Never stop.

The ability to keep moving, to keep going, to keep changing is something each of us has the capacity to choose – and that’s the key – it’s a choice. We must choose to learn, to love, to truly live and do so in a way that serves others. One way is to share what we have. One thing we have, one of our greatest gifts, is our story.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

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The Sunday Series (147): The Voice

Dana Simmons will tell you herself, she chooses happiness. More than 30 years ago she also made a choice to marry a man from Alabama. That choice would change her life.

In fact the choice ultimately led to the voice, the voice talking to her inside her head, as she lie there in her own backyard, staring up at the trees and hoping to stay alive.

“The voice told me to make sure I love myself. As I lay there, I said, ‘I love you Dana. You did a good job.’ I said I love myself, cause I didn’t have anyone else in that moment to say I love you. I didn’t die. I just said, ‘I’m not going to die. I’m going to get up. I’m going to live.”

Thirteen years before that moment Dana said, “I do”, and was wed to a minister, a man who performed his own service. A man Dana describes as, “very good-looking, very well-educated, with big dimples, movie-star looks like Richard Chamberlain.” But what Dana didn’t know then, looks can be deceiving.

It was Dana’s mom who encouraged her to go meet the man from Birmingham. Dana had just finished serving as maid-of-honor at her sister’s wedding, a wedding performed by this same minister. After the wedding Dana went to her mom feeling confused and wondering what to do about her own life – her mom told her to make an appointment with the nice man who conducted the ceremony.

That appointment carried forward, as the minister took a liking to Dana and the two started dating. Dana was impressed with his credentials. “Jim explained to me he spoke several languages,” says Dana. “He graduated magna cum laude, had a masters in English and a doctorate in Theology. We talked for a while in that first appointment and he asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner the next week.”

Dana says she felt safe and secure with Jim, thought he was honest and she looked up to him. She says he was greatly admired by the church and the parishioners, so when Jim asked Dana to marry, she said yes. The wedding was performed by Minister Jim, in the same backyard where Dana grew up.

It was a good life. “Jim ended up working at a small church in Colorado,” says Dana. “We (Dana and her young daughter Ashley, from a previous marriage), would attend Sunday church with him. He would give his sermons, they were very interesting. He was well-respected and loved and I was very proud to be his wife.”

When the position of pastor for the church became available, Jim believed he would get the job. A vote was held and the decision was made to give the position to someone else. “Jim was outraged,” says Dana. “He couldn’t accept it, he was so upset.”

Dana made the suggestion that Jim enter into real estate, an industry where Dana had connections from her work a few years back. It ended up being a good idea for her husband, as he partnered up with a well-known restaurantor in the Denver area and the two became very successful in commercial real estate.

But success in business, doesn’t always translate to success at home. It was around the same time…the trouble began.

“We moved into a new six-thousand square foot home in an affluent neighborhood,” says Dana. “We had lots of parties, we entertained, commissioners and mayors and other politicians attended because they wanted to do business with Jim and his partner. Around the same time Dana and Jim learned they would be expecting their first child together.

“When I was pregnant with John, I would wait for Jim to come home each evening. He would call and say he was on his way, then he wouldn’t show up for hours. I would make a steak dinner for the two of us, and wait for him and he would show up at like 10-pm. I would get very angry. There would always be an excuse. A flat tire, a late meeting with his partner, or something going on at one of the restaurants.”

It was then Dana started seeing things in the car…earrings, hair ribbons and knew Jim must be seeing someone else. She turned to her mom for help and guidance. Dana said she was distraught and just wanted “to die”. Her mother told her to keep it together. But while still pregnant with John, Dana’s mom passed away after a battle with cancer.

Distraught over her mom’s death Dana went into premature labor, but the doctors managed to stop it and John was born full-term. But the trouble at home continued. Dana says, “things started happening to me in the big house. Jim would come home at noon, rush to get the mail, then take the phone off the hook so nobody could call. I would have people in my home looking at me while I made breakfast. Eventually someone knocked on the door and delivered a subpoena. Jim said it was because of the tax reform act of 1986, it impacted the real estate market and many of the properties he and his partner had for sale went into foreclosure. He had borrowed money from family and friends. He started drinking more, became more violent…not against me, but he refused to tell me what was really going on, his partner wouldn’t talk either.”

Eventually they were going to take our house, but Jim said he had an idea to move the family to another state. He said he had a plan to start up a business. So we made the move. He got our friends, the commissioners, a senator and others to give him money to invest in this new venture. We got a nice house, I decorated it beautifully and all was going to be fine.”

Except Jim couldn’t secure the seed money for the new business. Because he owed money Jim couldn’t get a necessary loan for his new venture. “He had all these great plans,” says Dana. “We were going to make a lot of money. But he couldn’t get funded and then he couldn’t pay back the money he borrowed for us to live on.”

Jim decided it was best to go back to his home state pf Alabama and convinced Dana to make the move with the family, consisting now of three children, Ashley, John and Ben. The family rented two Ryder trucks and headed to a hotel in Birmingham.  Dana says her husband told her he was going to take one of the trucks and put the furniture into a storage unit. So he left to make the drop.

It’s been said the meaning of love is giving another human being the power to destroy you…and then hoping they won’t use it. Until they do.

Jim left that night, and never came back.

“We had no money, no cash, nothing,” says Dana. “I didn’t know what to do. I had never been in such a shock in my whole life. I contacted a friend in Colorado who loved the furniture I had and told her I would sell it to her. I asked her to send the money to buy it. She did. I had a baby grand piano and I called all these churches and got one to buy it for $5,000. They gave me $2,500 up-front and told me they would pay me the rest in a month. I got the cash, loaded the furniture and our clothing into the one Ryder truck and started to drive myself and my kids back home.”

Dana tearfully remembers that long ride back to Colorado. “I had everything loaded up in that truck,” says Dana, describing her experience through her tears. “But I forgot to lock the back latch and it all came out on the highway. It was a mess. I just wanted to get myself and my three kids back home.”

Dana eventually got her family back home, found a townhouse, got a job as a pharmacy technician at a local hospital, managed to get her kids back in school and did the best she could.

But Dana says Jim found his way back there too. Dana says Jim managed to maintain his relationship with the kids through phone calls and ended up staying in a house down the street from the one she purchased. She says he would regularly sneak in and steal money, basically finding a way in while she was at work.

She says she went to friends, co-workers, churches, even the police, because she believed her ex-husband was stalking her and was going to kill her. She says no one would help. Most didn’t believe her, until that day in 1996.

It was May 24th and after agreeing to meet Jim in her kitchen to discuss child support, Dana says she found herself running through her backyard, trying to escape from her ex-husband, who was chasing her…with a gun.

“I heard the voice,” remembers Dana. “It told me to zig and zag. Jim had already fired once and hit me in the arm. I tried to get out, but the fence to the backyard had a padlock on it.” The same lock meant to keep Jim out. Dana says, “the voice told me don’t run in a straight line, so Jim can’t take aim and hit me again. But he eventually caught up to me. He threw me down, stepped on me and put the gun to the back of my neck and pushed it hard. I heard the voice again. It told me to jerk my head and as I did Jim fired the gun. I thought I was going to die. Jim stood up and walked back toward the house. The same voice told me to play dead and not move. I saw him go into the house and heard one more shot. I thought for sure he had shot my son Ben who was the only other person inside the house.”

That’s when the voice also told Dana to turn over and stare up at the trees, focus on something pretty. She says should could taste metal in her mouth and expected to suffocate, for her lungs to fill up with blood, but it didn’t happen and Dana didn’t die.

As she would soon come to learn, the shot she heard inside the home was the single gunshot of Jim taking his own life. The bullet he fired into Dana’s neck had somehow found itself lodged in a spot where the skull meets the spine, just two centimeters from the c-2 vertebrae. The doctors said it was a “God thing” that Dana wasn’t killed and there was nothing they could do right now to get the bullet out.

Eventually the bullet was removed, but Dana says the experience with her ex-husband was so traumatic, it led to post-traumatic stress disorder for her and serious life challenges for her children, sending one to an institution and another into a life of alcoholism and depression.

But the power of the human spirit is limitless and from any situation, there is a chance to find a way back. Those who ignored her cries for help have since come to apologize. Dana immersed herself in her work – first at the pharmacy, a bank, then in service to others suffering through domestic violence and eventually in the insurance industry. In 2012 she found a home and what she calls her “second family” at USHEALTH Advisors.

“I am so blessed to have my friends at USHA,” says Dana. “I adore this place and I am dedicated to the company and to our President, Troy McQuagge. Troy has made it clear this is all about the agents and our customers. My life is my career and I have chosen that over everything else.  I understand what an incredible opportunity this is and I get it. We serve. It’s helping other people everyday. This company gives me the opportunity to make as much money as I want to make. I have fought like a dog in life and I’m used to working hard, I have a great work ethic and I know I have to provide for my family.”

Dana continues, “I also do believe I now speak for the women who have died because of domestic violence. God let me live. I was basically murdered, but I didn’t die. If anyone can learn something from this story, it is when somebody says they need help, they really need help. You don’t turn the other cheek. You do something.”

It’s now Dana’s voice others are hearing to make sure they know how grateful she is. “I want everyone to know that I appreciate every minute God has given me. This is my second chance at life and I’m going to make the most of it.”

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Write. Speak. Inspire.

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

For more info on using Mark to Write. Speak. Inspire. for your organization or business –
markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Inspiring Company Stories: (http://www.ushacareers.com/category/inspirational-stories/)

 

 

 

 

 

No real introduction needed today…let’s get right to the point.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

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The Sunday Series: The Book!

To love. To serve. To care. To share your story.

Many of the stories are about to be part of a book, we are just a few days away from publishing: The Sunday Series with Mark Brodinsky. Real Stories of Courage, Hope & Inspiration, Volume I.

Why do it?  Why not.

The Sunday Series is a labor of love – an opportunity to allow others to share their journey, using me as the vessel, through my own gifts and talents, to turn lives and the challenges of those lives into stories which resonate with the world.  These are stories of courage, hope and inspiration. The reality is nearly every life story can be defined in this manner. If you are living, then you are giving – so why not give it all? Give it all away. The world wins, we win, when you share.

So many have shared. At the time of this writng there are 146 Sunday Series and Volume I is a compilation of  many of the first 50 stories on this blog.

It all began back on October 13th, 2013, with Marci Scher asking me to share her family’s story with the world. Marci and Brian Scher were facing the very real challenges of caring for their son Ian, living with a terminal illness. Their story, was and is, an inspiration to us all. Without Marci’s request, the Sunday Series does not exist. From that day forth, and nearly each and every Sunday since, I have shared stories of courage, hope and inspiration on this blog.

We all hoped for a different outcome for Ian, but it was not to be. He lost his courageous battle against his rare motor neuron disease in September of last year. The Sunday Series Volume I, is dedicated to his memory. The superhero inspiration he provided, and that of the Scher family, lives on in our everyday lives and in the pages of the book.

So many stories: Traci Kodeck and her dedication and drive to become a single mother in Soul Purpose, Penny Kinkade moving her family forward the best she can after the sudden loss of her husband Grant in Never Be Alone, Jen Drucker and her desire to openly speak about her daughter Cassie and the challenges of autism, in Unconditional, Debbie Fink and her courageous battle against a rare cancer, in All In for Life, Ivelisse Page spearheading a clinical trial which could change the world, in Believe Big, Tim Kenney and his journey back from a near-fatal collision, The Rain, The Pain, The…Gain, Richard Mosca dedicating his life to help those dealing with mesothelioma, in A Man of Good Hope, Tami Bensky keeping her husband’s legacy alive, through Larry’s Ride, Lesley Bogash changing lives and changing bodies, including her own, in Wealth is Health and even my own struggle with a speech impediment which defined more than two decades of my life, in Speechless.

        

These and so many other stories make up the pages of The Sunday Series, Volume I.

Let’s be honest about something – there is no one on this planet who wakes up every day and the story of their life is, everything’s fine. The next day: everything’s fine. The day after: everything’s fine. 

Who would want to read a story like that? No one. It would bore us to tears. There are no true, bold lives like this. Though we all desire happiness, joy and peace, the reality of truly living your life is that is not possible. Certainly not every single day of our lives. What you and I face and embrace in a life truly lived, creates a story everyone wants to hear, because every story is unique and different. Your journey is the tale – from birth to death – and all of the stops along the way. Don’t tip-toe to that destination, create footsteps that are loud, deep and leave a lasting imprint. Make a dent in the universe.

Knowing that the reaper is coming, could be at your doorstep at any moment, you don’t know when  –  should inspire you to live your biggest and truest self. You can’t beat the reaper by living longer, you can only beat the reaper by living your life well and the to the fullest. Don’t take any of it with you…leave it behind for all of us to benefit.

The reality is nearly ever person’s life is an inspiration to each and every one of us. The person living it might not think it to be – but the reality speaks differently. This is the point of The Sunday Series.

The Sunday Series with Mark Brodinsky. Real Stories of Courage, Hope and Inspiration, Volume I, will be published in the next few days. I’ll let you know when. I hope you will support the cause as well. In dedication to Ian Scher, 20% of all proceeds from the book will be donated to Global Genes, a non-profit dedicated to helping with the challenges of families dealing with rare diseases. (https://globalgenes.org/).

Look for the book announcement in the coming days.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Write. Speak. Inspire.

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

For more info on using Mark to Write. Speak. Inspire. for your organization or business –
markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Inspiring Company Stories: (http://www.ushacareers.com/category/inspirational-stories/)

 

Love, joy, pain, sadness. The whole crazy thing. Welcome to life. The door is open – step inside and make yourself at home. Just don’t get too comfortable… there are surprises in-store. Some experiences will have you dancing on the ceiling, others will leave you cowering in the darkest corner, begging for it to end.

Always know that whatever you are experiencing – it has not come to stay, it has come to pass. Nothing is permanent. So keep moving and be sure to share, because we all are curious about your story. You have something to give which we all need.

Everyone has a story.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

________________________________________________________

The Sunday Series (146): The K is for Kindness

Three days is nothing. Nothing, except when the future of your family and a piece of your heart hang in the balance.

Karla Kay McCombs stood there, peering through the glass, searching for an answer. Only three days which seemed like an eternity. Karla didn’t know which one, she only knew if things went as they were supposed to she would soon hold the one, her little baby girl.

There were a lot of newborns in the nursery in that Oklahoma hospital, and the nurses kept turning one around so Karla couldn’t see her face, the one who Karla longed to take back home to Texas… as long as the baby’s mother didn’t change her mind.  There was to be no contact between Karla and this baby girl, until the birth mother was sure. Until she signed the papers.

Only three days.

Under the laws of the state of Oklahoma any mother who elected to give up her baby for adoption had 72 hours to change her mind. Karla was feeling fairly confident this would all go as planned. Though the two women lived in different states, Karla had stayed in touch with the birth mother throughout the pregnancy. “We actually met before the baby was born,” says Karla. “When we met it was a very warm feeling, she hugged me and thanked me in advance. When we went to the attorney’s office prior to the birth, I even bought her an outfit for that appointment. We just created a bond. I think going that extra step made a difference.”

It did – but that’s just how Karla lives her life – going above and beyond for others. Making a difference. And she wanted this baby to make a difference in her own life. Karla had always wanted a big family, but after a series of miscarriages and within a year after the birth of her second son Jeremy she was diagnosed with a malignant mass in her uterus. The treatment for this uterine cancer meant a complete hysterectomy… devastating to Karla because it effectively ended her chances and her dream of having more children. Karla and her husband had already been through so much. Jeremy was a miracle baby to begin with – since in-utero he was a twin – the other baby stopped forming at five months. But Jeremy was born full-term.

Karla wanted to adopt another child, but the fact that she and her husband already had children put them at the bottom of the request list. However seven years later, through the relative of one of Karla’s in-laws, here was another chance at expanding the family love. The young woman who had gotten pregnant in Oklahoma decided she wasn’t going to keep her baby. Still, after giving birth she had three days to change her mind, if she wished.

Finally, day three. And on this third day of waiting the attorney handling the case appeared in the hospital waiting room with the paperwork, signed by the birth mother. “Let’s go get your girl”, he said. Karla remembers the moment and the decision to name her daughter. She and her husband had two names picked out, Emily if the child was a quiet soul, Danielle if she was boisterous and crying.

When Karla met this new bundle of joy – the baby was screaming. Easy decision, her name would be Danielle.

 

Danielle’s adoption was like history repeating itself. Karla’s childhood consisted of four siblings, three brothers and a sister, who had also been adopted. “I was 11 when we adopted my baby sister,” Karla says. “I was the only girl for a while. I was a tomboy, played softball and basketball. When my sister Paula came along – we adopted her at six-months-old – suddenly I had a baby and got to do all the girly things. She was quite the gift to our family. We adopted her from my father’s half-sister, she was in a tough family situation. But once we brought her into our family she was spoiled rotten. She is the chosen child, just ask her. She reminds us of this all the time,” laughs Karla.

 

After adopting Danielle Karla and her husband were back home in Texas with their two older boys and their new baby girl – and life was a challenge. Karla and her husband were married at a very young age. So young in fact that Karla’s father had to go to court and sign for her to wed. With the court papers in hand, just two months after high school graduation, Karla was a new wife. Her goal of becoming a teacher, after graduating early, never materialized, she and her husband went right to work. Karla went into the real estate business, first in administration then managing rental properties.

“I loved it,” says Karla. “I loved helping people find a place to live. Though I hated the court process when it came to evictions… people not paying their rent and then forced to be out on the street. It just went against my grain.” Karla loved to help people, not hurt them.

Karla’s husband went to work where her father was employed, building landing gear for airplanes. But the marriage, which took flight when the couple was very young, increasingly found it more difficult to find a soft place to land and a few years after Danielle joined the family, Karla and her husband separated. She was now left to help raise her two sons and her young daughter on her own.

Divorced and working as a single mom, Karla managed to find work at an insurance company as a transcriber, listening to and recording conversations. Karla says she learned to type 125-words-a-minute. She worked the job as a stop-gap until she met a man named Jim McCombs, who would become her husband. Jim also introduced Karla to a woman – Lee Strahan. To this day Karla says Lee, who lives just a few blocks away in her Grapevine, Texas neighborhood, is the one who keeps her grounded. “Lee keeps me sane”, says Karla. “She helps me find the good when life gets crazy. She’s good at talking me off the ledge. She takes the drama out of everything and takes the situation piece-by-piece and looks at it from a different perspective. She is very kind and warm-hearted, I just adore her.”

At the time they first met Lee was also working as the assistant to a man named Ron Jensen, who was head of a company called UICI. Karla was hired by the company and worked in contracts and compliance before becoming assistant to Troy McQuagge when he was hired in 1997… and helping to support and build on Troy’s mission of HOPE, Helpng Other People Everyday. “It’s my favorite part about the company,” says Karla. “HOPE is our mission and I try to be that person to move the mission forward. It’s just what we do and it’s become very important. Troy has built this wonderful company and to have HOPE at the heart of it is just amazing. Troy and I have been working together for twenty years now and he is one of the most important men in my world. The opportunities he has provided for me and my family I can never repay.”

 

The company has also helped Karla to expand on her life’s desire – to have a big family. Danielle added to the joy of her two boys more than a quarter century ago – and for the past twenty years Karla has embraced many, many more “kids” in her family. The agents and leaders who make up USHEALTH Advisors. “I am just so grateful for our field force,” she says. “God knew the answer and I now have a huge family.”

Karla’s own family is thriving. She was re-married in 2000 to Jim McCombs and with her step-son Jimmy, she now has four children. Just a few years ago Jim gave Karla quite a scare when he was forced to undergo open heart surgery. But he pulled through and Karla says it’s so wonderful that he loves her kids as much as she does. “Life today is awesome,” says Karla. “All four of my kids are college graduates, all have careers, Jimmy and his wife are happily married and we already have one grandson, and another on the way in August. The kids are all close, live close to us and our world is our family. It’s very important to Jim and myself.”

The other parts of Karla’s family – her parents – George and Carolyn Gentry – just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year. As Karla says they are a great example of sticking together through thick-and-thin.

Karla knows she learned so much from the two people who raised her and she carries this forward in all that she does in her life. “I’m about caring and putting other people first. I live by example. It’s important to me the things I do are right. Do things right the first time then you don’t have to re-live it. No matter what life gives you, always find the good in people and help as many people along the way as you can. Do that and your life will be very rich. The people in my world have made it very rich. My life is an open door policy – anyone is welcome – come on in.” As a matter of fact, today, on Easter, Karla will open her home as well – cooking and hosting nearly 20 people. As always, doing for others.

It’s that very sentiment that makes Karla who she is. That’s Karla with a K. The K is for kindness.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark Brodinsky

Write. Speak. Inspire.

For more info on using Mark to Write. Speak. Inspire. for your organization or business –
markbrodinsky@gmail.com/443-865-2795

Read More Company “Stories”: http://www.ushacareers.com/news/

Join the Tribe: Enter your name & e-mail address into the box on this blog and get posts sent directly to your inbox!

Author: The #1 Amazon Best Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6)

Huffington Post: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-brodinsky/)

The Profile: (http://www.talkinggood.com/profiles/MarkBrodinsky)

The Podcast: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sunday-series-courage-inspiration/id1028611459)

Biz Impact: http://www.prweb.com/releases/markbrodinsky/072015/prweb12862708.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep believing. If you want more than you’ve got you’ve got to become more than you are – and be sure not to go it alone.

Today The Sunday Series offers an update on a story first told on this blog two years ago and is living proof that belief, vision, mission and purpose can create change in the world – the kind of change that literally saves lives.

The secret? To believe. And to believe before you see.

I am Mark Brodinsky and this is The Sunday Series.

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The Sunday Series (145): Believe… and Believe BIG

If someone tells you something is impossible, go and do that thing.

Ivelisse Page and her husband Jimmy are making that thing happen. They believed and now they are seeing it come to fruition.

Nearly nine years removed from her original diagnosis of Stage IV Colon Cancer, Ivelisse has been using her setback to stage a comeback like few have witnessed. Believe Big is on a roll.

Founded by Ivelisse and Jimmy back in 2011,  Believe Big is a non-profit Christian organization founded on two principles:

The vision: to see cancer patients and their families discover their pathway to healing.
The mission: to help families Face it. Fight it. Overcome It.

A quick update before you read the heart of the story, (told nearly three years ago on this blog), about Ivelisse and her cancer journey – Believe Big is winning. As announced last night at the Believe Big Gala – because of community support and now collaboration with Johns Hopkins medicine, the non-profit has raised $465,000 of the $500,000 needed for Phase 1 of the Mistletoe Clinical Trial. Understand it’s these clinical trials that give this therapy, one of the most widely used complimentary and alternative medicine therapies for cancer treatment in Europe, a shot at being approved by the FDA here in the U.S.

The clinical trial is the first of its kind in the United States to use intravenous mistletoe to battle cancer. It’s a treatment which Ivelisse says saved her… and helped to turn her death sentence of diagnosis of Stage IV cancer into a life-saving mission of hope.

Now… the original story of Ivelisse and the founding of Believe Big.

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The Sunday Series (29): Believe Big – (Original Post – June 1, 2014)

Her name is Ivelisse Page. And though her beautiful name begins with an “I”, she knows there is no “I” in team. Every dream needs a team. It can’t exist without one. Ivelisse could teach a lesson in Reach your Dream 101. And you might just say it is her destiny…

“I’m going to share one story I rarely share. My closest friends didn’t know about this. The summer after my father’s death, (Ivelisse’s father died of colon cancer when she was 13), I went to summer camp with my youth group and there was a guest preacher there. He prayed and told me that God told him I was going to play an integral role in finding a cure for cancer. I was 13. I was intrigued. I asked around at camp if anyone mentioned anything to the preacher about my Dad, the cancer or anything else. Everyone said no. For many years I didn’t tell anyone this story, not even my mom. As the years passed I thought the guy had made a mistake. But 24 years later…”

There was no mistake. In September of 2008 Ivelisse started on the path toward her destiny, but what she didn’t know was she wouldn’t be drawn to destiny, it would literally pass right through her.  First stop, cancer.

“My father died just two years after being diagnosed with colon cancer. I was diagnosed the same age as my father, at 37, but I had taken precautions. My father’s mother and half of her siblings had colon cancer and all died from it. I was taking all the precautions, eating organic foods, exercising and getting colonoscopies every 5 years.” What Ivelisse knows now, but didn’t know at the time, is a small tumor can go from polyp to cancer in 36 months. “If there is a strong genetic link you should be tested every year, not every five,” says Ivelisse. And it can happen without warning.

“I had no symptoms besides being tired. I was taking two-to-three hour naps every day. Raising four kids I thought I was just a tired, busy mom. My husband finally said this is just not right, something is really wrong. So I made an appointment with the doctor and he told me you are severely anemic, you need to go to the ER – right now – and get a blood transfusion. I had no one there at the moment to help me. My husband and my mom were out-of-town. I told the doctor I have my kids at home what am I going to do?” At the same time, Jimmy, her  husband was in an airport in Georgia about to board a plane to California. But when Ivelisse made the call to Jimmy he looked up to see there was another flight to Baltimore. He ran to the ticket counter and told them they must switch his flight, the airline honored his request and within 90 minutes he was home.

The journey was just beginning.

The doctor couldn’t figure out why Ivelisse was so anemic. He said there was no reason for it to be a colon issue, Ivelisse had just had a colonoscopy three years prior…but they elected to do another one.  The colonoscopy revealed cancer in the colon, it was in the lymph nodes, stage-3. Sometimes three is a magic number, to Ivelisse it didn’t feel that way, but by doing the colonoscopy at that time, that single test probably saved her life.

“At that moment I did cry,” says Ivelisse. “Your life flashes before you, you have this diagnosis and knowing what my father and his family went through…you try to overcome the fear trying to grip you. But when I got home I had to make a decision. Am I going to live by fear, or live by faith and fight? I made the choice I’m going to live by faith and that’s what I held on to.”

Ivelisse and Jimmy had the difficult conversation with their four children. Her oldest son, who had done some research on the internet about colon cancer, asked his mom if she was going to die. Ivelisse told her son, “none of us knows what tomorrow will bring, if we are here, or not. I know things don’t look good when you go online and read, but God is good no matter what and I will fight as hard as I can to be here. Stay off the internet and fill your mind with things which are encouraging, not discouraging.”

The surgery to remove the cancer was a success and only 1-of-28 lymph nodes was affected, still it was recommended that Ivelisse see an oncologist for follow-up. “Surely,” says Ivelisse, “with all the years since my father had passed, there must be advancements which give me a better chance of surviving. We interviewed several oncologists and found Dr. Diaz at Johns Hopkins Hospital. But when we asked Dr. Diaz about my chances of surviving with chemotherapy, he told us at that point it was a 67% survival rate, without chemo it was 57%.  It only improved my chances by 10%…my husband and I looked at each other and decided we were not going to do it.”  But as more testing was done it was discovered the cancer had spread to the liver, Ivelisse was now Stage-IV. Devastating. Her chances of survival this time around, only 8%. Chemo wouldn’t change a thing.

During this period Ivelisse and Jimmy started looking around for alternatives. There had to be a better way, a better shot at survival. They learned about mistletoe therapy. Mistletoe, that same plant which garners all the attention at Christmas time in the tradition of a single kiss underneath the greenery. Ivelisse and Jimmy hoped this time mistletoe might help kiss cancer goodbye.

The couple was introduced to Dr. Peter Hinderberger, who handles anthroposophic, (alternative), medicine.  He taught them about the healing effects of mistletoe, which attacked the bad cancer cells, but left the good ones intact. Through research Ivelisse and Jimmy learned mistletoe can also stimulate bone marrow activity, help ease tumor-related pain and reduce the risk of reoccurrence of cancer. And it could be used right alongside chemotherapy to help reduce the side effects. 60% of cancer patients in Europe are on mistletoe therapy.

Ivelisse was sold on the idea and two weeks prior to the liver surgery she began mistletoe therapy treatments. During the surgery, twenty-percent of her liver was dissected, but the margins were clear. Ivelisse went in for post-op and another scan. Before the doctor gave the results, she and Jimmy asked him what were the chances of something showing up again. The doctor asked her, “do you really want to know?” The couple said they did and the doctor told her, seventy-five percent of the time they find more tumor activity. Ivelisse says her husband Jimmy looked over at her and told her, “you are going to be part of that twenty-five percent.”

That was more than five years ago. Miracles happen and Ivelisse is living one. At the three-year mark of being cancer-free Dr. Diaz told Ivelisse, this is “monumental” to be part of the eight percent who survive Stage-IV colon cancer. And that was when this survivor told the doctor she wanted to do more to share her mistletoe treatment story. She wanted to raise money to fund clinical trials, but as Dr. Diaz explained to her, not only would it be a daunting task, but there was another challenge, no pharmaceutical company could touch it because mistletoe is a natural substance, so funds must be raised privately.

Words like daunting, challenge, and the like mean little when you have the belief, you carry the faith and find your purpose. Ivelisse knew then she had to dream big, live big, believe big. It had been  nearly a quarter-century since a preacher at summer camp told Ivelisse she would, “play in integral role in finding a cure for cancer,”  and in April of 2011, Believe Big was born.  It began simply with Believe Big mugs, handed out to patients at the oncology center while Ivelisse waited for her appointments. But since that time, so much more has happened.

Through different events and Ivelisse and Jimmy’s dedication to the cause, Believe Big has raised $300,000 and Phase 1 of the clinical trials on mistletoe therapy is underway. Phases 2-and-3 will take millions to fund and years to complete, but the energy is there and the cause is worth it. Ivelisse says, “the good thing is mistletoe therapy is available now and there are 50 anthroposophic physicians trained across the United States to administer it with treatments. Though not covered by insurance, the treatments cost only about $100-$150 a month. Believe Big has grant dollars available to help patients with the cost of the those treatments.”

At the most recent Believe Big dinner, just last month, the non-profit foundation raised more than $196,000. The theme?  Kissing Cancer Goodbye.

“My why and my passion for doing what I do each day,” says Ivelisse, “is because I don’t want anyone else to lose their mom, dad, brother, or sister. I want people to know there are complimentary things out there to help fight cancer and to bridge the gap between conventional medicine and other treatments.  We want to cure the whole person, to use the strength of both practices and let people know there are other things out there to help heal. Even creating the website, (http://believebig.org/), as a place for people to go as a guide for what to look for – we don’t want it to be difficult for anyone to find the information. You are going through a hurricane of emotions, (when cancer is diagnosed), and so we created Believe Big, so there’s one place to go, one resource for patients to advocate for their own health.”

Face it. Fight it. Overcome it. Those are the three statements on the foundation’s website. Sometimes three is a magic number. Ivelisse and her family are making magic and so much more.

Want to change the world and save lives? Just ask Ivelisse Page…sometimes all you need is to Believe Big.

Until next time thanks for taking the time,

Mark

If you want to get involved with Believe Big as a patient, volunteer, donor, (including mug painter), subscribe to the newsletter, or to become a corporate sponsor, be sure to visit http://believebig.org/

Mark Brodinsky
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