When I sat in the doctor’s office and was delivered the news I was in shock. 

I was 48…

And being a Dietitian for over 20 years, I had always looked after myself. 

How could I have cancer?

It’s incredible how an experience like that can bring your entire life into such sharp focus. 

I lost my left breast in October 2013, and then followed the treatment that ravaged my body. Appointment after appointment. Check after check.

When my Doctor finally gave me the all clear, I knew I could draw on all my knowledge as a Dietitian to start to repair and rebuild my body.

But I also made a firm decision…

From that day forward, I was going to do EVERYTHING I could to reduce the risks of cancer coming back into my life.

There was no way I wanted to sit in a Dr’s office one day facing more bad news and wondering to myself “if only I had just….”

I spent the next 5 years researching every single diet and lifestyle factor that increases the risk of a cancer diagnosis.  

Unsurprisingly, diet was a big contributing factor. And even though I’d always lived a healthy diet by most people’s standards…alcohol had always been my vice.

One always led to 3 or 4. I was not one of those people who could ‘do’ moderation.

On the 1st January 2015 I decided enough was enough and I was going to do an experiment.

I put down my glass.

My life changed in more ways than I could have imagined.

I stopped waking up at 2am and not being able to go back to sleep.

I stopped waking up starving and feeling hungry all day.

My weight was easier to manage.

But the biggest change came, nearly 3 months later when ‘I woke up’. Without the anesthetizing effects of those couple of glasses of wine most nights, I was able to see the devastating reality of my marriage.

Alcohol had kept me in denial. The years of toxic verbal abuse had ground down my self-worth without me even realising.

From my research I had learnt that there was an incredibly strong link between stress and cancer.

And now I could SEE that I had been living in a state of chronic stress for the past 20 years.

As gut wrenching as it was I left my marriage.

On the surface, I had always thought that I’d led a healthy lifestyle.

But with this newfound knowledge, I could see how layer by layer, choice by choice:

I had unwittingly opened the door to allow cancer into my life.

But I wasn’t going to give it a second chance.

And I want to help YOU to do the same.

I now specialize in working with women just like you who have finished their breast cancer treatment and want to find the most supportive lifestyle habits that will reduce their risk of getting cancer again.

So that you’re not just a Breast Cancer Survivor…. But a THRIVER.