Julie: I was really serious about being on this protocol and getting enough rest, getting less stress, getting exercise, learning how to sleep, go to bed earlier and get really good sleep early in the evening versus being a night owl.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Julie: Um, because we know that your cells heal on a higher level when you're sleeping and not digesting food.
And so, you know, I was learning a, like a new life. It was, it was crazy. And I had been engaged to a guy, and that relationship ended and, you know, so I was, like, starting, like, clean slate, everything.
Announcer: You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world.
Each week, we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host, stage four cancer thriver,
Jim: Today I am talking to Julia Chiappetta all the way down in Florida, right? Yes. I was impressed that you were in Connecticut, 'cause I love it up there, but the winters are a little chillier than they are in Florida, I believe.
Julie: Yes, and the spring is very short and gray and rainy. Yes.
Jim: Totally get that. But I was... I know of you. I've heard the legend. But I looked you up to find out some more details, and of course you started the JCC Group, which is the Julia Chiappetta Consulting group, right?
Julie: Yes. I started that in the year 2000.
Jim: You were just a kid.
Julie: And before that I was working for a big travel management company. Okay. So my background is in the travel industry, and mostly producing events and doing specialized meetings for a client.
Jim: Wow. All that out of my wheelhouse, so I'm glad you're here so I don't have to do stuff like that.
And of course you've got a book, The Breast Cancer, The Notebook. You're also advisory board of the Annie's Appleseed Project and the Pink Fund. You were invited to the White House, which I've never been, couple times. And you're known on YouTube as Julia the Conqueror. And then I got to the part where you support orphans and foster children.
I had to stop there, 'cause I feel like I've been in a coma all my life compared to what you've done, so.
Julie: Aw. I'm gonna
Jim: stop right there. I realize God gives us each different giftings, and so I, I'm assuming, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that you are a driven person.
Julie: Yes. Well, being an athlete pretty much your whole life, you have to be a little bit driven to compete and to, um, get results, um, in your training.
And so, yes, I put that discipline to work in my true life experience with my career and just daily life. But it came in really handy when I was diagnosed with cancer in the year 2000, which was when Julia Chiappetta Consulting was born, because I had to- Wow ... give up my full-time gig to get well.
Jim: Wow, I didn't realize that.
Where'd you actually grow up?
Julie: I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, a little neighborhood called Cos Cob, which was predominantly Italian. Big, huge Italian family, lots of first cousins, aunts, uncles. My grandparents came over through Ellis Island- Wow ... um, before I was born. So we, they implemented what they were doing over in Italy, and that was they were farming, and they were living off the land.
And so we had huge garden, and we had chickens and turkeys and animals that were consumed, um, goat milk, and then everything you can imagine growing, and then canning in the winter.
Jim: You have a lot of siblings?
Julie: I have one of each, which is a small family compared to some of my other cousins.
Jim: Your family sounds, uh, kind of like mine, except for we're not Italian, obviously.
I'm more on the Irish part, I guess. But I only have one sister, but I got, um, a gazillion cousins, and we all lived in the same area and all went to the same church. We all were just... They just felt like brothers and sisters, even to this day. Yeah, I like that kind of setup. If my parents were gonna have 12 kids, might as well have some cousins.
Julie: Yeah, exactly. And where, where was that?
Jim: That was in Baltimore.
Julie: Okay.
Jim: Little city of Baltimore, which I'm scared to go back to 'cause I hear it's kinda rough right now, but- Oh ... mostly because I left, I guess. Soon as I left to go to Florida to go to college, Oprah left. She was a news anchor there. She got fired 'cause she had no future in, uh, in that industry.
They're ver- brilliant there. The Colts left. It was just so sad. I didn't realize I had such an effect on Baltimore, but anyway, I'm, I'm living in that- Oh, I love
Julie: you, Jim.
Jim: I live in my own little world, sorry. So you went into the travel industry, you said.
Julie: I went into the travel industry, um, early on, did a, um, tour and travel management, um, training degree- Hmm
and then sort of hit the ground running, traveling the world, getting to see and experience different cultures and-
Jim: Yeah ...
Julie: um, the industry was really thriving and really fun back then. And then, um, just before 2000, I started Um, mostly doing meetings and events for some of my clients who were in New York City and Connecticut and New Jersey, and then boom, you know, diagnosed with breast cancer.
So it was actually perfect because, you know, it gave me an opportunity to kind of step away from the craziness of my career, which was extremely stressful, traveling around and having to be on call 24/7 and problem-solving continually to meet the demands of your clients. And, um, you know, we're talking like hedge funds and luxury good companies and, you know, CEOs and presidents and vice presidents of companies.
And it was a, just a great learning experience, and I loved it. I got to travel the globe pretty much, and, uh, back when travel was really fun and, um, it was easy, and there was no ID except for passports where you were going outside of the US, but no ID for traveling in the US.
Jim: Oh, the good old days.
Julie: Yeah.
Jim: I have a cousin who has a travel agency.
She started it just before 2020, and so she spent that whole first year refunding people's deposits, which is kinda deflating when you start a company. You think it's gonna go great, but now she's up and running. She's doing great. She's always traveling. I think she lives on a cruise boat now. So- Great
she's en- she's enjoying life. All right. Well, you said it was kinda perfect, but I know you didn't feel like it was perfect when you got your diagnosis. Like, "Oh, thank God I can change, uh, careers." But that's just something that- Well ... you know, God made something good out of something that was meant to be bad, right?
Julie: He did. So I was about to run a ra- a road race. Um, I was training at the gym with a guy who I'd just met who worked for GE. They had a huge corporate location in my area, and he was a scientist, and he was very analytical and strategic and super smart. So I was training with him at the gym, and then I found out I was diagnosed with stage 2B infiltrating ductal carcinoma-
Jim: Hmm
Julie: and lupus within 30 days.
Jim: Wow.
Julie: So everything stopped, and, um, so I was poised with the blessing of having my LLC and my business name and, you know, everything sort of set up. And so everything was happening at the same time, so he ended up becoming my person. So we all need one person to say, "I'm gonna be here for you, and I'm gonna help you get through this."
And it's usually not a family member.
Jim: Right.
Julie: Um, because there's too much emotion with a family member. And so I barely knew him. His name is Mark Sherwadi, great guy. And we, um, we started doing research together, and he said, "I'm gonna help you navigate through this maze of, you know, uh, integrative alternative, um, medicine and options so that you are fully informed, and we- we're gonna look at the immune system.
We're gonna look at anatomy so that you understand what's going on in your body." And it was just the most perfect thing for me to, uh, get my brain around what it was I was dealing with at the time. And given that I was from a very large Italian family, there were three significant relatives in my life who had recently passed away from cancer, older uncles.
Yeah. And they really died from the treatments. They had painful, painful treatments. I remember going to visit them and praying with them and talking to them and, and at that moment I said to myself, many months before my diagnosis, "I'm never gonna do chemotherapy or radiation," because it just ravaged their bodies.
And so as Mark and I were doing the research, I said, "You know, Mark, I really wanna get to the root cause of why I have these two very different but, but similar situations going on in my body." And so, you know, it was months of research, and I started implementing a plan of care around that research and around speaking to some other experts at the time.
Wow. And that was in the year 2000.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's unusual to have a friend like that around. Yeah. Normally friends say, "Man, you need to do chemo. You need to do whatever the doctor says," 'cause-
Julie: Exactly. You know, he was, "Julia, here, here's the research." Mm-hmm. "And knowing you and knowing your personality and your drive to be a perfectionist in your work, um, and your discipline as an athlete, I think that you will be able to implement a lot of other protocols and, you know, get well.
Let's see what happens," kind of thing.
Jim: Right. You ended up at MD Anderson at one time?
Julie: I did many months of research. Okay. I watched videos. I, um... You know, prayer is my fuel, so the first thing I did when I found out I was diagnosed was get on my knees and pray. Right. And asked Jesus for peace and comfort and guidance and, you know, spoke to God every day.
And I had never in my life had a period of time where my phone was ringing with people calling me that I barely knew. uh, that knew my family or my cousins and saying like, "Here's some information. Here's a doctor. Here's, you know, here's what I think." And it was actually at that time that I also met Anne Fonfa, um, because a very good friend of mine from my hometown who I knew from junior high days, David Wales, who owns American Biosciences, a really reputable, uh, nutritional supplement company, called me and said, "I found out about your cancer."
I hadn't talked to him in years. "And I want you to meet this gal, Anne Fonfa. She, she just started a website and she just started, uh, like doing some small events, and it's called the Annie Appleseed Project." And he said, "And by the way, I volunteered you to produce all of her events every year for free."
Jim: Perfect.
Julie: So I said, "Okay, that sounds good." And, um, so she and I met briefly and started talking, and she started sharing information for me. But in 2000, there really wasn't much out there, and she was also very new in her diagnosis, so she was diagnosed about five years before that. So we were both kind of navigating the same space, and there wasn't a whole lot in that space at that time like there is now.
Jim: Right. And
Julie: now, yes, there's great information and there's more access to white papers and science-driven research, evidence-based research. But there's also, just as a side note, there's also a plethora of just a lot of information that is not helpful, and you're getting ni- little snippets and clips of things that entice someone into trying a product or something that may not even pertain to what their body needs or their diagnostics, and so it bec- can become very confusing.
So going back to your question about MD Anderson, so in all of this research, one of my cousins was an eye surgeon at Hermann Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was a, um, an oncology. He w- dealt with a lot of eye cancers, but also eye trauma. Mm-hmm. And so he called me and said, "I think you should come down to MD Anderson and meet with this guy who I know very well.
His name is Dr. Marek Ross. He's the surgical head of the surgical oncology team and, uh, the breast clinic, and I'm gonna get you an appointment with him because it's m- you know, it's a year out to get to see this guy." So I said, "Okay." So then s- like several more months later, I had this appointment at MD Anderson, and by that time I had had a biopsy in Greenwich, Connecticut at Yale New Haven Health Hospital System and Greenwich Hospital, and I had my diagnosis.
And I had already met with an oncologist, you know, at the hospital who basically told me that if I didn't do chemo radi- if I didn't do a double mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and tamoxifen, that he couldn't treat me. Yeah. And so it was pretty shocking to me at the time, and simultaneously I was doing a protocol that I implemented with the help of a naturopath-
Jim: Mm-hmm
Julie: and my friend Mark, and research, and Dr. Lorraine Day, who at the time had an amazing video series. Um, she was remarkable and way ahead of her time, and from San Francisco, was a surgeon, blah, blah, blah, in the hospital system there, and did a whole, like, 12-part VHS tape of here's what you need to do to get well, and to what we talk about today to heal the terrain.
Here's what you need to eat, drink, blah, blah, blah. Right. So I was simultaneously following this. I cleaned out everything in my house, threw out all my food, all my cleaning detergents, carpeting, all my dental products, body products, makeup, hair products, microwave. Wow. Everything you can imagine. I was eating a Mediterranean diet.
I became a raw food vegan. I was juicing. I was following the Gerson protocol at the time, which was what Dr. Day recommended.
Jim: Mm-hmm. So
Julie: I bought a juicer. I was juicing. I was eating and consuming all these vegetables that I had never even heard of, like bok choy. I mean, an It- as an Italian, you're not really eating a lot of bok choy.
Um, so, you know, and, you know, some of the, some of the other greens. But I was already implementing all of that and had done a 30-day fast cleanse, water, lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and completely detoxed what was going on in my body. Um, well, not completely, but as best I could over 30 days, and the stuff that was coming out was horrifically shocking, including parasites- Nice
um, because I was doing activated charcoal as a binder. Right. Um, so I detoxed. I started... The ground was more fertile. I was putting nutrients in, lots of other things. So by the time I got to... And I had had the biopsy. And I told the doctor in Greenwich that I wasn't going to do any of that, and he said, "Frankly, you're going to die."
But when we cannot, we cannot help you if this is your, you know, you're going to do this other protocol. Right. So he essentially fired me from the practice. And that's okay because we became friends afterwards. Um, and I went to Houston, and I get to Houston after going through Greenwich Hospital, Yale New Haven Health, Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York right next door, second opinion.
Now I'm at MD Anderson. I walk in there, and it is light and bright and airy, and everybody was, like, hugging me, and I'm a hugger. I'm Italian, I, I like to hug. Um, hugging me, holding my hand, um, welcoming me, making everything easy. They had read all my reports from 10 years prior to my cancer. They knew who Julia was, who Julia is now, and then the big question was, when they met with me, who does Julia want to be in the future?
Wow. And so they did all the same tests. They didn't do biopsy obviously, but they did all the same testing and, um, and additional testing that they didn't, they don't even do, uh, they at, at the time didn't really do up in, up north. They started talking to me, um, and I was, like, in a board- on a, at a board room, like a, at a board table with six people around, and these are doctors, PAs, nurses, et cetera, et cetera, interns.
And they're all talking about me, my body, all, everything that was going on, you know? Hmm. 'Cause remember, I also was diagnosed with lupus, which is a very nasty autoimmune disease.
Jim: Right.
Julie: And actually worse than the cancer, harder to get rid of.
Jim: Yeah.
Julie: And so... But it had been 90 days that I was on this protocol, this fasting, juicing, eating organic only, raw food, vegan, no flesh products, no grains, no gluten, et cetera.
So when I get there, they're taking my blood, and the next day I did a bunch of other tests and we met, and they sort of looked at me and said, "Okay. Now, what exactly are you doing?" So I told them everything I was doing, and we talked for two hours.
Jim: Hmm.
Julie: Which is unheard of now a days.
Jim: Yeah.
Julie: And Dr. Ross was there, and he, he came in halfway through and he said, "Julia," he said, "your blood work is, like, almost in normal range now from 90 days ago."
Wow. "So, like, whatever you're doing-" You should definitely continue. Now, most oncologists do not say that
Speaker 4: No, no they don't Um,
Julie: because their egos are so big that they are like, "Well, my protocol's b- you know, you need to do my protocol." And it's not from a patient perspective, it's from the doctor perspective.
Right. And so he and I became fast friends. We were born in the same year. We became really good friends from that moment on. And he said, "Here's what I'm gonna recommend." And he's also a plastic surgeon. He said, "I'm gonna recommend that we go in, we do a, a, a lumpectomy," which is, you know, my, my tumor was really tiny.
It was a .09 centimeters. "But we're gonna go in, we're gonna remove the rest of it, we're gonna check the, um, surrounding tissue and the lymph nodes and, you know, and see what's going on. But it- I feel like you're gonna have a great outcome." So he said, "What's your plan B?" And I said, "My plan B is to get back on the plane, continue to do what I'm doing, come here for my checkups, and become your patient."
Um, because I had made a decision that day that they were my, that was my place. It felt like, it felt like life versus death. Like, when you go into- Yeah ... a lot of these cancer, these hospitals, it's gray and dark, and it, and it's, like, all about business and protocols- Yeah ... and rigi- you know, very rigid. And so there it was hopeful.
And they were doing things like, okay, like, we're g- we're doing this study. Like, we're looking at father wound and mother wound, left breast, right breast. They're talking to me about the mind, body, and emotional aspects of cancer, and things that nobody else really was talking about. So anyway, I became their patient number 519337.
Nice. And, uh, I still remember that number. And I ended up doing research and continuing to do research. I went home. I had the lumpectomy. Margins were clean. Lymph nodes were clean. Dr. Ross is like, "Oh my gosh, this is just such a great outcome," and I'm like, "Praise Jesus." And I left the hospital the next day.
I flew home, and I just, you know, continued learning and researching and, um, meeting other doctors that would become part of my tribe. Very hard to do in the year 2000, 2001. Right. Very, very difficult. But somehow I had a peace beyond understanding that I could not explain other than God, and it was weird because I was, like, actively involved in my own healing platform.
Jim: Mm-hmm. And I
Julie: had ac- I still had cancer on paper, so to speak.
Jim: Right.
Julie: But it was exciting to be a part of it. Like, I couldn't believe that I had cancer.
Jim: Right
Julie: So that's sort of the CliffsNotes
Jim: Now, and of course, uh, at this time you had already started a new business, your consulting business, right?
Julie: I went from working 90 hours a week, 80 hours a week, to, like, the phone wasn't ringing because I had turned over a lot of my business to the travel management company that I was working for before- Right
and had leased office space from. And so they were handling the bulk of my business because the stress part- Mm-hmm ... was huge for me. Huge. I'm, you know, I'm a type A, I'm Italian, I'm high energy, you know. And, um, this, you know, creature of emotion and life and love, and yeah, ciao mama, you know? But, um, so I, um, my phone wasn't ringing anymore like it used to.
Yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh, and I was earning about an eighth of what I used to earn. But somehow God just worked it all out- Yeah ... um, just along the way with sm- amazing s- things that happened, and pr- you know, helped me provide for my bills and... But I was really serious about being on this protocol, and getting enough rest, getting less stress, getting exercise, learning how to sleep, go to bed earlier and get really good sleep early in the evening versus being a night owl.
Mm-hmm. Um, because we know that your cells heal on a higher level when you're sleeping and not digesting food. And so, you know, I was learning, uh, like, a new life. It was, it was crazy. And I had been engaged to a guy, and that relationship ended and, you know, so I was, like, starting, like, clean slate, everything.
Wow. And it was really bizarre because I was at the peak of my so-called years for my career.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Julie: But I became the biggest project for my life because I had to become the CEO, COO, CMO, CTO over my own body, and really work diligently to make sure that I wasn't going back to the bad habits and cheating in my diet.
And don't forget, I had, I had active lupus, which was really rearing its ugly head too, and the s- I had no symptoms from breast cancer, none whatsoever. Hmm. But I have had a lot of symptoms with the lupus. Um, and they're, the autoimmune diseases are very tricky. So anyway, I just continued on this path, and then about three years later, four years later, I flew to Florida and I helped Anne Fontfa plan her first small conference.
Hmm. And we became fast friends. And I helped her to not only produce her events, but also as an advocate, speak to people that call the phone line, you know, because people are- Right ... still calling all day long every day and sending us stuff on our internet. And so she was living with metastatic disease, and 35, 30 years later, 35 years later, she, um, had an episode, and she didn't recover from, and she passed away three years or almost three years ago.
Wow. Maybe two and a half years ago. And she passed the baton to me. So fast-forward 26 years later, here I am still handling some of my old clients very part, part-time. Mm-hmm.
Jim: But
Julie: mostly working 24/7 on Annie Appleseed Project. Wow. Um, we're essentially all glorified volunteers, and we're trying to build the organization and keep the legacy going because there really isn't anybody else doing what we do, the, the model that we do, to really help the patient.
Jim: Through that work, is that how you met, uh, Chris Wark and Healing Strong, or?
Julie: Yeah, so every year we had a patient panel. So I moderated it. Mm. And I told my story one year, and then we met people and recruited people that were very young in their cancer journey, but it had extraordinary outcomes. Mm. And Chris was on our patient panel one year.
Jenny Bradley, who you know- Mm ... from Nashville, was on our patient panel. She's helping us a lot right now. And, you know, Kelly Turner launched her thesis at our conference for Radical Remission, and Nasha Winters and Sayer Ji and many of the others. Um, Ryan Sternagel-
Jim: Mm ...
Julie: came, um, to tell us about his son.
And so we have all these amazing people who had extraordinary healing stories that we introduced to the world basically, and it was very encouraging, and it was the most popular segment of our conference for many, many years. This is the first year we didn't have a patient panel because we had so much demand for some other cancer types that we did a little, we did it a little bit differently.
But we will have one, um, again next year. So yeah. So Chris Wark, I met Chris, um, and we became friends, and I think I was one of his first interviews, he and I, and Anne and I in, in, uh, a little meeting room in, at the hotel doing this like, you know, video.
Jim: Yeah, that was at the, uh, Healing Strong conference, right?
Julie: And the Healing Strong Conference, and I met all the Healing Strong girls. And what I love about the Healing, Healing Strong group was that it was like an army of believers, like on site, like- Yeah ... praying for me all the time. And, you know, because it's crazy when you're producing an event and you get stressed out, and you're like running around, and-
you know, you're problem-solving 'cause there's always five problems in, in one hour. And, you know, Janet and Susie and some of the, Myra, some of the others would be like, all of a sudden I'd feel a hand on my arm, and they'd be like- ... pulling me into like a huddle. And, uh, you know, and praying for me and calming me down, and it was just...
So that's how we all met. I mean, we all met through Annie Appleseed. And, um, so it's a community. I mean, it, it, you know, it's a loving community, so every year we have new people coming that need help. 50 people come on scholarship through a generous donor to come for free, airfare, and I mean, um, hotel and registration.
And we operate solely on donations. Uh, but our community is strong, and so we have repetitive people coming every year to be par- a part of it, and they all meet new people each year. And so- Yeah ... doctors and practitioners and nurses and researchers and med students, everybody rolling up their sleeves, sitting together, having lunch, breakfast together.
There's no VIP section. It's just patients and doctors and, and health professionals, um, converging and sharing ideas and sharing hearts and learning from one another. So that's what we do, and that's what's so beautiful about Annie Appleseed.
Jim: I had first heard about Healing Strong, I guess probably through Chris Wark.
But I was... You know, I live in South Carolina, and they're in Atlanta, and they were having a conference in 2018, so I thought, "Well, I gotta go check that out, see what they're about." I didn't know they were faith-based or anything. So I went there, and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, why are these people happy? We all have cancer.
What is wrong with them?" I thought, "Is this Disney? Did I take the wrong turn? But..." And yeah, just like you said, they're constantly praying. I'm like, "Well, I like that." I just, I, I haven't seen that much prayer going on. And everyone's smiling, and it's just, it's almost like, "Yeah, I got cancer. Now I can be involved in this community."
I mean, that's not your first reaction, of course. But- Right ... once you get in there, it's like, wow, this cancer is not the de- a death sentence. I mean, they gave me a month or two to live, and that was 10 years ago. So I'm- No ... I'm a procrastinator, but, uh- Plus I'm cancer-free. There's that, too. I think Jenny Bradley invited me down to the, uh, Annie Appleseed thing, but I- Yeah
haven't, I haven't been able to make it yet, but soon.
Julie: All right. Your year is coming up.
Jim: Yeah. All right. Your year
Julie: is coming up.
Jim: Let me go put gas in the truck.
Julie: Exactly.
Jim: Time has slipped by so fast, but how can, uh, people get ahold of you? What's the best way to do that?
Julie: So the annieappleseedproject.org. Mm-hmm.
Hit our contact button, and you can email at info, our info email, which is right there. When you pull up the screen, it's right there. Uh-huh. Um, and that gets to myself or Joanna. So Joanna Gatto and I are running the organization. I met Joanna, who was only 40 years old, 39 years old when I met her, Anne's neighbor, helping Anne through her final days, she herself dealing with breast cancer.
Um, it was, it was beautiful how we met, and then now we're both running Annie Appleseed together. Mm. So Joanna is an integral part of everything we do, an extremely creative and brilliant and, um, loving and kind person. So I'm so blessed to have her alongside of me. Um, and, uh, we work together. I mean, we're equals on this project, you know?
There's no hierarchy in our organization.
Jim: Yeah.
Julie: Um, y- something needs to get done, we do it. So Joanna Gatto is perfect. Jenny Bradley's helping us, as a matter of fact, with some of our, um, education and workshops.
Jim: Yeah. Wow. And she's
Julie: been great.
Jim: I might see her next week. I'm going to Nashville, and we keep trying to, you know, connect, have coffee or something, but never works out, but maybe this time around.
Julie: Yeah, well- Yeah ... if you go to our website, you'll see all of our amazing people. We have global partners. We have ambassadors. We have our health and wellness advisors, our doctors, um, and our, our officers. John Malanca's been very involved. John and I sat on the board for Best Answers for Cancer, so we've kind of blended the two organizations because Annie Brandt and Annie Fonfa, great friends, running those two organizations, both passed- Mm-hmm
away within a year of one another, and so- Wow ... it's a no-brainer that we combine forces and, and just keep those legacies alive, and the education. So we provide education and advocacy to anyone and everyone who has cancer, who needs us. You need us, call us, write to us. We'll find you some resources. We'll listen to you.
We'll cry with you. We'll pray with you. Uh, we'll hug you when we see you. Um, it's all about knowing that you have someone there that's gonna say, "I got you. I'm here for you. I'm gonna be with you to the end. Whatever you need, I'm here."
Jim: Excellent. Well, before we go, real briefly, if someone's listening to this podcast, which normally they are, they just got the diagnosis, so they're doing the early research.
The doctor's already scared them into doing something fast. What would you say just to encourage them and give them hope?
Julie: I would say pray Spend time meditating in prayer so that you have peace about your decisions. Breathe. You don't need to make a rash decision. It's taken about five to 10 years for the cancer to grow, um, and to come to the surface in most cases.
There is time to do research. There are lots of great organizations that will help you to do that. And then get your, your small group together, your tribe of people that you can trust, who can help you, and then go forth and, and, and don't look back. Make a decision and just go in that direction with a vision that you're gonna be healed.
Jim: Nice. Yes. Well, Julia, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you're still a busy woman, uh, changing the world. And I'm gonna go back into my coma right now. Thank you so much.
Julie: Thank you. I love
you, Jim, man.
Jim: Thank you. You're like my new best friend.
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We hope this episode encouraged you and gave you confidence to take charge of your healing journey, trusting God to guide your path. Healing Strong is a non-profit dedicated to connecting, supporting, and educating individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that rebuild the body, renew the soul, and refresh the spirit.
It's free to join a local or online group. Just visit healingstrong.org to find one near you or start your own. While you're there, create a free My Healing Strong account to access all of our free resources to help you live healthier and heal strong. Though our groups and resources are free, we invite you to support our mission through a monthly Hopegiver's donation of your choosing.
Your generosity helps us reach more people with hope and encouragement. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star rating and review to help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.