(36:22):
that that is very rare that that happens, and she
attributed that to as well to my fitness and the
fact that I was staying very active through my treatments.
So I definitely think that that my fitness played a
big role in my recovery from surgery and getting through
chemotherapy and radiation. And I would encourage anyone, you know,
(36:49):
I mean even somebody that's not going through anything. You know,
just be try to be fit, Try to be healthy.
You know, you don't have to be doing marathons or
iron Man's but you know, half an hour of exercise, guys,
at least four or five times a week, whatever you enjoy,
you know, whether that's walking or cycling or gardening, you know,
all these are various forms of exercise, and being fit
(37:12):
is extremely important in maintaining your good health. And if
you get sick in how well you're going to be
able to cope with that sickness. And for people going
through cancer going through chemotherapy treatment, I know that the
first feeling is to just lay on the couch, because
(37:34):
you know, we do. We feel so tired and so
nauseous and so horrible going through chemotherapy that that is
the natural thing to do. And that's what most people do.
I mean, when I was going in for my chemo
follow ups and I would tell my doctor what I
was doing, they were just astounded because, you know, she
(37:58):
would say that most people that are going through chemotherapy
just spend most of the time on the couch in
the house, being very inactive. So I would encourage everybody
you know going through chemotherapy, radiation, or whatever whatever treatment
it is, just try to stay active. Try to get outside.
The fresh air on your face, the sunshine just makes
(38:20):
you feel so much better. Just go for a little walk.
It doesn't have to be far, even if it's just,
you know, fifteen minutes. Do what you can to keep moving,
stay active, stay healthy, and I think it will make
a big, big difference for everybody.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I mean, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
And I think Not only is it patients that stay
active are they physically stronger and able to deal with
more adversity. I also think like the amount the effect
it has psychologically, like as you mentioned, being outside having
that sunshine not and I'm just I don't want to
(38:59):
speak for you, but also like when you're lying down
on the couch, what are you thinking about? You're thinking
about all this potential negative outcomes and so on. When
you're staying active here it allows you to have a
more positive mindset as well, you know, and being in
the moment, being able to appreciate your surroundings.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
And just something different to focus on. Right, I think
you're right. When I would be in the house laying
on the couch, I'm thinking about, Oh, my goodness, you know,
how did I get cancer?
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Why me?
Speaker 5 (39:30):
Why did this happen? Oh? I have to go for
another chemotherapy next week. I feel so sick. I feel horrible.
I think I'm going to throw up again. You know,
I would go outside and as soon as I'm outside
walking or swimming or biking, what am I thinking about? Oh?
This feels so much better. You know, how much activity
(39:50):
can I do? What are my chances of being able
to do this, iron Man. It just gave me something
to think about, something to focus on other than my cancer.
And when I was outside being I was with my
family or friends, right, I wasn't alone by myself sitting
on the couch, and I was in with a group
of people that was being active, and it just you're right,
(40:10):
it just gives you a much more positive mindset, and
I think that's huge.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
Yeah, And I also want to emphasize, like, even if
you got a terminal illness, I think there's some positive
like this is still worth going through because you know,
I actually think what you're doing, your approach will improve
your quality of life, maybe even like also your quantity
(40:35):
of life, but also your quality of life the experiences
you're having while going through such a tough time, you know,
So there is a lot of upside of being active,
being around people, getting outside. So yeah, I really, I
really hope the listener takes that to heart. So, Cindy,
(40:56):
any other lessons or else you've learned going through all
of this craziness in the last almost seven years that
you'd want the listener to know about.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
I think the biggest thing that's changed for me and
my husband John is how we look at life. It
is so completely different than the way we used to
look at life. I mentioned before that there aren't any
ten year survival stats for pancredic cancer, and I met
(41:34):
six years and ten months. So, you know, I just
feel like every month that passes is another month that
I'm cheating death. Really, I go for CT scans every
six months to check for cancer return and these scans
are extremely scary, and every time we get the news
(41:59):
that cancer hasn't returned, it's just this huge relief and celebration,
celebration of life. And we're just so thankful that every
six months I get this incredible news that I'm going
to get another six months. And so we just look
(42:23):
at this next six months as this huge gift, and
we think and we plan on how we want to
spend that time. You know, where do we want to
travel to, Who do we want to spend time with,
what do we want to do? Maybe this is going
to be the last six months that we have to
do this, And so our life is much more intentional,
(42:47):
much more grateful, and we just stop thinking and worrying
about the little things that people shouldn't spend time worrying about.
You know. So it's just really made our life so
much richer than it used to be. And I guess
(43:09):
I just wish that everybody could live life like this.
It's a shame that you have to go through such
a horrible experience, and I guess continue to have this
threat of a cancer coming back to be able to
appreciate life. But I guess I just wish that everybody
could live life a little bit more gratefully and with
(43:34):
a more positive outlook and be more thankful for the
things that they do have instead of, you know, wishing
for more or putting off things you know a lot
of people put off. I say too. I've traveled a
lot since getting sick, and my favorite place on Earth
(43:54):
still is Hawaii. It's such an incredible place. And I
say to people that, you know they're thinking about planning
a trip, well have you been to Hawaii? And they'll
say no, They're like, oh, but it's so far and
you know you have to take two weeks off work
to go there. I'm like, you have to do it,
like it's it's incredible, it's beautiful and you might never
(44:18):
ever get the chance, right, whether it's because you're getting
older and you might not be able to travel, or
you might get sick, or something might happen. And you know,
I think people do that a lot. They put things
off because they think they have so much time. I remember,
before I got sick, I used to think about, you know,
when what I was going to do. When I was
eighty five, I used to think about, Oh, it's going
(44:39):
to be so great when my kids get married. I'm
going to get to go to their wedding and I'm
going to get to, you know, play with their kids
and have grandchildren. You just everybody just assumes that they're
going to live, you know, for a long time. That's
that's natural. But as soon as something happens to you
like this, you don't think like that anymore. I never
think about, you know, ten years from now. So you know,
(45:07):
that part is really hard because it's scary. But it
certainly makes John and Night live life a lot more intentionally.
And that's that's the gift. That's the really good part
of this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
You must see a lot of beauty and other things too,
Like just all the little things are that much more meaningful.
Speaker 5 (45:28):
It's like everything is magnified. Yeah, you know, when there's
a really beautiful sunny day. It's just so thankful for
it and being able to experience it and have another day,
have another month. Like it's huge. It's huge. Every every
fall when we close the pool, I watch the pool
guys closing it, just thinking, oh, please let me be
(45:50):
here next summer, healthy, to be able to enjoy another summer.
And then after Christmas putting away the Christmas tree. Same thing.
I'm putting away the Christmas tree and my only thought
is please let me be able to be here next
year to put the tree up again.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
So you know, it's continuous, it never ends, and like
I said, it's pretty scary, but it really is. Uh,
it really is a beautiful way to live life.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I like to think that, being in our line of work,
that we we take that to heart. But you know,
sometimes you need reminders like this, you know. I you know,
in our line of work, obviously we see people passing
you know, without warning or you know, on an fairly
regular basis, and so we try and learn from that.
(46:39):
But hearing this, I mean I was even telling you
before we started, when we had our pre interview. You're
telling telling me how when people cut you off, like
you're less likely to react or whatever. I still cuss
out those guys. I need to I need to work
on that. I'm like true a velocity. But it's really
(47:00):
good to hear be reminded of this because we all
need to hear it. We all need to be more grateful.
We all need to appreciate more of the little things.
We're here for a short time. We don't know how
long we're here for. I know certainly when I after
we talked, I saw my boys, they got an extra
hug for sure when I walked in the door, and
mommy got a bit of a and I love you here.
(47:23):
And you know, it's such an important, valuable lesson to
hear that we need to be more grateful. So Cindy,
I got to thank you for agreeing to do this.
It meant a lot to me, you know, and I
think our listeners are gonna take a lot away from
(47:43):
our conversation. You've done amazing work increasing the awareness for
pancreatic cancer, raising money for pancreatic cancer, for innovative treatments.
You've inspired. I know any buddy that you've touched in
the last seven years that you can't help to be
(48:06):
inspired to be stronger, fitter, you know, like I'm gonna
I'm gonna lift have you after this, boy, I'll bet
you like things are going to get real. And it's
I'm so glad you agreed to do this and meant
the world to me.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
Well, thank you for asking me and having me on
the show. I I just really appreciate any opportunity that
I have to share my story. And I guess, I
guess another really big thing for me and sharing my
story is being able to offer hope to other pank
credit cancer survivors. When I was diagnosed, I you know,
(48:46):
the first thing I do is go searching for survivors, right,
and I couldn't find anybody that had lived more than
a couple of years. I would go on the pank
Credit Cancer Canada website at the time, they have a
survivor's page, and all of the stories were actually written
by friends and family members of people that who had
(49:10):
pancredic cancer and had passed. And I was like, wow,
this is grim, Like there isn't even anybody alive to
write their own story and put it on this website.
So I continue to search, and I mean to this day,
I only know for people that are alive with pancredic
cancer more than two years after their diagnosis. So for me,
(49:34):
it's really important for me to be able to get
my story out and that's why I'm very active on
social media, especially Instagram, trying to reach out and get
my story of survival out there so that for other
people that get diagnosed it offers hope, whether it's themselves
or their family members. So thank you for inviting me
and giving me this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Absolutely, And I got to ask, does John Norham here?
Speaker 5 (50:01):
Yes? He does.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Does he know that I was doing the interview topless?
Speaker 5 (50:05):
No? I didn't, Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Sorry, John, I just had to happen. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
Thanks again, Cindy, I really appreciate it. Well, that was phenomenal.
I hope you guys enjoyed that. Thanks for tuning in
a couple of last things. In terms of lessons to
be learned from this show, once again, at all levels, administrative,
from a clinician level, from.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
The general public.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
You know, the value of staying active and being fit
is paramount to recovery, to battling whatever illness that you
have in front of you, to stay seen throughout your
journey to have that ability to be more resilient and
deal with the mental side of things. Staying active will
help with all aspects of that. The other lesson I
(50:57):
would say is your best life. As Cindy would say,
cherish your life. You know, life is short, and I
hope we all don't need to go through such a
horrible diagnosis to be able to realize that. So let's
learn from Cindy and the others that have gone through
such a tough time. So thanks once again. Follow us
(51:20):
on Twitter at quodcasts, follow us on our Facebook page.
It never hurts to leave a rating or a five
star rating if if you're updoored on iTunes or on
Apple podcasts. That helps grow the show. So thank you
in advance and any comments you can leave at quodcast
ninety nine at gmail dot com. All right, guys, thanks
(51:42):
again for listening.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on Saga ninety
six am dot co.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.