Living a Life After Cancer

I have some amazing patients.

Take Carrie Wells. Carrie’s a breast cancer survivor who has done so much more than survive – she’s moved beyond her diagnosis and used what she has learned to master the art of living a life.

If you do not let cancer dissolve your spirit, it will be the doorway to learning… I faced my long, losing battle to control change, to put reason to the cancer, and decided to heal.

Carrie credits her energy for life to her experiences at the Life Beyond Cancer Retreat in Arizona in 2004. It was there that she healed, de-stressed and discovered that she had the inner resources and energy to create and live a life after cancer.

Such retreats make so much sense. So many women with cancer get their diagnosis and then move through treatment while working either in or out of the home, leading busy lives and often caring for children and even parents while fighting the battle of their lives.

You know these women – heck, you may be one yourself. Fitting in radiation treatments before work or during lunch hours, heading back to work two weeks after surgery, popping chemo pills between meetings. Most barely take the time to heal physically, let alone emotionally and spiritually. Certainly few take the time to rejuvenate and regroup.

Carrie is determined to help other women heal the way she has. She has created a web portal called Survivor’s Retreat, where cancer survivors can search for retreats, workshops and other destinations that offer healing experiences, relaxation, exercise or just plain pampering – whatever you think you need to heal. You can search on Carrie’s site by location, cost and type of retreat to find just the right escape you need.

Do send a link to the site to a friend or loved one dealing with a cancer diagnosis. And if you know someone who sponsors a retreat, let Carrie know so she can include it on the site.

Carrie’s just been named as one of 25 Yoplait champions, an award that honors “ordinary women and men from across the country doing extraordinary things in their local communities to help in the fight against breast cancer”.

See? Amazing.