When Tara Wilkes was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she was told that even with the most aggressive treatment she would likely only have 12 to 18 months to live. That was nine years ago.

In this powerful and emotional conversation, Sarah sits down with Tara and her husband Neal to hear their extraordinary story of survival, faith, and the quiet strength it takes to face the unthinkable. From the first signs of fatigue to a life changing Whipple surgery, daily chemo, and years of follow-up scans, Tara shares how she fought for her life, one step and one prayer at a time.

They discuss the emotional toll, the importance of support systems, the role of faith, and what it means to truly live after a life-threatening diagnosis. If you or someone you love is walking through a difficult health journey, this episode is a must-listen.

Mentions:

There is No Place Like Hope: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1888387416?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_PJA9A50DA3EDP6JMWZ1G_1&bestFormat=true

Tara’s Duke article: https://www.dukecancerinstitute.org/blogs/pancreatic-cancer-facing-formidable-foe

Well, hello and welcome to the lessons from your hair stylist podcast. I'm your host and hair stylist friend, Sarah Cruz. Today we are talking about transformation and we always talk about transformation on this podcast. That's what this is all about, but it's hard to make changes or transform your life when you're dealing with a health crisis.

And I recently was able to meet with Neil Wilkes.

who's here with us today along with his wife Tara and was able to hear the most overwhelmingly inspiring and motivating story.

It just kind of came about when my husband and I were meeting with Neil to look at some lake lots and he was showing us around and he just incidentally said, ⁓ you know, my wife and I, we've been married for so long and we were talking about how long we had been married. And then he had said, you know, yes. And then my wife, she had this health scare and he said, well, it was actually more than a health scare. So then he went in to tell us all about

this story and how it unfolded and how absolutely miraculous Tara's recovery from cancer has been and I thought to myself I really want to bring this onto the podcast if they would be willing because I think this is something that can offer hope and inspiration

to anyone out there who may be dealing with a very serious health crisis, who may have been told that your chances are not very good, or you're dealing with somebody that you love who is going through something super serious.

I'm gonna let Tara and Neil tell the story, but essentially, Tara was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

And you can see that she is well today and she is looking as beautiful as ever right here with her husband Neil. But I don't wanna tell too much because I want them to really let this story unfold for us. So Tara and Neil, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I can't tell you how much this means to me and how much I appreciate you giving your time to talk to us today.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

I'd like to start where Neil started with us in the beginning when he just started to tell us this story. Tara, do you mind telling us the beginning part of this? Like how did this all begin and what happened? Tell us the story.

I just started feeling not like myself, really tired. I was

in furniture sales and decor in Chilote, North Carolina, and it was to the point that I almost felt like by 12, one o'clock, I hope I don't have another customer coming in. Something's not right. I did go to the doctor's, but because of my weight and...

my eating habits and it was like they just could not find anything wrong with me. I had pain in my right upper shoulder, every now and then I had pain in the center, my front chest, not a lot.

and just the tired feeling. And it just got to the point where I decided to, after going to two different doctors and it was, well you don't smoke, you're not a drinker, you da da da da da, you're doing everything, you're not overweight. ⁓ And two, with my job, I...

I in my mind I had pulled my rotator cuff. That's what it felt like. I had pulled something. And so I had a home in Richmond County and we came back to this home and I went to the doctor here. Same thing. Then we...

So you'd been feeling like this for how long?

really

tired. It would you say a year? Yeah, at least a year.

wow, so you had not felt yourself. You'd felt tired, you had pain for a year.

Not just retired.

And I was going shopping with a friend when I moved back here, she kept calling and asking me to go shopping with her in Pinehurst. every time I would put her off, know, we'll go another time. And so that day I decided to go and we got in her car and she looked at me and she noticed right away that I was jaundice. We ended up in Moore County and a doctor there.

where they were going to take my gallbladder out. They said it was my gallbladder. And while I was in the procedure of having, that I thought I was going to have my gallbladder taken out, he found the cancer. you can tell. Yeah, he saw a shadow and he, the doctor actually called me on the phone and said, Hey, can I, I have your permission to do some further exploration? And I said, sure. And, uh, and he did.

came in the room after the procedure and told us the news or told me the news and my reaction almost passed out. But anyway, yeah, and the terror was kind of foggy from the procedure as far as having the, you know, test done. But anyway, we saw a doctor the next day, an oncologist, and he said, you know, you've got the cancer and we can send you to

Charlotte, Chapel Hill or Duke. And you know, I asked which one he'd send his wife to. And he said, well, I really can't tell you, but I am a Duke fan. So yeah, we got an appointment, went up there and she saw a, a radiologist surgeon and oncologist. So the oncologist says, you know, it says, we'll start you with some chemo. That's we're going to get you on the best treatment we have.

And this was nine years ago. the surgeon said, well, we'll operate. And hopefully the chemo and radiation shrinks your, it was the tumor, the tumor is laying on the portal vein next to it. And they didn't think they could resect it. But then the radiologist says, well, if you're able to take the radiation and that goes well and shrinks it, then we'll do the surgery.

But the surgeon, what hit Terita the most, well myself too later, but, they said, if you're able to do five, didn't hear him. No, I didn't hear him at first, but he said, if you're able to do five and a half weeks of chemo and radiation every day, and then have this 10 hour Whipple procedure and then more chemo afterwards,

your life expectancy is around 12 to 18 months based on the statistics for pancreatic cancer.

So, you know, we're on the way home and it's like Tara said, well, why bother? said, you we're going to bother, right? So anyway, we went back every day, five and a half weeks to Duke. It's about an hour, well, a hundred miles away actually. And she had the radiology and the radiologist gave a little bit of hope that day though, just to back up a little bit. And he said, you know, I've had...

you know, a few patients that didn't make it through it. So, he gave a glimmer of hope there.

He said to me, he, I, just like, I'm, I'm just not, we're going home and I'm not going to bother with this. And he said, well, why would you not? And I said, well, why would I? And he said, well, I've had patients come back for 10 years. How do you know you're not going to be?

The one.

So he did tell you at that time that people had survived.

Well, he wasn't necessarily

saying pancreatic cancer, but he was just saying cancer. has patients that come back and why would you not do it? How do you know you're not going to be the one? So we, yeah, we quickly decided that that's what we would do it. We had a lot of friends, family, really a lot of help because I was still, well, I still work, you know, during the day and had a lot of friends to help, transport her up there and the,

Yeah.

She was a trooper. went through all the, all the radiation. The chemo was a pill. She took that at home every day and, she didn't lose. She lost a little bit of her hair, but her hair was still intact and, it is just unreal. And Neil can tell this better than I can because I don't know how people could do this without a support system because it's just like, I was in a fog.

is incredible.

I I was just, I can't imagine someone not having a support system and having to think about paying bills, doing this, doing, you know, every day because your life just stops. had a large support system.

Yes.

And that's everything too.

I agree with you is if you don't have some people around you to support you and hold you up, I'm not sure how you could make it through that, but you are so strong to have been able to even go through all of that. I mean, the Whipple procedure alone, from what I hear is just, it's no joke.

Right.

and then with the treatment and having a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, how does that weigh on you mentally? How are you going day to day thinking, okay, I'm gonna try my hardest again today. I'm gonna face this treatment again today. I'm gonna face another day when it could seem to be ⁓

What came up for you mentally and how did you have that resolve to keep going? Because I think so many people would want to just give up because it could seem hopeless.

I think largely you don't think about it. You try not to think about it. And it's a hard thing not to think about, but you do that. And one of the things that the doctors told me, whatever you do, don't go on the internet and start reading other people's situations and all, because everyone is different. And stay away from that.

Yes.

But it was almost ironic. mean, I had a lot of time. I didn't watch a lot of TV, but I had a lot of time to sit in front of the TV. And you tried to find something where it was, you start watching murder mysteries and all of sudden, every time you turn around, someone's dying with pancreatic cancer on this show. Really?

Yeah.

Yes, yeah, so you kind of can't get away from it, I would think. yeah, we're bombarded with media, TV, social media, anywhere you look, there's evidence that ⁓ the situation is not good. What do you feel like were some of your biggest challenges during your treatment period of getting through this?

Yeah. ⁓

⁓

Food.

I knew I had to eat. It was hard. I did not, if I did have an appetite, as soon as I started eating, nothing had any taste. Nothing. And I think it was from the radiation, the surgery, the medications that you had to take for the pain. So water, I drank lots of water.

and I would get up and I was in pain, but I would walk the length, we've got a long house, and I would walk the length of the house and our living room, dining room is kind of open, but there's this little one wall in between and I'd walk in circles, I'd walk in circles. I would walk.

I kept moving. And I got up every morning and I made, ⁓ well, at first I had someone making them for me. I would make smoothies with fresh fruits and I would put yogurt in it, juices, I would nurse it like all day long, maybe four hours until I'd.

You just kept moving, trying to get nutrition. Yeah.

But every day I made myself do it.

Yes,

and ⁓ that's what something you would think would be a small actionable step, but something small like that could be a huge part of your routine, a stepping stone in your day. I imagine it would be something that would be almost like a benchmark to keep you going on to like the next thing and knowing that you're feeding yourself, getting that nutrition. Did that feel like a form of self-care in any way that you were pushing yourself to move to?

Get your smoothie in to do these things, the little things that you can do. Yeah.

Yes, it did. ⁓

But I had friends too that would come by here and you would think that you would want something. Something with nothing tasted like you thought it was gonna taste. If I said, ⁓ I like chicken salad. Well, I had a girlfriend, bring me chicken salad. Boy, did they bring, my refrigerator was full of chicken salad. I might, we'd eat two bites of it.

And then the same friend, she would come over and stop by somewhere and get me breakfast and sit there and have, cut it up, eat two bites, eat one more bite. She was putting it in my mouth. yeah, but these, there were several of them and then they would both get down on the knees on the floor and pray for me.

That's a friend.

having

And

believe in... I

And Neil. Neil. Neil, let's not forget our Neil Deere.

Wash clothes, clean the

house. Held it together. Everything.

So

those things too, you need help with the everyday things as well. How long were you in that period of time How long was your treatment for pancreatic cancer?

Here well She she had the five and a half weeks of chemo and radiation prior to and then around well exactly this day on this day nine years ago she had the whipple procedure and Yeah

That's right, we talked about that before the beginning of the episode. You said today marks the nine year

anniversary of the Whipple procedure surgery that she had and that is absolutely incredible.

Yeah.

And, they let, stayed in the hospital 10 days and then she came home and a friend of hers is a nurse. And actually it was, this was really hard for me, but I had, I had to go away to New Jersey for work. I started a new job with Campbell's. I was there anyway, but anyway, I had to go away for a few days and this friend stayed with her, you know, night and day and took her week's vacation. Yeah. And stayed with me. And yeah.

Wow.

So

the doctor, you know, they let her heal from the surgery and probably within three months later, they started more chemo. And this was intravenous bi-weekly for three months. at Duke. And then that was it with the treatment. And so they consider, they consider her and still do healed as of October.

That's after all the treatment is over. So this October they'll count it a full nine years. yes, so every, it is in her oncologist would see her, she'd go for scans and blood work every quarter for the first probably three years. And so this was, know, taxing to, you know, to go do all that, it takes a total owner to have the scans and

nine years. It's unheard of.

you know contrast and all that but her oncologist is awesome she we go in we do blood work we do the test the scan and then she sees the oncologist all within a three to four hour period and first thing she does walk in the room says everything's great and then she starts talking yeah yeah well

Yeah, that's so good. That's so important to understand

what's going on with someone mentally and emotionally. I imagine there's a lot of anxiety around those checkups. Can you tell us a little bit about maybe how you mentally prepared yourself to go in for those checkups every time? Because I would think that that would be anxiety producing.

That is, especially the week before. You just, you try not to think about it, what they're looking for, but you know what they're looking for. And. After about three, the first three years, I guess they put her on like a every six months. And then, so I wouldn't even remind her when the appointment was. kept up with it and I, you know, Sunday before her.

coming up treatment, would mention it in church, you know, put her on the prayer list and I didn't want to know. Yeah. Yeah. But it's taxing all the way up there. It's like a two and a half hour drive and you're thinking about it. You know, what's the doctor going to say? And I mean, I know it's on her mind and um,

can understand that.

What are those conversations like in the car? That two and a half hours you're headed there, what? I mean, how do you, do you amp yourself somehow or do you, what do you do?

We get in the car, we

hold hands, Neil has a prayer, and we just proceed forward. It's kind of a quiet ride. She's on her phone looking at something or, you know, about 10 miles. She had a port put in in her chest for ease to do all the dye and everything and afford a treatment. But, you know, with about

10, 15 miles before you get to Dukes, you'd have to put a cream on to numb that area. So it's it's always on our minds going to, know, and especially after, you know, just waiting on the oncologist. So the trick to that for us was we'd do a Friday appointment. We would always do them really early. I mean, we'd get up really early to go. Five o'clock in Yeah, like five in the morning. Four thirty in the morning.

Mm-hmm.

And the earlier you go, the earlier you get your test results and they don't get behind. that was, yeah, that was a help there for us. Yeah.

Right.

Yes, you start to learn the ropes I imagine a little bit when

you go through something like this. Yeah, getting those little details down to make the process just maybe a little bit more manageable, learning how to maximize and make things more effective. I'm sure you became very experienced at all of that.

Yeah. And we've, ⁓ so after five years, our oncologist, Dr. Matu says, I don't, we don't know what to do. We I've never had a patient to last five years. Yeah.

which I'm glad they didn't tell you that on the front end, that's something that I think, isn't that something that, I mean, when you think of pancreatic cancer, this is why this is such a miraculous story. I don't know anybody that doesn't just think, well, that's it. I mean, I think we could say that now looking back, you're nine years out. I would never say that when you were in the first stages of that, but I mean, isn't this what's in people's minds?

She can enjoy.

Mm-hmm.

All right.

Go ahead.

I actually

had a friend that was diagnosed, a wonderful woman. was several years older than I was, but someone I just really thought so much of. Just a wonderful lady. she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer probably six months before I was. And I remember when they took me back at More County and they were going to do my gallbladder surgery and how

I was so afraid to have the surgery, just having surgery. And I was thinking in my mind how selfish I am to be, and thinking about my friend Vicki and what she is being diagnosed with and I'm having my gallbladder out, how selfish. ⁓ And then, then I was told, well, you have pancreatic cancer. Well, Vicki did not, we had the same doctors.

and she died.

Maybe.

prior to my treatment, after my surgery. It was after I had this surgery.

What is that? I mean, I can't imagine what that's even.

And she's sending me cards all the time. She was sending me cards. She could not have the surgery. Hers was too far advanced and they could not do the surgery on her. But every week I would get a card from Vicki. That was really hard.

That is incredible.

must be so hard when you watch somebody who has essentially the same thing that you have. Where are you in your head when she, you know, once she's gone, what do you, how do you even find the mental strength or fortitude to make that shift into survival mode when.

Yeah. And you

almost have a guilt. You almost have a, a guilt around her family. And yeah, we know her husband. We know her family so well. It was just really hard. It's strange talking to him. And after he lost his wife and she went to the same oncologist and same facility and you just feel strange. Like, thank God I've got her, know, thank God Tara's alive, but, wow. Just feels, feels sorry for him.

And he told me once, said, he said, just remember crying the shower.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Tara, I know you said you'd had symptoms for maybe a year. Did they think that it had developed and you had the pancreatic cancer for that year that you were dealing with that? Or what do they think the symptoms were from?

⁓ They

never say for sure, but ⁓ you know, they're pretty sure that, you know, she'd had it going on for a while. That's a bad thing about pancreatic cancer. There's no early detection. And if it had not been for that, guy just doing the check on her gallbladder and just taking the extra step to go forward. And he saw that shadow and he said, well, I'll, I'll investigate a little further. You know, she wouldn't have found it then to be honest. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, yes.

That's a miracle too, just in another

self.

My friend that's the nurse that took her vacation and took care of me. She actually worked for him and she said when she found out she said you got the best one because I'm gonna tell you something about him. He's not gonna just be settled with you've got this problem. He's gonna want to know why do you have this problem? He's just that doctor that you knew that about him.

He's going to dig in. That's what you want.

She said, you

really, when you got him and he did.

You were lucky, yes.

Well, I'm very thankful for that as well. What is one thing that you learned, in this whole process, was your main discovery through this whole thing?

how short life is and take advantage of, more time doing things that you enjoy doing. ⁓

Yes.

what are some things that have changed since pre diagnosed Tara to post diagnosed now

what are the differences between the old Tara I guess and the new Tara?

What would you say? You're retired now. I did not go back to my job. spent more time cooking and I had, ⁓ I'd always worked Saturdays, with my job. just, was anytime you're in sales, you're going to work those Saturdays, the birthday parties and things I missed. so, and thankful for Neil. but she was able to work.

That's a good one. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Her doctor said, you know, if you want to work work, but, she's also said, you know, I can help you with disability if you want to go that route because of what you've gone through and Tara's like, no, you know, I can work. So I'm not going that route, but, it's worked out great though. mean, uh, I felt like if God had healed me, that would be kind of wrong for me to do that. I mean, because I work.

See that.

I do things like refinishing furniture. I work out in the yard. I've always done that. But I did have more opportunities being with my grandchildren, they're up in age where they're not wanting to come spend the night with the grandparents now. However, they do some. It gave me more opportunity to do things like that.

Yeah.

Yes. And what role did faith play? I noticed, you you've mentioned church and your church family and your faith. How big of an impact

did that have in your being able to cope?

was the impact.

mean, ⁓ I told a friend of mine that lives in Wilmington, you know, when he found out that I was cancer free and he said, you really know that God's got something planned. There's a reason for this. And she's always had faith. She had faith when I met her. She's had faith growing

and

I think it strengthened it for sure, but, yeah. ⁓

Definitely.

know that a lot of times people say there's a purpose in all of this, that you've got more to do. What is that? What is your mission now going forward in your life? What would you say your main purpose now and your mission is?

It didn't make me, especially while I was down because like I said, spent a lot of time in this house during my recovery. And I think that it made me think more about other people and what they were going through. And I started just when I did get to where I could get out, drive.

I did a lot of visiting. tried to, especially the widows, and send cards out. And I've had friends that have lost children. And you just, you really realize what other people are going through, I think.

being more open to and more in tune to other people and what's going on with them and maybe a level of deeper understanding in a way.

No!

Right. She sends a lot of cards out to a lot of sick people and just carrying cards. And ⁓ my uncle, for example, he's 95, he's going through some health issues, but ⁓ she'll send him a card and she'll write a Bible scripture on the back. He said, well, that's great. He loves that. And he says, you never know what male man or male lady or male person would see that and be inspired. Maybe that's all they ever see from a scripture. So, yeah, the elderly ones that you see.

They're the ones that will always call you and thank you every time you send them a card. They'll call you and thank you for that card. And people appreciate that when they're down and out and need Yeah. I know I did. I still have in my closet a trash bag. It's a 13 gallon trash bag. And it's like I saved every card that I was sent.

That connection means so much when people reach out and now it's almost as if through your cards and your understanding of what other people are going through, you're now giving that back and reaching out to, because you understand, I'm sure now at this point, how important it is to someone when they're going through something difficult to have someone reach out to them.

Yes.

Well, because of my faith, I

feel like that prayer, it just to, the cards from people telling me that they were praying for me, the calls I got.

Yes,

feeling like you're supported and you feel like that strengthens you in a way almost. It's like a, there's some sort of like an energy or a strength that it gives you when people tell you, you know, I'm praying for you, I'm thinking about you.

I do.

Yes, yes. For someone who may be fighting a battle like this, what advice would you give to somebody who's really in the throes of it right now?

you

keep doing the things that you can to help yourself such as your diet.

prayer and there's hope family there's there's there's hope I had friends send me books and I will say that be careful about the books that you send to people because some of them were very they were just basically telling you how to die well I'm trying to live and I know I had a cousin send me a book and of course

I read my Bible, I read the scriptures and prayed a lot. But he sent me a book by a lady named Vicki Gerard and it's called There's No Place Like Hope. Very good book. Really simple, easy read. And so when I hear someone's been diagnosed, I always try to get that book off of Amazon and give it to them.

I'm going to put that in the show notes for people when you hear this podcast episode. You'll be able to go to the show notes and we will link that in Amazon so that people can find that book. ⁓ There's no place like hope. We will definitely link that in the show notes so that people will be able to find that book. Tara, what are your hopes for?

There's no place like Coke.

the future now, both personally and in terms of advocacy.

we've talked about doing some of the pancreatic walks and, probably we'll, when Neil retires, we'll be able to do a little bit more. Yeah. He is very

He is busy, we know he was. Busy guy.

Very busy. Yeah. So I'll find it. I just try to reach out locally to

Yes, yes. Well.

that I

know.

your life. Yes. Right.

on a personal level within your community,

which I think is so impactful because people know your story and.

Yeah, and the

story I sent you from Duke Hospital, that one was a published event at Duke and her oncologist shares a lot as well to upcoming patient.

Yes.

Yes, you shared an article with me from Duke University where they had featured Tara and Tara's story. also, I will also link that in the show notes so people can take a look at that as well and find inspiration and hope from that. mean, Tara, you're nine years out. I feel like this is almost like your nine year anniversary and you're here on the podcast with me. So that is just such an honor.

Mm-hmm. What? Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Just kidding.

Hopefully somebody who's listening out there is going to be able to find some hope in that because just like Neal said, hope, there's hope. And maybe where you think there isn't any, it's, you need to hear stories like this. You need to know somebody has kicked this. Somebody has survived this. And I think the more that that can get out there and be evidence to show that it is doable.

Right.

It doesn't necessarily have to mean the end. hasn't been the end for you. Nine years out, you are, the picture of just vibrance and beauty and vitality and life. And I'm so thankful for that. I'm so happy that you were here. I usually end the podcast episode with a little segment I like to call Cut It or Keep It. Cut It or Keep It is kind of a take on

What I do as a hairstylist in the salon every day when I go to cut the hair, do we cut it off? it too damaged? Do we cut it off or do we keep it and treat it? So this is cut it or keep it. Just a couple topics here I wanted to ask you about. If you would cut them or keep them, is it a yes or a no for you? So cut it or keep it, we didn't talk about this, but how do you feel about alternative medicine besides mainstream cut it or keep it alternative medicine?

⁓

keep it?

Ha ha!

You know, we were talking about prayer. We were talking about food and nutrition,

Thanks.

about walking around, things like that.

well, I had a friend

who, she's, maybe 30 year survivor of a brain cancer. And she also went to Duke

she told me, said, well, if you can't eat, you know, I can think of something that, you know, I'm telling you have to smoke it, you can inhale it. But I've got something. And she said, I would not be alive if, you know, because they didn't.

when she had her cancer, they didn't have all the medications and stuff they have now. Or nausea and things like that. Is that more or less what you're talking about?

Yeah.

Well, there's so many different

them. Yes, what you mentioned would also be one.

Well, I was very,

I was very, my diet, they started telling me with the nutritionists at Duke, need to eat this, this and this and this. And I said, that's how I eat already. I was not, was very, but now my doctor, Dr. Matu said that was probably one of the things that helped me out was that

I was so health conscious

with my body. ⁓ That helped me fight it that I did take care of my body like that. I

You were getting the nutrients, you.

Yeah, it is. And she never smoked. I mean, she took care of herself. So, but I agree the alternative and I would link prayer and faith with alternative. I certainly would because I don't think just, you know,

Good advice.

Yes.

Yes.

putting drugs in her and the surgery just, I think there's more to it. There had to been more to it.

Yeah,

think, yes, I mean, I believe too that there's room for all of the treatments. You you obviously, you have to have the medications, but I would think that the medications could only be enhanced by other things. And I guess it's very personal. You have to see what works for you, what you can find, what combinations of foods or, you know, herbs or other substances or meditation, things like acupuncture, things like ⁓

Anymore.

Well,

I never, they were concerned about when I was doing the chemo about these mouth ulcers that people were getting. And they said, what are you doing? You've never had any. And I told them about a toothpaste. can't think of the name of it. It's sold at Trader Joe's and that I was using.

And they wanted to know at Duke what it was so they could tell other patients to use this toothpaste. It was made with fennel seeds, right? Yes. It was made with fennel seeds. The toothpaste. And it's sold at Trader Joe's. They were asking me at Duke, what are you doing? Why are you not getting the mouth ulcers that other people are getting?

Well now you've got us thinking, we want to know what this toothpaste is.

Okay.

That's good to know. I think that's a good tip.

It's just that Trader Joe's toothpaste. don't know. my goodness. Hey, that's good. That's a good tip. like that. ⁓ We've only got three. Next one up, Universal Health Care.

Yeah, The fantasy. Yeah. ⁓

Now I know that cancer treatments and different illnesses that people get can be so overwhelmingly expensive. If you don't have insurance, many of us are...

self-employed, there are people out there that for whatever reason cannot afford health insurance. What do you think about universal health care?

I'll let Neil take that

No, it's certainly a good idea. In fact, I work, with some Canadians who have the universal health care in Canada. However, if there's something like this treatment they need, they might be put on a waiting list and not get to go when they need to, right? Yeah. In a timely manner, but it is important for everyone to have healthcare.

didn't give you

It certainly is. It certainly is. And we're blessed to have it, I mean, through, through work. That's one thing keeping me employed right now, until I reach 65, is the healthcare is so expensive and you know, you can pay a lot of money and not have the good coverage as well. Yeah. So I don't take that for granted. We don't take it for granted. You're exactly right.

I agree. I agree.

Yes.

Yes, yes, that's so true. Yes.

And the last one, personalized medicine just meaning unique approaches to each individual, it's expensive, a lot of times not covered by insurance.

Cut it or keep it personalized medicine for everyone, meaning maybe the insurance companies should be forced to pay for some of this more personalized medicine. Would you cut it or keep it?

I would keep that one as well. I would too. I would because I don't think it's a one size fits all with health care. I would definitely keep it.

Yes.

Yes, I agree. agree.

Those are the only three Keditor keep its I had for today. And that leads us to the conclusion of the episode. Tara, Neil, is there anything in parting that you would want to let people know just as a word of encouragement or something that you think is important?

Well, if someone's diagnosed and there's still not a very good treatment plan for it and there's not a very good early diagnosis plan for pancreatic cancer or a program. And you know, when they hear there's no hope and you if you do everything right, you might live 12 to 18 months. Here's a living example of, know, don't take that with a, you know, it can be right, but you can also.

He's not God, he's the doctor. Yeah, that's right. He's not. He's quoting you statistics. A statistic. Yes, and he has to, or he or she has to. You know, I don't want anyone lying to me, myself either, if something is drastically wrong. But then, you know, work through it, work through it and say, well, we'll give it a good fight and see how it works out. And it did.

It did. It

worked out. I mean, you are nine years out and you have survived something that I think many people think is just the end and it doesn't have to be. Hopefully people who listen to this will see Tara and Neil as an example of what can be and what's possible. And so I'm just, again, so happy you were here.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

⁓ Tara, I am so happy to see you. Neil, I'm happy to see you too. Tara, I'm happy to see you. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much for coming on, you guys. Thank you.

It was nice meeting you.

All right, thank you. Thank you. All right.