This week Mary and Alex sat down with Sarah, a stay at home mom who homeschools her five children, one girl and four boys, ages one to ten. Sarah shares the difficulties she and her husband experienced while trying to conceive early on in their marriage, the subsequent gift of several children, and the heartbreak of loss in the midst of those blessings.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with Jennifer. Jennifer is the Director of Graduate Programs at FSU’s College of Business and a self-proclaimed “hippie”. Jennifer and her husband, Paul, journeyed through pregnancy loss together and now have two adult children.

Jennifer shares what she learned about the physical damage of a miscarriage and subsequent D & C years after she endured both. Her perspective about the effects of having a hysterectomy in regard to “womanhood” and all that entails is thought provoking and inspiring.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with Trisha. Trisha is a clinical social worker, musician, nature-lover, and arts enthusiast out of North Carolina. She has a specialty in working with people experiencing eating disorders and body image distress, practicing from a Health At Every Size approach.

Through many years of unexplained symptoms, pain, and three pregnancy losses, Trisha has battled to find effective and holistic treatment options for diagnoses of fibromyalgia, IBS, endometriosis, PCOS, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. She is continuing to travel along her fertility journey after experiencing two ectopic pregnancies and one “missed” miscarriage.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with Dana Starr Ball.  Dana is 34, a wife, and a mother to two wild boys. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist in the Charleston, SC area and has been practicing since 2008. She teaches Kinesiology, Myology and Clinical Massage techniques in a Massage Therapy training program and continuing education courses for LMTs as well.  Dana was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 29.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with Lauren Felter, best known for her surprisingly candid commentary on all the things your parents told you not to talk about.  After spending her 20s treating happiness like a checklist, she has redesigned her career to help others reject the “shoulds” of life.  This summer, she launched the first course in her Get Your Sh*t Together course suite, which is designed to help young people know their worth, grow, and create their own definition of success.  Lauren's story about her diagnosis echoes so many we have heard.  From being mislead, unheard, and dismissed, Lauren experienced it all.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with small cell cervical cancer survivor and advocate, Shannon Villalba.  Shannon's cancer went undiagnosed for some time, and when it was finally diagnosed it was grade 4.  With the help of chemo, radiation, and a wide array of holistic treatment, Shannon was able to fight her cancer and is nearing the ever important 5 year no evidence of disease marker.

This week Mary and Alex sat down with two-time gynecologic cancer survivor and advocate, Mariette Peeters.  Several years after battling endometrial cancer, Mariette was  diagnosed with endometrioid ovarian cancer.  Due to her previous diagnosis, she had been more closely surveilled by her physicians and was able to catch her ovarian cancer in stage one - something that is practically unheard of.  In this episode, Mariette shares her experience with both endometrial and ovarian cancer, as well as how treating her whole body and mind has helped her heal and fight both of her cancers.

Mariette is a survivor of endometrial and ovarian cancers and for the past 15 years has nurtured and advocated for friends and family during their cancer journeys. She is also in remission from a lifelong struggle with depression.

Her more than 25 years experience with various holistic healing, therapeutic, and nutrition modalities are foundational in her approach to integrative cancer treatment. At various points in her life, Mariette has worked as a vegetarian chef, Reiki master, psychological astrologer, herbalist, shamanic healer, as well as an HIV/AIDS project manager and grant writer. She also has more than 20 years of daily meditation practice as well as regular yoga, Pilates, and MELT practices.

She is driven to use these experiences to help other cancer patients regain a sense of empowerment over their life and health. Helping them to navigate through different treatment options and practitioners so that they can find the right fit for them to build their support team, heal their life, and not just their cancer.

To kick off Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month, Mary and Alex sat down with vulvar cancer survivor and advocate, Yohanna Hoehler.  After waiting seven years for a diagnosis, Yohanna wanted to help advocate for the rare condition and founded the Vulvar Cancer Awareness Forum, a non-profit organization. VCAF focuses on raising awareness and educating on all things Vulvar Cancer and provide support to those who have been diagnosed. Yohanna also actively advocates and lobbies for new Vulvar Cancer research and treatment advancements as most of what we know about this cancer is based on outdated information.   #cancer #cancerawareness #gcam #awareness #vulvarcancer #uterinecancer #cervicalcancer #ovariancancer #vaginalcancer #fundraiser #philanthropy #gynecologiccancer #women #womenshealth #health #knowyourbody

This week Mary and Alex reflect on the last 14 months and how cancer has changed them.  Turns out, there have been both some expected and unexpected changes in how we've lived and learned since July 2019.

Mary and Alex took advantage of some rainy weather and watched Netflix documentaries and movies focused on cancer.  In this episode, the mother-daughter duo reflects on these unique stories of different people and their experiences living with, and dying from cancer.