My journey has been a big step of faith. I’ve never regretted my decision from day one. I drew near to God, and he to me. I realize he’s all I need, the past is behind.

The word chemo no longer scares me. It has become a part of my normal routine, CTCA has become my second home – it always offering me a warm smile. Friends, family and friends of friends I don’t even know are cheering me on from across the world.

July 15, 2018, will be my 7-year cancer free journey mark and I will be celebrating my doctors, their teams and all of those who supported me with their positive messages, funny jokes and great smiles during my battle.

Cancer was the journey, survivorship is the destination. This is a mantra that I live every day as I reinvent myself as a wife, mother, friend, teacher and human being after my cancer diagnosis.

“Count your blessing not your sorrows”. Prayer is powerful. Eat your greens. Take up yoga, and remember if you keep an open heart the possibilities are endless.

I was 15 I was diagnosed with stage 2B ovarian cancer after getting both ovaries taken out the lack of hormones made my eating habits go crazy and I ate everything insight.

I am passionately committed to children fighting cancer. I want to use my experiences to educate and inspire others.

I went from thinking and saying: “I’m so ** angry that Cancer is a part of my history…What about my future?” to boldly declaring, “I’m so glad that Cancer is a part of my history; Not my future!”

I am living my best life and encouraging others to do the same; I have chosen to dance in the rain. I have visions of seeing the world, and I am conquering that vision 1 continent at a time.

Small town Ohio, March of 1987, married with two sons and working as an elementary school counselor. I felt the lump as I showered.

I was scared of chemotherapy, but you know how you can tell you’re really sick? When you feel better on chemotherapy.

I know that God is using me to help those who have been diagnosed with cancer, lost a child, and experience complications from Sickle Cell Anemia. I’m a survivor at the age of 35 who keeps surviving this life with exceptional testimonies. We never know what will happen tomorrow.

I figured I could cry and hide under my covers, or I could have my moments…but keep on keeping on – either way, I was going to have to deal with my diagnosis at the end of the day. So why not choose the good attitude?

It felt like the world was collapsing beneath my feet, I had to fight, but I needed a plan and I had to restore my attitude. When all attempts failed I turned to God and began to praise him – to remind myself that God is with me, no matter what I’m facing.

Something told me to trust the path and to trust this process.

I won’t say there wasn’t fear because that wouldn’t be true. I won’t say that one of my first thoughts was I’m going to see my father sooner than I thought because that wouldn’t be true. However, I had to collect myself; and so, what does one do.

I’ve been in radical remission since November 2011, free of evidence of disease and free of cancer treatment. My friends encouraged me to use my journalism background to write a book to assist others. That’s how “Thriver Soup: A Feast for Living Consciously During the Cancer Journey” was born.

I am a Mum with two beautiful special needs girls, who has fought blood cancer three times and in total have dealt with six medical traumas.

My name is Heidi Bright. I have fought two late-stage cancers, stage 3 Breast cancer since 2001 and stage 4 Head and Cancer since diagnosed in 2005 with two major recurrences in 2012 and 2013, requiring an 8-hour surgery, followed eight months later with a 12-hour surgery.

Since that walk on the Vancouver sea wall on January 1, 2011, I realized that the only way for me to make sense of the misery I’d been through was to give it meaning. I chose to become a cultivator of hope. For me, hope is the willingness to grieve what you’ve lost while choosing to believe in new possibilities for your life.