by Mike Critelli,
Recently, I was honored to meet an exceptionally inspirational person, Jennifer Dickenson. Jennifer is part of a very select group, individuals who have defied the odds and survived a stage 4 metastatic cancer. In 2011, she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a brain cancer that few people survive for one year and almost none survive five years. She wrote a book that is both inspirational and broadly insightful about what she believes accounts for her success.
She refused to accept the medical consensus that she would die and should “put her affairs in order.” Her logic was simple: if even a few people survive a stage 4 cancer, she wanted to try as much as possible what might work to give her a chance to be an outlier as a long-term survivor. We invited her to join the MakeUsWell Network and give all of you the opportunity to get to know her better. You may be inspired to buy her book, "the Case For Hope," available on Amazon.com.
Her story is deeply relevant and well beyond the inspirational impact of someone who beat odds:
For all of us, there are forces at work beyond the ability of medical science to understand and harness. Medical science is amazing, but it can only take us so far. Our will to succeed is foundational to everything we can accomplish with or without the engagement of even the top healthcare professionals. As Jennifer put it in her book, “I don’t believe there is a way to discover the path of healing without engaging your will to be well.”
In "the Case For Hope," she describes a daily set of living habits that included a complete overhaul of her nutritional habits, virtually eliminating all sugar from her diet. She points out an obvious benefit that few of us understand as a cancer preventive practice: cancer cells thrive on glucose. She also focuses on two other changes that she would consider first among equals in the many changes she made in her life:
Her daily practice of Qigong, a Chinese healing technique which combines body movement and deep breathing.
Her adoption of a daily prayer routine, which had three simple steps: express gratitude, pray for others, and pray for yourself.
She describes her adoption of stress reduction, sleep, meditation and a variety of other techniques linked to healing. Making others realize that what she did can be copied by anyone, even if not diagnosed with cancer.
In short, the message in her book that made us want her to be a member in the MakeUsWell Network is that how she changed her life to be healthier and be kinder to her body and mind, should be adopted by everyone who wants to live a longer, healthier, more enriched life.
We invite all of you to buy her book, review it, get to know her better, and learn from her.