Today I chat with my friend and fellow cancer mom Jenna about carrying her son through a 42 day bone marrow transplant this past summer. This episode is really important for so many reasons, BMT is a big and daunting procedure that so many of our families go through - so many parents are in complete isolation with their children for weeks and months, there are so many layers, so many challenges - we could talk about the isolation alone for 20 episodes - it’s just such a consuming and encompassing part of treatment. Jenna does a brilliant job of sharing their experience with so much accuracy, and she does it so families who have been through BMT or are going through BMT feel seen, and know that despite the intense isolation - they are not alone.

But before we get to Jenna, I’m going to give you a little background on Jenna’s son Hendrix to set the stage.

Hendrix was 3 when he was dx with B cell ALL. He endured the very long and intense treatment ALL requires - chemo, lumbar punctures, countless procedures - right when he started maintenance, Hendrix went into severe diabetic ketoacidosis, almost losing his life. This led to a type 1 diabetes diagnosis to his already intense and wildly unfair leukaemia diagnosis.

And then, going into his 6th round of maintenance, Hendrix relapsed, forcing him to battle a second time, now as a type one diabetic. Relapse treatment was extremely challenging, Hendrix became chemo resistant and his cancer was still present even after his re-induction. He qualified for Car T therapy, which was also a long and VERY hard road, and unfortunately didn’t work as well, leaving a bone marrow transplant as the only option left. He did immunotherapy and spent seven months getting into remission for transplant, which miraculously worked, and that is where our conversation today with Jenna, Hendrix’s mom, begins.

As someone who didn’t go through BMT with my child, this was part educational, part enlightening and honestly just left me pretty astonished at Jenna’s ability to disassociate, which you’ll hear us talk about as the main strategy she used to endure this really trying, really challenging experience.

For any family going into BMT, Jenna’s story will be a reference and for any family who’s done BMT, Jenna’s story will be a recognition for what you did to support your child through one of the most harrowing experiences I think we can go through in oncology treatment.

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Today I speak with Mel, an ALL survivor currently in her second year of university. Mel was diagnosed at 17, and just recently rang the bell this past summer, so her account of treatment is still really fresh and honest. Our talk today is from Mel’s lens as an AYA patient, and how we as parents can best support our teens and young adult children going through treatment at an age when they are fully aware of every single layer of their cancer diagnosis.

Mel talks about what helped and didn’t help when it comes to support from her peers and family, and how the moments when her parents acknowledged how hard treatment was, rather than bright side it away, were the moments she connected the most. As a parent, all we want to do is take away our child’s suffering, so for her mom and dad to have the fortitude and strength to sit with Mel in her fear and discomfort is a level of love and commitment I am so deeply proud of in them. I also happen to know Mel’s parents, and want to take this chance to publicly acknowledge their strength and internal compass to know exactly how to best support their daughter. I adore Mel, and her family, and can’t wait to share her story. So, let’s dive deep with Mel.

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Today I speak with Leah, a pediatric nurse and nutritional coach who has spent more than a decade supporting families through some of the most meaningful and vulnerable times of their life. She’s worked in pediatric intensive care and birthing centres, and later built her own practice — one that helps parents navigate those early years of nutrition and development with a more holistic, compassionate approach. Her goal was always to make a real difference — to help children heal not just from illness, but to help parents build a strong, stable foundation that would set their babies up for life.

And then, when her third child, Etta, was diagnosed at three years old with neuroblastoma, everything destabilized. Leah suddenly found herself on the other side — in that upside-down world we all know too well — where it’s not someone else’s tragedy anymore, it’s your own.

In our conversation, Leah speaks with such honesty and wisdom about what that transformation feels like — how our bodies go into motion to keep our children alive, while our hearts and souls have to step back to protect us from a pain too big to hold all at once. And we talk about how later, when treatment ends, there’s that quiet reckoning — when life asks you to come back to yourself, and how it feels to reenter a body that has just been through war. How turning on the washing machine feels impossible, because everything feels so broken. Leah talks about how she healed, and continues to heal, with such warmth, depth and grounded insight.

She’s thoughtful, gentle, and I deeply trust her — she is someone who makes you feel safe just by being in her presence. I loved this conversation, and I think you’ll feel her steadiness and grace too.

Leah's Cookbook https://www.amazon.ca/All-Organic-Baby-Food-Cookbook-Nutritious/dp/0593196759

Leah's Website https://www.bloomingmotherhood.co/

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Today I speak with Dr Jackie, a naturopathic doctor and mom to 3 beautiful boys. Jackie’s life was completely upended when her youngest son Spencer was diagnosed with high risk ALL at 13 months old. And when I say her life, I mean her entire foundation. As a naturopath, Jackie was consciously raising her family in alignment with her practice - this meant using things like natural remedies, tinctures, supplements and diet to not only help her kids through fevers, bumps and bruises, but to also work preventatively to prepare their little immune systems for a long healthy life. So when Spencer was diagnosed, Jackie had to embrace a type of intervention that was the complete opposite of what she had built her family and practice on. Western medicine and pharmaceuticals don’t typically have a place in a naturopathic practice, and within hours her baby was needing them to survive. Jackie talks about the rapid switch she had to make, which of course she did, and how it felt to accept and even find peace with what was needed to save Spencer's life.

In our chat, Jackie shares the simple and gentle practices she brought into Spencer's treatment, and how she advocated and worked alongside their team to provide him with the support he needed. This is such a great episode for families, much like mine, who were raising their kids with natural and holistic treatments and had to instantly pivot and embrace the most toxic and harsh medicines being administered to their child’s body. I learned so much from Jackie's confidence and calm, assured belief that cancer is more than a physical disease and it's equally important to heal the body as well as our mind, soul and spirit.

You can find Jackie at www.doctorjackie.ca and/or IG @doctorjackieND

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Todays talk with my friend Lindsay hit so close to home, in many ways. I first connected with Lindsay because our kids were diagnosed with the same cancer, rhabdo. It felt really good to talk to another parent who knew all the same things I knew - like meeting someone in a foreign country who spoke the same language AND also knew all the same people. She was comfortable, familiar and we instantly connected.

So it was a matter of minutes before Lindsay told me that ON THE SAME DAY she found her son’s cancer, 32 years prior when she was 7 yrs old, SHE was diagnosed with Wilms. Lindsay was now a child cancer survivor AND a cancer mom - I don’t need to highlight what a unique and complicated journey it’s been for Lindsay, but also a journey where her insights are already baked in, giving her a vantage point that not many of us have.

I had a million questions for Lindsay about what it’s like ushering your child through a treatment you yourself had, and this is where our chat got even deeper, because hearing Lindsay share her memories of treatment, especially integrating back into her life post treatment, felt like I was listening to my own daughter share her exact same experience. Lindsay talked about the shame of having cancer and what it felt like to be different from her peers, and how she went to extreme lengths to hide her scars and bald head - and it was all just the same for us.

Hearing Lindsay share her stories of shame and wanting to hide her cancer went straight to my core because not only was I witnessing this exact same struggle with my child, but I knew there had to be other parents out there feeling the same helplessness watching their child desperately try to blend in post treatment. This prompted our episode today where Lindsay goes deep into her feelings of being different, of looking sick and getting sad pitiful eyes from strangers, and how complicated it was to feel embarrassed about her cancer when everyone was telling her it was something to be proud of.

This talk will resonate so deeply with parents whose kids were a little older during treatment or maybe more self aware and who struggle with the whole idea that children with cancer are celebrated as being brave and warriors when really, they want to blend in and not be recognized at all - until, as you’ll hear Lindsay say, she came through her teen years and realized that she was, in fact, tremendously brave and she decided to truly embrace her cancer. But that had to be on her terms, in her own way, and not because everyone told her so.

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My conversation today with Matt got so deep, so fast, and I think it’s because he’s worked really hard at clearing the path towards the place he holds his pain and grief around losing his son Landon. When Landon was 10.5 years old he passed away from medulloblastoma, leaving Matt with a choice to follow his grief in a bad, destructive direction, or in a powerful and healing direction.

A friend challenged him to run for 21 days to start a habit and hopefully give Matt an outlet for his grief, and so he started to run. And run, and run, and run for miles and miles. At first around his neighborhood, and then through the trails near his home. The more he would run, the more pain his body would endure, the closer he would get to feeling his grief - and to feeling his son. Running became his catharsis, and his direct path to connecting with Landon.

He pulled from all the mental endurance he learned during treatment and applied it to long distance running, and then ultra running - and then to running 140 miles to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer.

Matt documented his run and made it into a film called No Finish Line because, this isn’t a spoiler, at the end of Matt’s 140 mile run, he DNF’s which stands for Did Not Finish - because as Matt knows, and as we all know, childhood cancer doesn’t end. It’s a loud message to everyone watching that kids in treatment are up against a heck of a lot more than the physical and mental strain of running 140 miles, and his message lands.

This conversation today is really bold, really honest and has so many meaningful takeaways on processing pain, choosing the ultimate good vs the ultimate bad, our dragons, our grief, and what it’s like to live - truly live - when the biggest fear in your life happens. How does that change the trajectory of your path, how do you run it, and most importantly, how far can you go when you aren’t running from the pain, but running purposefully, and with great intention, towards it.

So, let’s dive deep, with Matt.

No Finish Line can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6irMXCIM8

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Today I talk with five incredible oncology moms who met during their kids treatments and felt the need to create a collective for cancer moms to come together, feel seen, supported and less alone. Katelyn, Sarah, Amanda, Nicole and Lindsay discuss the importance of having a support system of other oncology moms, the emotional challenges they face, and how they found strength in their shared experiences.

Our discussion highlights the birth of the Golden Moms community, the significance of connecting with others who understand our journey, and the role of social media in fostering these relationships. Each mom shares their personal story, emphasizing the importance of community, shared experiences, and the need for emotional support. They discuss the discomfort that often arises in friendships during crises, the healing power of connecting with others who understand, and the necessity of caring for caregivers as well.

To find the Golden Moms, visit their instagram @goldenmoms05, and the Ottawa Golden Moms group @goldenmomsottawa

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