Shownotes
Pat Alva-Kraker was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time and survived. This is her story, and she is RESILIENT A.F.
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Buy the books: https://theglobalresilienceproject.com/books/
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Be featured in RESILIENT A.F.: Stories of Resilience Vol. 3: https://blairkaplan.kartra.com/page/RAF26
About the Guest:
Meet Pat Alva-Kraker, a dynamic serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation, leadership, and creativity. As the Managing Partner of Majestic Coaching Group, LLC, Pat empowers women in IT through personalized business advising, mentoring, and training. She also leads Majestic Lending, LLC, supporting real estate investors with private lending opportunities.
An accomplished clay artist, Pat conducts workshops that help women build confidence, embrace their true selves, and enhance intuition through pottery. As an international speaker and 6-time best-selling author, her talks inspire women over 45 to embrace mindful leadership, relevancy, and self-care. Based in Fort Worth, Pat enjoys international travel and pickleball.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/majesticcoaching/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/majestic-coaching-group-llc/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patalvakraker/
⚠️ Content Note: Some episodes may contain themes that could be distressing. Please take care of yourself while listening, and don’t hesitate to seek support from a mental health professional if needed.
About the Hosts:
Blair Kaplan Venables is a British Columbia-based grief and resilience expert and coach, motivational speaker and the Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured on media platforms like Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. She is named the Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024 by IAOTP. USA Today listed Blair as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch and she empowers others to be resilient from stages around the world. 'MyStory,’ which is a television show available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play, showcases Blair's life story. She is the host of the Radical Resilience podcast and specializes in helping people strengthen their resilience muscle using scientifically proven methods and guides grieving high performers with her Navigating Grief Framework. The Global Resilience Project’s award-winning book series are international bestsellers, and her fourth book, RESILIENT A.F.: Stories of Resilience Vol 2, will be published in January 2025. In her free time, you can find Blair writing, in nature, travelling the world and helping people to strengthen their resilience muscles.
Links:
https://theglobalresilienceproject.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan
https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan
https://www.facebook.com/BlairKaplanCommunications
https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/
https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project
Alana Kaplan is a compassionate mental health professional based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She works in the mental health field, and is a co-host of the Resilient A.F. podcast. Fueled by advocacy, Alana is known for standing up and speaking out for others. Passionate about de-stigmatizing and normalizing mental health, Alana brings her experience to The Global Resilience Project’s team, navigating the role one’s mental health plays in telling their story.
Engaging in self-care and growth keeps her going, and her love for reading, travel, and personal relationships helps foster that. When she’s not working, Alana can often be found on walks, working on a crossword puzzle, or playing with any animal she sees.
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Transcripts
You know what? I didn't know any better. And that's probably
Speaker:the biggest difference between the first and the second time is
Speaker:that the second time you have a resilience.
Speaker:It's resilience. It's your ability to be able to bounce forward
Speaker:and manage the
Speaker:narrative. And I didn't manage the narrative the first time. I was
Speaker:just totally trusting. And so it didn't even occur
Speaker:to say, to ask, what do you think about it coming back on the left?
Speaker:But this second time, it's like I'm controlling the narrative here.
Speaker:I'm in power here. I'm standing in my power and I make
Speaker:the decisions. And yeah, I'll take your information and I'll
Speaker:consider your information. And at the end of the day, I'm the
Speaker:one that writes this chapter. And the cancer's not going to
Speaker:write the final chapter. I'm going to write the chapter.
Speaker:Welcome back to another episode of Resilient AF
Speaker:with Blair and Alana. Hold the Alana, because she is not here today,
Speaker:but I am here with Pat. I'm so excited because not only is Pat
Speaker:an author in Resilient AF Stories of Resilience Volume 2,
Speaker:but she's a dynamic serial entrepreneur with a passion for
Speaker:innovation, leadership and creativity. As the
Speaker:managing partner of Majestic Coaching Group, Pat empowers women in
Speaker:IT through personalized business advising, mentoring and
Speaker:training. She also leads Majestic Lending llc,
Speaker:supporting real estate investors with private lending opportunities.
Speaker:As an accomplished clay artist, Pat conducts workshops that
Speaker:helps women build confidence, embrace their true selves and enhance intuition
Speaker:through pottery. Oh my God. I didn't know that about you. I'm so excited
Speaker:to. I want to talk about that briefly today because that's amazing and I wish
Speaker:Alana was here because she just did pottery lessons. Oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah. It's okay. She'll be jealous. You can, you can talk to her
Speaker:in New York. So as an international speaker and six time best
Speaker:selling author, her talks inspire women over
Speaker:45 to embrace mindful leadership, relevancy and self care. She's
Speaker:based in Fort Worth and she enjoys international travel and
Speaker:pickleball. And I'm so happy to have you here
Speaker:today. It is a delight, Blair, to be here
Speaker:and to be a part of this dynamic
Speaker:movement on resilience and
Speaker:just to be able to share some wisdom with your audience.
Speaker:So let's have some fun. Let's have some fun. So before we kind of dive
Speaker:into like your story, I want to just touch on the
Speaker:pottery. How did you get into that?
Speaker:Yes. And that the last part of my Story. Okay, well, then let's. Let's.
Speaker:Let's go back. Well, everyone who is excited to hear how she gets into pottery,
Speaker:you're gonna have to listen to the whole episode.
Speaker:So you have had breast cancer twice.
Speaker:Let's talk about it. Let's talk about your first time.
Speaker:Yeah, well, my first time was 27 years ago,
Speaker:and it is really surprising that someone would go
Speaker:this long and all of a sudden have a
Speaker:reoccurrence. Even. Even my doctor said I've never had anyone
Speaker:come to me for a second time after 27 years. And I was in
Speaker:my 40s. I found the lump while I was taking a
Speaker:shower. And I always do a breast exam on my birthday,
Speaker:so every fifth of the month, I do a breast exam, and I found the
Speaker:lump, and I freaked out.
Speaker:Literally freaked out. I come from a family
Speaker:of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lots of
Speaker:cancer in my family. And so I just. Just
Speaker:froze in the shower saying, man,
Speaker:this doesn't look good. It doesn't feel good. You know, where do we go
Speaker:from here? And when I went to the
Speaker:doctor the first time, I literally just kind of turned over my
Speaker:power to the doctor, thinking that
Speaker:he knew best and he knew the right way and everything
Speaker:that I should be doing. And. And
Speaker:I did exactly that. I followed his directions
Speaker:explicitly and went through a conventional
Speaker:biopsy, chemo, and radiation.
Speaker:What it became a catalyst for
Speaker:was alternative medicine, because I made a decision that
Speaker:I was going to heal myself. And I
Speaker:started studying alternative medicine, healing through
Speaker:herbs, through oils. I became a polarity therapist, a reiki
Speaker:therapist, just to be able to work on
Speaker:myself. And it was. It was an
Speaker:awakening that I had just put myself last
Speaker:on the list and was really
Speaker:giving to everyone, except to me.
Speaker:And that's how that. That major
Speaker:lesson came to me, is that you need to change something in your.
Speaker:You need to pivot. You need to change something in your life, but you cannot
Speaker:continue to go on living at this pace
Speaker:and expect to recover. So,
Speaker:yeah, it was. It was an experience. And, you know, at the time,
Speaker:Blair, in 27 years ago,
Speaker:cancer wasn't talked about like it's talked about now. It was like,
Speaker:don't tell anybody that you have cancer. My mother would say that.
Speaker:Don't tell, blah, blah, blah, that you have cancer. And, you know, it
Speaker:was like, hush, hush. And, you know, very few people in my
Speaker:circle knew, and I really became.
Speaker:Went into my cocoon and
Speaker:found that that really wasn't the best way to approach
Speaker:this. This challenge, this
Speaker:adversity. But I Didn't know better then. Like, I know
Speaker:better now. So. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about that for a sec. So
Speaker:you're 40, you're in the shower doing a breast exam. Were you. And you were
Speaker:doing that every month. What age did you start doing
Speaker:that? In my 20s.
Speaker:I started doing that really early because my mom had breast cancer
Speaker:and she had ovarian cancer and it
Speaker:was so close. You know, I was young when my mom had
Speaker:breast cancer that I immediately said, there's a chance
Speaker:that one of us will have breast cancer. And so as, as soon as I
Speaker:learned about my mom having breast cancer and
Speaker:her sisters, then I just immediately, I said, we
Speaker:need to. I need to do something. I need to stay on top of this.
Speaker:And luckily, you know, I'm the one, you know, I
Speaker:found it and we reacted quickly and it was stage one
Speaker:and. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker:Wow. And first of all, also, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker:I mean, I can't imagine the
Speaker:variety of thoughts that were going through your head when you found
Speaker:that and walking through those steps, those similar steps that your mother
Speaker:did. Let's
Speaker:talk about, you know, I guess when you were in remission or recovery, like,
Speaker:how long was that until you learned you had breast cancer a second time?
Speaker:It was 27 years. Oh, so it was recently. I did.
Speaker:I was diagnosed last February.
Speaker:Last February, Yep. And I found. And I found the lump
Speaker:again. I found the love. So even, even
Speaker:27 years ago, I was very cautious about what I ate,
Speaker:you know, making sure I didn't eat too much sugar because cancer like
Speaker:sugar and doing the breast exam. Just really
Speaker:being cautious about my health and well being
Speaker:and eliminate. Trying to eliminate as much stress in my life as
Speaker:possible. And when you go this
Speaker:long, you. You think, I got it, you
Speaker:know, 27 years, you know, 26 years. Hey,
Speaker:every year is a success. And, you know, you just, people,
Speaker:the doctors say if you can get past five years, you're clear.
Speaker:Well, I believe that. Yeah, I
Speaker:believed that, trusted that. Right. So does that
Speaker:mean you didn't have a mastectomy?
Speaker:Not then. I had. They just removed. I had a
Speaker:lumpectomy, so they just removed the lump. And then I
Speaker:had chemo and radiation. But the
Speaker:second time it came back almost in the same
Speaker:place. Same breasts. Right. Breast. Almost
Speaker:the same place. And because the
Speaker:radiation is so damaging to the tissue,
Speaker:they wouldn't allow lumpectomy. They
Speaker:said, we can't do it. We're going to have to take your breast.
Speaker:And so that was shocking and
Speaker:disappointing. But what was even more
Speaker:shocking Was I asked the question,
Speaker:what are the chances that it will return on my left?
Speaker:And the doctor said, 40%.
Speaker:Whoa, 40%. And I'm like, I can't live
Speaker:with those odds. Right. I can't live with those odds.
Speaker:Waking up every morning wondering, 40% chance
Speaker:I'm going to feel a lump on. I said, no, I can't do it. I
Speaker:can't do that. So I made a decision to have
Speaker:a double mastectomy and a reconstruction. Wow.
Speaker:Did you. Thank you for sharing. I.
Speaker:I can't imagine walking through those familiar steps
Speaker:that you walked, that, you know, you walked down that road 27 years ago. And
Speaker:then last year, not even a year ago,
Speaker:learning that you had a reoccurrence,
Speaker:and this time being, you know, being told
Speaker:that the mastectomy. The double
Speaker:mastectomy. Well, the mastectomy, but you choosing the double mastectomy. Like, how did
Speaker:you make that decision? Like, was it an instant? Like, yes.
Speaker:Yeah, it was instant. Yeah, it was instant. I
Speaker:didn't have a choice. Right on the right breast, because he's. I can't. I'm going
Speaker:to have to take your breasts. And when. When he gave me the odds, I'm
Speaker:like, I sat with that, but it didn't take much.
Speaker:It's either. Always wonder every day
Speaker:whether it's going to come back. And 40% chance is a high
Speaker:percentage. It was like, no. I
Speaker:mean, it's going to be painful, I know, but at the end,
Speaker:I'm putting myself in a better position to
Speaker:heal from the cancer on the right
Speaker:breast and then not have to worry about
Speaker:a reoccurrence anymore. So, yeah,
Speaker:I made it that day. You know, within that half hour, we just
Speaker:made a decision. This is the way we need to go. Yeah, that's.
Speaker:That's really hard. Do you,
Speaker:like, do you ever go back to the first time you were diagnosed and wish
Speaker:you got a mastectomy then?
Speaker:No, I, I don't.
Speaker:I, you know, I, I don't. I just. I trusted the. I trusted the
Speaker:doctors then and didn't be. And they really didn't, at that
Speaker:time, really didn't have a discussion on the, The. The chances of it coming
Speaker:up. And on my left breast. I didn't. You know what? I didn't
Speaker:know any better. And that's the. Probably the biggest difference
Speaker:between the first and the second time is that the,
Speaker:the second time you have a resilience. It's resilience.
Speaker:It's your ability to be able to bounce forward and
Speaker:manage the narrative. And I Didn't
Speaker:manage the narrative the first time. I was just totally trusting.
Speaker:And so it didn't even occur to ask, what do you think
Speaker:about it coming back on the left? But this second
Speaker:time, it's like I'm controlling the narrative here. You're.
Speaker:I'm in power here. I'm standing in my power and I make the
Speaker:decisions. And yeah, I'll take your information and I'll consider
Speaker:your information. And at the end of the day, I'm the one that
Speaker:writes this chapter and the cancer's not going to write the
Speaker:final chapter. I'm going to write the chapter that's
Speaker:very powerful. It's very
Speaker:powerful. And.
Speaker:You know, cancer, I, I've yet to experience it, but
Speaker:from being in the life of, you know, being close to people who've
Speaker:had it and won the battle,
Speaker:lost the battle, you know, seeing what supports were in
Speaker:place. Medical system supports, family system supports,
Speaker:resources. What was the big difference between your
Speaker:first time 27 years ago and last year
Speaker:in your. In the systems that were in place to support you, like, medical
Speaker:wise? Because I know, like, also I'm in Canada and our medical
Speaker:system's different. Like, so medical system, but also like your community.
Speaker:Like, what was that? Like the first time versus now?
Speaker:Yeah, that. That's a good question.
Speaker:This. This time I decided that
Speaker:I was going to let people know and that I.
Speaker:I made a list of all the people that I wanted to. To
Speaker:know and I created what
Speaker:one of my really good friends coined is I created
Speaker:my yes team. And these are the people that I said,
Speaker:when I need something, I know that I can go to
Speaker:Blair and she's going to say yes to whatever I ask her to do.
Speaker:It might be fix me your favorite dessert. It might be come over to
Speaker:the house and let's watch some romantic comedies. Might be let me
Speaker:cry on your shoulder for, you know, 10 minutes. And I made
Speaker:a list of people that were going to be on my yes team. And
Speaker:I called them and I said, this is the situation, and
Speaker:I want you to be part of my support team. Are you
Speaker:willing? And they, all of them that
Speaker:I asked said yes. And so that made the biggest
Speaker:difference in support for me and support for my
Speaker:husband. We. We didn't want for anything. You
Speaker:know, people cooked for us, they sent us cards, they put us on
Speaker:prayer lists, they came and visited, they
Speaker:sent me flowers. You know, they offered to go with me to my chemo
Speaker:sessions, on and on. And I.
Speaker:It made all the difference
Speaker:in, in being able to bounce back.
Speaker:And it's really a core element of being able to
Speaker:come back from any resilience, any adversity
Speaker:is that you have that team that you're going to be able to go to
Speaker:while you're working through the challenge that you know, you can count on
Speaker:people because we cannot do it alone. And I couldn't. I wasn't
Speaker:about to do it alone. It was hard the first time to be in isolation.
Speaker:And I said, I, I won't do it this time. I. I love
Speaker:that. I love that you had a yes team. I've never heard that
Speaker:before, but it makes so much sense. It's, you know, will you be there for
Speaker:me? I'd like to, you know, and obviously you're asking people that you.
Speaker:You're close with. Right. And I think that's so important because we're not meant
Speaker:to go through the hard stuff alone. That's why, you know, we exist, the community
Speaker:exists. But I want to just kind of go back to something you just said
Speaker:that I want to dig into a little bit. You said the first time you
Speaker:did it in isolation. What do you mean? Did you not tell anyone?
Speaker:I did tell. I did tell people, but I didn't tell a lot of people.
Speaker:Really kept it really close to my vest, to just my immediate family.
Speaker:I told my manager, but I didn't even want him to tell any of my
Speaker:workers, which was absurd, you know, absurd. You should.
Speaker:That I would make that decision because they want to know. And,
Speaker:you know, it was really a small circle. So really, when I was going through
Speaker:my treatments, it was my husband, my mother, my mother in law, and my
Speaker:father in law. And they were the ones that were with
Speaker:me the entire time, where they would take
Speaker:turns to drive me to the hospital and back to my chemo, to my radiation.
Speaker:And it was just those three people. When I
Speaker:had other friends that lived in the community that could have helped us out,
Speaker:and I chose to stay in this
Speaker:small little community that
Speaker:had I chosen to build a yes team, then
Speaker:it would have allowed my family, immediate family,
Speaker:to breathe and not be under the stress
Speaker:that we were all under, because it was just us
Speaker:four, us four that were trying to navigate
Speaker:the journey locally. Wow. So,
Speaker:so different. Like, those are two very different experiences. And I'm
Speaker:sorry that you had to go through both of them, let alone just one of
Speaker:them. And how are you feeling today? Like,
Speaker:how are you feeling now? Yeah, yeah. Today, you know, today I
Speaker:feel. I feel great. I'm feeling
Speaker:better every day. My last treatment was in June,
Speaker:so it's Only been four months since I had my last,
Speaker:my last immune therapy session and
Speaker:I, I was in a different position. So this time around
Speaker:I made a decision that my, my
Speaker:health was going to be number one. And at that time,
Speaker:the first time I was working for corporate. This time I
Speaker:have my, I have my own business. I'm a business coach. And then my husband
Speaker:and I are private lenders. And so
Speaker:in, in order to give position myself in the best possible
Speaker:environment,
Speaker:attitude, space, energy, I
Speaker:decided to put my, my coaching business on hold.
Speaker:And, and that was a big decision to do that. That in itself is a
Speaker:whole conversation of how do you do that? Oh God.
Speaker:Work our business. Yeah. You were trying to grow our business. Yeah.
Speaker:We never spend time saying, what if I have to put my business on hold,
Speaker:how am I going to do that? Right. And
Speaker:so yeah, it was a learning cycle on how do I do that?
Speaker:How do I put my business on hold? And because
Speaker:it was the second time around, I said, I am not going to go back
Speaker:to what was. Mm. I'm not
Speaker:think something has to change. I, obviously this is a message
Speaker:of again, not really
Speaker:putting myself in a lot and not putting myself on top of the
Speaker:list because breast cancer is when you talk, when you, when
Speaker:I read and study about the, the emotional and the psychological
Speaker:aspect of breast cancer, it's, it's associated with
Speaker:women who over give. And
Speaker:I overgave 27 years ago and obviously I was still doing
Speaker:some over giving in this life in, in this particular
Speaker:time and place. And
Speaker:I am a very spiritual person. And I said, I am not going to go,
Speaker:I'm not going to go back to what was. I'm not going to go back
Speaker:to my business and I am going to allow
Speaker:my, my higher self, my intuition to tell me
Speaker:what's next.
Speaker:And that what my intuition and my guidance
Speaker:that came to me was, you're going to learn
Speaker:how to work with clay.
Speaker:And I was shocked. I'm like
Speaker:being technical, left brain, creative now, you
Speaker:know, right brain. You just like, I,
Speaker:I just couldn't believe it. But I made a commitment to myself that I would
Speaker:trust, that I would trust myself and trust the messages that were
Speaker:given to me as to what the next chapter was. Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I did a pivot. I said,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to start taking classes. And I've been
Speaker:taking classes now for a year on
Speaker:pottery. I'm working with clay and
Speaker:I have fallen in love with it. And it's.
Speaker:Working with clay has taught me a lot. I feel like we Need a whole
Speaker:nother episode on that.
Speaker:What? Okay, let's do two questions for this because we have to wrap up
Speaker:soon. One, what's the biggest lesson working with clay has taught you? And two, what
Speaker:is your favorite piece that you've created so far?
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:It has taught me that when you are
Speaker:hand building, there is no such thing as
Speaker:perfection. There isn't. When you hand.
Speaker:When you hand build, you know that it is not going
Speaker:to be perfect, because if it was perfect, it'd be made by a machine.
Speaker:And so the acceptance of working with clay, and I'm like,
Speaker:oh, you know, this doesn't seem like it's quite square, or,
Speaker:oh, this edge doesn't look right. I just had to be in acceptance of it
Speaker:and say, this is it. This is
Speaker:what is, and allow myself to
Speaker:accept the imperfections of my work,
Speaker:knowing that it's perfectly imperfect. And
Speaker:that's what art is. I love
Speaker:that. I'm. I'm. I'm an art person. I remember a little, as a little girl,
Speaker:I would go and like, I. I went to the. I
Speaker:was in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and I went to the ymha, which is like the
Speaker:YMCA but for Jewish people. And on Sundays, we had, like,
Speaker:group things. And I. I loved going to the pottery class. I remember I
Speaker:have this, like, memory of going down the stairs into the pottery room. And I
Speaker:loved it. And I didn't do much pottery
Speaker:growing up, but I. You know, I think about
Speaker:maybe 10 years ago, I did pottery lessons, and I loved it. It just,
Speaker:like, where I lived, there wasn't. It was down a highway. And I'm actually.
Speaker:It's been in the back of my mind again to get back into pottery. Like,
Speaker:I want to. I could do work at home. I don't have to always, you
Speaker:know, use the wheel and whatnot. And it's interesting because my sister and I've never
Speaker:talked about it, but she did pottery lessons all summer. And
Speaker:it's so. I just. I just love this because I didn't know this about you.
Speaker:And it's just so fun and artistic and
Speaker:freeing and the whole, like, taking this ball of clay and making it
Speaker:into something and, you know, painting it and creating it and using patterns
Speaker:and stretching and bending and molding and, like, you know, I just. I
Speaker:love it. And I think that's. That's what life is, right?
Speaker:Yeah. And it's a. Pottery is like, an example
Speaker:of resilience. What's the.
Speaker:What's the best piece you've made? What's your most. Sorry. Not the best. Well, maybe
Speaker:it's the best. What's your most favorite piece you've made? I
Speaker:guess it's the piece that I'm making now. Oh, okay. So I've been
Speaker:trying to figure out my,
Speaker:my theme of what I want, of how I want to build things,
Speaker:what's the pattern that I want. And it, what's come keeps
Speaker:coming back is nature that I want nature in everything
Speaker:that I do. So I'm building this bowl. It can be
Speaker:a salad bowl or a fruit bowl. And
Speaker:all around the bowl are flower petals.
Speaker:Flower petals all the way around. And I will paint that versus
Speaker:put, put glaze on it. And I,
Speaker:it's like, this is it. I'm going to start with flowers, then I'll
Speaker:incorporate leaves, I'll do
Speaker:wood patterns. It's just really starting to
Speaker:surface. And when I did this, when I'm, I'm working on it now, it's like,
Speaker:you know, I'm gonna do a whole set of
Speaker:bowls that are all different flowers.
Speaker:And this one is going to be sunflowers, the next one's going to be roses,
Speaker:next one's going to be whatever. And it's just going to bring
Speaker:in nature into my clay. And I'm really excited about
Speaker:this. It's, it's a complicated piece. It's bigger, it's
Speaker:heavier, and I get to paint it. So
Speaker:I'm, I'm really excited. It's going to bring everything that I've learned so
Speaker:far to fruition in this piece.
Speaker:I love it. It's amazing. I so cool. I
Speaker:can't wait to see that. And by the time this episode airs, maybe you're going
Speaker:to be onto your fourth bowl. Who knows? So
Speaker:if, if you're listening and you're like, I want some more Pat in my life.
Speaker:All of her links are in the show notes. She has a free gift for
Speaker:you which is a free e guide 7 Self Care Habits for the
Speaker:amazing woman. She is absolutely amazing. She has survived breast
Speaker:cancer twice. Very smart woman.
Speaker:I invite you to dive into the world of Pat.
Speaker:And before we wrap up today, what advice?
Speaker:Now that you've had breast cancer twice, what advice do you have
Speaker:for someone who's being diagnosed with breast cancer? The first time.
Speaker:You are in control of your whole story.
Speaker:You get to write the chapter of what
Speaker:this breast cancer experience is going to look like. And you
Speaker:are always at choice
Speaker:in your journey. Beautiful.
Speaker:You are in control of what you can control.
Speaker:Yes. You have choice. Absolutely.
Speaker:It's beautiful advice. That's beautiful advice. And it's actually I find
Speaker:it like that's applicable to a lot of our circumstances, but
Speaker:you're amazing. Thank you so much for being a guest with us on Resilient
Speaker:af. Lara, thank you for the opportunity to
Speaker:share my story and impacted even just one woman who may
Speaker:now be listening to it and finds herself in this situation.
Speaker:And I'm excited on the journey about the book and New
Speaker:York and the whole thing. Yeah. So, yeah, the book's
Speaker:coming out January 2025. Resilient AF Stories
Speaker:of Resilience, Volume 2. You can read Pat's story there along with many other
Speaker:inspiring stories to all of our listeners. Thank you for tuning
Speaker:in to another episode of Resilient af. Remember, you
Speaker:can get through it. You have a choice. Put
Speaker:one foot in front of the other. You're not alone. We can actually be
Speaker:there for you. You can reach out to us. We will help you. Let us
Speaker:be that lighthouse in the storm. It's okay to not be
Speaker:okay. You will get through it, my friends, because you are
Speaker:Resilient af.
