Certified Health Coach & Cancer Thriver

“I still remember the moment my life quietly split into ‘before’ and ‘after.’”

In August 2018, Teresa’s son had just married. She felt well, and life felt full. That November, the family went for a routine medical screening she almost postponed — there was no pain, no warning, no dramatic collapse. The screening found Stage 1 kidney cancer.

“I was not prepared. No one ever is.” A surgeon removed the tumour from her adrenal gland; she needed no chemotherapy and no radiotherapy. Then, after another screening during the COVID years, came a second diagnosis: Stage 1 breast cancer. A lumpectomy and fifteen sessions of radiotherapy followed — her oncologist said chemotherapy was not necessary.

Two cancers, two organs, two confrontations with mortality. Medically, her doctors described the road as smooth. Emotionally, it was not. She smiled bravely in the daytime; the nights were the hardest — fear of recurrence, of losing control of her body, of becoming “a patient” instead of herself.

“Cancer does not only attack the body. It challenges the mind, the spirit, and one’s sense of identity.”

She read, listened, attended holistic-healing talks, and learned from other survivors. Integrative self-care — nutrition, mindset, emotional health, rest, movement, faith — became a powerful complement to her medical care, never a replacement for it. She stopped only going through treatment and started participating in her own healing. Cancer became a teacher: slow down, listen to the body, redefine success as wellbeing.

She consolidated what she learned into the 10 Pillars of Self-Care, and in 2021 qualified as a Certified Health Coach specialising in Cancer Wellness — she became her own health coach first, then trained so others would not have to feel lost, alone, or powerless.

Faith and family anchored her through all of it. Married 40 years, with two children and two grandchildren, she calls her family her anchor — and this chapter of her life, which began with fear, continues with hope. “Cancer did not break me. It awakened me.”