[Here’s my Rx for #WorldCancerDay: Keep Calm and Eat a Cookie. And this. An uber special guest post by my fab friend/survivor sister/Gracegoddess/CaliforniaGirl/FITtastic/greenthumb/rockStar cookie-baker Starling Wickes.]
Guest Post by Starling Wickes
Since it’s World Cancer Day, I thought I would share the Reason I’m still here.
We moved from Indiana to California in 2008 with Two 2 year olds and $700 in our pockets. I knew before leaving Indiana that I had a lump. I had been to my OBGYN, but we were trying to move. So, I decided to wait. After three months of being in California, I went to see my primary physician on my 34th birthday.
He immediately sent me for biopsies. After several attempts, I was diagnosed with Stage IIB Breast Cancer with 2 lymph nodes positive. I chose to have a double mastectomy, even though the Cancer was only on my right side. I also chose to do chemotherapy and radiation, because in my mind it was giving me a chance to “start over”, and rebuild my body the healthy way.
It wasn’t until I started chemo that I really understood how my use of cannabis, for the past few years, was really making a difference. I’ve always heard about how it helps, of course, but to actually live it, has been an incredible journey.
It was one day in Clinic C (Ha! How appropriate, right?), I was several weeks into chemo, after my third dose of A/C, (For those of you who don’t know, It’s Fucking nasty!) anyway, I was in to see my oncologist for follow up after treatment, when I realized, I was the only one eating a burger and chips, jamming to my music, and giving up my seat to a much (much) older woman who could barely keep her eyes open, when this lovely blonde lady approached me with tears in her eyes, begging me for my secret. To her, this was the nightmare she dreaded, being an actress in L.A.
However, by seeing one person who is living, instead of dying, was that little glimmer of Hope she needed.
I was taken aback at first because I saw the horror in her eyes. The scared Bambi look. I reassured her that it’s ok to be scared. We all are. But when i mentioned I was a Cannabis user, she said, “Tell me how! I want to be just like you.”
And so it began. I became an Advocate. An educator. A provider. A healer. A business.
I have documented in my files that “Alcohol hangovers have treated me worse than Chemo ever did!”
I’ve had several surgeries and very few problems healing.
My family have gone through many trials after moving, like being car jacked the week before chemo, being robbed and homelessness, but it hasn’t stopped us from living. I dedicate my life to my family, healthy eating and living, and advocating cannabis to other cancer patients, survivors and caregivers.
I believe everything happens for a reason, and we are all destined for greatness, whether today, or for future generations.
I was featured in the Ripped Goddess Calendar in 2014, as the RG for October, bringing awareness to a healthy, fit community.
I’m also part of a group called The Grace Project, a powerful photographic project by Isis Charise. The Grace Project’s mission is to empower breast cancer survivors to embrace their body image and basically to “wear their scars like stardust.” (Shout out to Amy Ferris for that gorgeous quote.)
Working with Isis was an experience beyond words. Isis makes you feel calm among a storm.
We now run our own business, called foundTHeCure, LLC. providing affordable and easy access medicine.
I started a healthy living page on Facebook, called Let’s Get Physical Cancer Sisters and Brothers!, helping to motivate other survivors, pre-vivors, & caregivers. Hoping to inspire them to get and stay cancer free, offering exercise, recipes and healthy information, keeping us accountable for our health!!
This is my mantra: “I believe things happen for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually start to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart, so better things can fall together.”~Marilyn Monroe
#GetEducated #cannabis #cannabiscuredmycancer #weed #pot #potmom #farmerlife #breastcancersurvivor #curedofcancer #cannabissavedmylife #thc #cbd #fuckyeah #FuckCancer #foundTHeCureInc