Heidi’s Story
20 years ago Heidi lost her 5 year old daughter Alison, to a brain tumor. She walks us through what life was like before Alison's diagnosis, and what happened throughout her life after Alison passed away. Heidi is definitely making lemonade with her lemons. She chose to keep moving forward and to honor Alison through living her own life and fulfilling what matters most to her.
Heidi has made some big changes in her career and location. She worked in public affairs advising on health care policy in a variety of positions including the Idaho Director of Government Affairs for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. 8 years after losing her daughter and realizing she had some good tools & resources to share with others she founded 'Ohana Oasis' in hopes to help others work through their grief & loss through retreats.
Talking with Heidi was so uplifting. We are so happy that she shared her story and wisdom on our podcast. We hope that you guys love this episode as much as we did.
http://ohanaoasis.org
Brynne’s Story
Brynne is our guest today and she tells us about her experience when her 6 year old son, Brig was diagnosed with Leukemia. We loved hearing about little Brig! How tough he was and his experience going through treatments, how finding the positive helped them get through it, and then finding out that he had relapsed. Brynne did a great job of sharing all the ups and downs, and we are so glad that Brig is now doing great and cancer free. Thank you for listening!
Trisha’s Story
Trisha comes on this week's episode and tells us her amazing story about her husband who has OTC Deficiency, but as a child was able to get a liver transplant. She talks about their decision to start a family, and what that would entail with a genetic disorder. Trisha also tells us about her son who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when he was 4 years old. This woman has been through a lot, and we are so lucky that she came on the podcast to share her story and hopefully shed some light on two horrible diseases.
After our recording was over, Trisha told us about Lilly Bumpus, a 9 year old cancer survivor who went on ELLEN to tell her story. Lilly has started a petition on change.org, to help increase federal funding for pediatric cancer. Here is the link to sign the petition!
https://www.change.org/p/joseph-r-biden-increase-federal-funding-for-pediatric-cancer-research-as-seen-on-ellen