The Survivorship Project
The Survivorship Project is a podcast dedicated to sharing inspiring stories of cancer survivors and thrivers who have defied the odds, expert insights from leading health professionals and holistic healers, and practical tools for thriving beyond a diagnosis. This show is a beacon of hope, resilience, and empowerment for anyone navigating the survivorship journey—whether in recovery, treatment, or supporting a loved one.
The Survivorship Project
Defying the Odds: Jennifer Dickenson’s 14+ Year Healing Journey After Grade 4 Glioblastoma
What would you do if doctors told you that you had just 12 months to live? For Jennifer Dickinson, this devastating prognosis became the catalyst for a profound transformation that defied all medical expectations.
In this deeply moving conversation, Jennifer shares how her 2011 diagnosis of grade 4 glioblastoma brain cancer set her on an unexpected healing journey. At 44 years old, with young daughters in first and third grade, she refused to accept that her story was already written. "They gave me 12 months, but I was like, 'Yeah, you don't know me,'" Jennifer recalls with quiet confidence.
Her path to survival wasn't paved with experimental treatments or medical miracles but with accessible, holistic approaches that anyone can implement. From the powerful practice of Qigong that brought her to tears of joy even while cancer grew in her brain, to the fundamental shifts in nutrition, sleep, and mindfulness that revitalized her immune system, Jennifer's approach was both simple and revolutionary.
What sets Jennifer's story apart is her recognition that healing requires more than just targeting the disease. "The medical doctor is a piece of the pie," she explains, "The other pieces are your mind, your physical body, and your spiritual side." This comprehensive approach placed her in the less than 2% of patients who survive glioblastoma long-term.
Perhaps most striking is Jennifer's gratitude for her cancer experience. As a former high-powered attorney managing a firm with 100 lawyers and staff, she now values the wake-up call that forced her to reassess what truly matters. "The blessings I have learned from the hardest, devastating news is unimaginable," she reflects.
Whether you're facing your health challenge or simply seeking to live more consciously, Jennifer's journey reminds us that we are not merely statistics. By making fundamental changes to how we live, eat, think, and connect with something greater than ourselves, we can write new endings to stories that seem predetermined.
Ready to explore your own healing potential? Subscribe to the Survivorship Project for more inspiring conversations that prove hope is not just a feeling—it's a starting point for transformation.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
• Jennifer's website
• Jennifer on Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn
• Get Jennifer's Book "The Case for Hope" on Amazon
• Sound frequency app "Evolutioner"
• Yonanas Dessert Maker
• Qigong
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If you want to be a guest on the show, email Carsten directly at ckpleiser@gmail.com
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Hi everybody. This is Carsten and you're listening to the Survivorship Project podcast, the show that brings hope, inspiration and the right tools and mindset to your cancer journey. I've created a space to share stories from survivors, thrivers and those who have defied the odds to give you hope and help you heal. Today, we're talking with Jennifer Dickinson, a lawyer, who, in 2011, was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma brain cancer and she was given only 12 months to live. Today, she's thriving. More than ever, we learn about Jennifer's healing path, her attitude towards cancer, the tools she recommends that anyone can do. We also speak about health advocacy, trusting your instincts and being open to your spiritual side. I love this conversation and I hope you do too, so without further ado, let's go. Jennifer, in 2011, you were diagnosed with an aggressive form or stage four or grade four glioplastoma, which is brain cancer. Right, take us back to the day when you were diagnosed and what do you remember about what doctor said to you?
Jennifer Dickenson:It was in May and I was having some problems in my office as a lawyer for about five months, about six months. The lights were very sensitive to me and I was having trouble reading quickly. I was forgetting names, like not only just some of my clients but some of my employees and my other lawyers. I had my own firm. We had 100 lawyers and staff, very stressful environment. I was doing public speaking a lot and my first public speaking before I was diagnosed it went okay, it went really well actually.
Jennifer Dickenson:But I stumbled at the beginning I didn't know I had cancer growing in my brain and affecting my cognition. But then the second one I had to do I had to drive six hours to get to there and come back and it wasn't good. And so I said I need an MRI. The doctor was like, well, let's look at other things. I'm like I need an MRI, like I knew it at that point and I'd been asking for it but kept well, let's do other things. But this time I meant it. And so I'm in the facility and I'm thinking I had an appointment.
Jennifer Dickenson:It was at 11 o'clock was my appointment for the MRI. At one o'clock I had an appointment with a client who is a doctor, who was doing a building basically, and so I was going to help them. So that's how casual I was, you know, like I've got appointments, I can knock this out. But that changed everything, right. So I went in there and just waiting, but then they stopped and then they went and they said we're going to do, call it contrast, and they put this color, basically, so they can look at the brain more. And I remember thinking that's not good, that's never good that they're coming back trying to look more. And so the guy said afterwards, he said you know, I was just in a waiting room and he said I need you to talk to the guy, the doctor, who read the report that we just did.
Jennifer Dickenson:And I went into his room and he said I hate to tell you this, but you've got brain cancer. It's a very high level, it's either a three or four. And I'm like you know, just like millions of other people who've had diagnosis like that, no matter small or big, it's a shock. So I was like, okay, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. And then he says you can't drive, your husband's going to have to come and take you to the hospital immediately, like this is really serious. Then, after a couple of minutes, I was still in the waiting room and I'm just starting to just breaking down, you know, like, oh my God, I've got these little girls a first grader and third grader. I'm 44. Like how in the world could this be happening? So that's kind of how it started.
Carsten Pleiser:And then I went right to the hospital and that's where it began and this is the scariest part of the whole thing the potential cancer diagnosis and then the waiting game. In your case, you had a surgery straight away, right? You would think that?
Jennifer Dickenson:right. The things I have seen in my life through this very tragedy, this very difficult situation, is just beyond. So I'll go to the hospital and the doctor's like I'm going to take a sample of the brain, and of course, now the doctors who actually did the final surgery. They're like that's the stupidest thing You've got to get it out quick. It's growing so fast, it's creating damage in your brain. It out quick, it's growing so fast, it's creating damage in your brain. Anyway, he does that, and it's like a holiday weekend and we don't get the results of what is it? Three or four for 10 days, 10 days, and normally a person would be like oh my gosh, that's the worst thing in the world. But some amazing things happened in that period of time. So I'm just waiting.
Jennifer Dickenson:The weather is nice not the cool and I'm just feeling life. I am feeling what it is to feel life. And that was important because as a business lawyer, I was very stressed out for a very long time, focusing so much of my time at the office and all my achievements, whatever. But this was an opportunity to redo this life thing and I was doing it. And then my brother sent me a book. It's called Qi Gong. It's a form of relaxation, breathing techniques and movement, and it's about gee, we have life's energy within us and sometimes it can get blocked right. And so doing some of these ancient techniques which I've never heard of, it was amazing how powerful that was.
Jennifer Dickenson:So that number one was a gift, even though it was taking me 10 days, but still I was learning, learning, learning already. And then the second thing is I got a book my mom sent me that showed me what cancer likes to thrive on. So sugar it loves to thrive on. It loves to thrive on an acidic environment, so that's the kind of food you eat versus an alkaline environment. Alkaline environment is bad for the cancer cells, right? I learned just these little tools.
Jennifer Dickenson:And then I started learning about meditation. I'd never meditated. I've always heard about it, I always thought it would be a good idea. But I'm like, how do you do it? How do you even start that process? And just by those little glimmers of feel good, like my qigong, that, I'm telling you it was making me cry of joy. Now I've got brain cancer growing in my head at a rapid rate, but yet I was able to put myself in a place where I was completely well and full. Where I was completely well and full, think about how powerful that is. That is unbelievable. Before surgery, before radiation, before chemotherapy, I was starting to heal. I was learning the tools of healing.
Carsten Pleiser:Super interesting. So from day one I experienced something similar. From day one, when I was walking with my wife after the initial diagnosis, where they were pretty sure it was cancer, I was feeling every single step of my walking. I was seeing the leaves, I was seeing the grass, I was seeing the wind. I never felt so alive in my life, even though it was the scariest moment. I saw things that I would never see before. I observed the nature, the landscape. I was driving and really admiring birds flying around. It was a magical moment. So it seems like you started from day one with this healing journey and in your book you write I think we can heal Sometimes. You just need a path to follow. How can our listeners, who are not so self-driven, to research? How can they start with these things? What is your recommendation?
Jennifer Dickenson:What I discovered in my little path was there are about 22 things that we can do to heal, and the real amazing thing is it's really not that complicated, so like if one of your listeners said, okay, well, jennifer Chigong, I've never heard of that, go online. So it's Q-I-G-O-N-G, and so just look at, there's tons of people that are doing it. It's easy, you don't have to be much of any kind of physical person, and this will open your qi and it will allow it, and it doesn't take 30 days. This will open your chi and it will allow it, and it doesn't take 30 days. It takes five minutes to start to have that feeling.
Jennifer Dickenson:And what I did is I found a really good master who does this qigong and I started following him a little bit. That's where it started, that qigong guy where my brother sent me a CD, a DVD, so I was watching it and I was having trouble right, because it was affecting my left brain, so I was having cognition issues and so I'd be like which hand, which which? So that was hard, but at the same time it was very powerful Really good.
Jennifer Dickenson:So, like I said, the things I learned are not complicated and you don't have to have a million dollars. Some people are like, oh, did you go to Mexico, did you? I'm like no, I prioritized my sleep, I made sure I ate the best quality food possible, I got rid of anything that was toxic, including toxic people. That matters right. And I learned how to breathe deeply and calm myself. Very, very important, because if you're not calm, your immune system, your immune system is the bomb. Right, get rid of the alcohol, get rid of any of the junky stuff, and then, when it comes to the mind, so many people just focus on the food and I get it. It's an easy. You know, oh, I'm going to eat greens and stuff Totally critical and important. But if you don't get the small guy straight, if you don't get your thoughts together in a supportive way of the journey that you are now on, it's going to make it a lot harder. I'll give you an example.
Jennifer Dickenson:In my firm, before I got sick, there were two women that got breast cancer. One was she's 26. She had just had a child. The baby was one years old, married, so she gets sick. The other one got sick, but the younger one.
Jennifer Dickenson:I was in the process after that Right, and so I came to the office and I'm seeing everybody and she's like, oh, you're so, you're so positive. She goes I'm just angry. She says I'm angry that this happened, and I said my whole life has changed, I see everything differently now. And she goes I was happy when things got normal again. She goes I'd be driving and I'd get angry at somebody, I'd be like blowing them off or something. And so that was her reality. That was where she was choosing to go. She chose, on some level, to be without judging, but an observation she was choosing to not make the fundamental changes that got her where she was Right. The fundamental changes that got her where she was right, and maybe some DNA. But they're saying now that most of this, 92% of this, is your environment. There's some DNA issues, but epigenetics is really showing this. So you can turn and you can shift.
Jennifer Dickenson:So in this sad story though, after about a year she starts to have more problems. It's just got cancer in her arm now and it moves, and it moves and she dies. And she wrote me a card and I can't let go of it because it was so heartbreaking. She was very supportive. You're stronger than me, you've got a more positive attitude, and I remember trying to encourage her, but she had it convinced in her mind that this was the worst thing in the world, and that is not true. Although I have limitations that I didn't have before, the blessings that I have learned from the hardest devastating news is unimaginable, and I'm so grateful for it. Just like you said, you can hear the birds and you eat an apple, a perfect apple, and you're like, oh my God, this is so good. You're not like cramming a McDonald's, because you understand this life. But here's the music. The beauty of this is that you don't have to get sick in order to have to find this wake up call call yeah.
Jennifer Dickenson:Find it now, exactly, find it now. It's really not complicated. It's about balancing your lives and prioritizing what matters. So back to the mind part of it. We were talking about some of the basic tools in the physical body and then in the mind. Major ones are meditation, directed meditation, which is where they do all the work and you just listen there. It's so awesome, great, great supportive stuff, visualization, music oh my God, the studies on how powerful music can be. Right.
Jennifer Dickenson:There were some music from my high school days and it would come up and I'd be like you feel it, your, your hormones shift, your body changes. What's that doing? It's helping your buddy, our immune system. When you're happy, your immune system's happy and you're you're not knocking it down, you're supporting it. So those are some examples in the mind. And then the spiritual side is I don't force this on anybody because I didn't grow up with it, but I certainly have discovered it now. I'm so grateful for it. But I always say, just if you don't know God or love the spiritual side of things, just start to be curious about it, explore it. I think those are the three pieces. You don't have to have a million dollars to do any of these things.
Carsten Pleiser:It's amazing. I use an app called Evolutioner Do you know this app for the 432 hertz music. It's beautiful music and it's like 12 minutes a day and you put your headphones on, it doesn't cost much and you can just do a free trial and basically it has absolutely changed my daily routine. In the morning, I listen to this music 12 minutes long and I just feel so much happier. And there's scientific studies actually from NASA on how music affects, as you say, the immune system. And then the breathing. I agree with you because the first thing I've done was a breathing course. Actually, I was becoming a breath coach, so I was learning everything about the how to manipulate the nervous system. And, yeah, breath work is was one of the first things I've started doing as well. So I love that we are sharing the same thing.
Jennifer Dickenson:But the people I know and I've met many who get on the other side of it, even though the doctors have their own little statistics. This is what they do, and you probably didn't read a book. You just sort of intuitively started to choose gratitude. Feel the birds, see your beautiful child in a different way. You opened yourself to a realm that was going to support you.
Carsten Pleiser:What you mentioned at the beginning about the nutrition part. It's really funny because the first time I was in the chemotherapy ward for my treatment I couldn't believe my eyes when I basically saw like two ladies volunteers carrying a cart into the chemo ward with Pepsi, with Coke, with chips, with Mars bars, snickers bars, and people were buying this stuff and they're coming out of the chemotherapy ward with a Coke and chips in their hand. Here in the UK you call it crisps, so it's a different word, but it's just crazy.
Jennifer Dickenson:Well they treat your illness as if it's not connected to your body.
Carsten Pleiser:Yeah, isn't that weird. And to your mind right and your thoughts.
Jennifer Dickenson:It's as you're divorced To all of these things. I always teach this cycle and it shows basically like a pizza pie, right? And I say the medical doctor is a piece of the pie. The other piece is your mind, mindfulness what are you choosing? How are you dealing with this? Are you getting support with what you're dealing with? You might need it. Then the physical body. That means the sleep, the exercise, the breathing techniques, all these wonderful things that your body deeply needs. And then the other piece of the pie is the spiritual side, exploring this idea. If you don't feel it already, that's the piece.
Jennifer Dickenson:But I love what you said, that even in the doctor's office or the hospital they're giving this crap food. That is not a reward. It's not a reward. And I saw the same thing when I was getting the radiation, which is pretty daunting. You go to the very bottom of the hospital. That's where all that happened. There's no light, it's very scary. But afterward they had candies and then this man. He wanted like a ice cream, kind of a drink at McDonald's and they're like, oh yeah, go right there. And I'm thinking I mean I was baby in this process at that point. But even I knew I'm like that's going to knock you down. It's a comfort. Sometimes people do that. They want to go to their comfort zone, but this isn't doing what you used to do. This is about changing everything and that's how you're going to get to the other side of this thing For me.
Jennifer Dickenson:I was diagnosed in 2011. They gave me 12 months, even though I have those teeny little kids, I'm 44. And I was like, yeah, yeah, you don't know me. That may be what the statistics say, but you don't know who I am and I'm going to do anything that I can, and I did that. I just started to make changes. So 95% will die within 12 to 18 months with glioblastoma grade 4.
Jennifer Dickenson:Now the percentage was. The rest of them would last five years. So they're always waiting for it to come back. They do the treatments and they're always waiting it's going to come back and there's nothing they can do, because they've done a good job of rocking your immune system down to zilch out, right. So how else is it going to fight when it happens again? So that was the percentage. But here I am, 14 years out, and I'm less than 2%. So it's like 1.8% would be alive and functioning at this point. So Duke is a major brain cancer group in the United States. They don't want to study people like me. It makes me kooky because I sent my book to the doctors. They don't look at it. I'm like this is the path man, it's not just a weird lady on the side who got lucky about her diagnosis. I took major changes in my life, just like you are doing in your own life, and that's the path and it works.
Carsten Pleiser:It clearly works.
Jennifer Dickenson:And it worked yeah and you don't have to like. In your case, you had mentioned something like they're like oh well, you know, when it comes back like you're doing sterling, because you're giving your body what it needs, you've made the changes. I would never if somebody said, jennifer, I'm going to give you a bazillion dollars to be a lawyer and own a huge firm and handle that. There is no price tag on what we have learned you too. There's no price tag on this.
Jennifer Dickenson:So, when people challenge and they do things and I'm like make the changes, you know, make the changes now, because how much time? You know how much time. You know. Make the changes now, because how much time, you know how much time when you see this and you have an inclination to share this because of your own story, which is beautiful, and I tell people you have been chosen Like, do you understand? You have been chosen to share this message and that's a big message and it's a very important one message and that's a big message and it's a very important one. They gave you no chance. They gave me no chance God has given us, even with the little bumps and bruises that I certainly have. It's important for us to get this word out, so that people don't understand that they're just stuck by a statistic. We are not just statistics, we are not at at all. And the doctor doesn't see that you're a whole person, then that's their freaking problem not mine.
Carsten Pleiser:I don't know if you experience the same, but you sent them your book and they just ignored it. So in my experience, they always want like a study for it. No one has money to spend time doing a study on green tea benefits. There won't ever be a study on green tea because it's expensive and the pharma industries don't make any money on it. I feel I don't know, maybe there are some out there, but with all these holistic methods, there's way too little data for doctors to be convinced that they need to change their approach from conventional to more holistic.
Jennifer Dickenson:Yeah, well, and also I think there I have a piece in the book where I talk about I sort of made it a little nicer my dad was like you seem a little angry at the doctor, so you might want to change that language a little. So I did, I did that. But um, it's either that the doctors are intimidated by what the holistic doctors are doing. Remember, remember, a holistic doctor is an MD. They went to the same schools and then they took another two years and they became holistic doctors, looking at the whole body, right. So I think I don't know if they're threatened by what the holistic doctors do. I don't know if the profit benefit of just cutting and surgery and drugs. I don't really know what that is, but that is, it's very frustrating.
Carsten Pleiser:I wanted to ask that question a bit earlier, but I think a lot of listeners might actually be interested in that. What was like? Briefly, very shortly, how did your treatment look like?
Jennifer Dickenson:So we had the 10 days and then ultimately I found a good doctor, a really good brain surgeon. So she did surgery, brain surgery, and there's an interesting aspect of that my brain is open. Now I'm asleep, they wake you up and there's another doctor and that doctor is talking to me and he's showing me an image this is a bunny, or this is an apple, or this is. He's showing me words While my brain is open, and it's fascinating because what they're doing is he's cueing different words so to see what's firing in my brain. Because the doctor, who's the surgeon, doesn't want to knock out too much of the damage. You're going to get damaged if you have brain cancer, but he's trying not to really make me like a vegetable or anything. So anyway, I just always think that's notable. So anyway, we did the surgery. Then the protocol is five weeks of radiation, where they create this mask on you and they shape it to your head and then they put it on five days for five weeks, and then you pin into this chair, basically lying down, and then they put the radiation. Okay, so that's radiation, and then it's chemotherapy and then the chemotherapy.
Jennifer Dickenson:For me, what was called Temidor is what it was called and I would take that basically every month, but every five days, and then the next month would be five days and then the next month, and so what happened with that was at about the six-month part. I just didn't want to take it anymore. I'm pretty small size and I was like this is working me out, this is lacking my immune system and I'm doing all these things to help myself. But I just intuitively knew and I asked the doctor. I said I'd really like to not take it anywhere. No, no, you have to take it for 12 months. So I'm like, oh, okay, well, this is a really bad diagnosis, so I better listen to the doctor, even though I had that inkling.
Jennifer Dickenson:And then at about nine months of it, I had physical reaction everywhere, like what is this called? Like an allergy, but like everywhere on my legs, on my back, everywhere. So I was having a reaction. And so I said to the doctor can I stop taking it now? And he says no, we're going to put cortisol, we're going to put more stuff in you to take this stuff. I mean like holy bananas.
Jennifer Dickenson:Thank God I went back to do, because it's not that far from where I am and I just said you know what's the deal with this Temidor? Do I have to keep taking it? And the nurse, she researched it and she said you know what I found? He said when they studied, when they created that medicine and they put it out in the market, they only tested it for six months. But in the document it says but it is for the doctor can extend it as far as they want to.
Jennifer Dickenson:Now here's the other. This is sort of the vile part. I also learned that the doctors actually make money on the chemotherapy. They can't make money on any of the other stuff, but they actually take a piece of that. So that's $5,000. It was $1,000 per pill, so $5,000 and they get a piece of that. So he's trying to cheat me taking this, put other medicine so I can take chemotherapy, which is knocking my whole system, the good and the bad.
Jennifer Dickenson:And I went back with him and I said this is what this says. This says six months is the max. And he said okay, I'll allow you not to do it. Right, like you say bad words. You say bad words when you discover stuff like that. It makes you so angry because it took me probably about a year to get that stuff out of my body. I mean, it takes a lot of time to get it out, so but but just like, what you're doing flooded my body with clean water. You know, fills my body with best greens and the best foods. And I took care of my sleeping and I didn't know if I was going to make it or not, but I was like, yeah, I think I got a really good chance you know.
Carsten Pleiser:And then when did you realize that oh wow, this is actually working, I now don't have this anymore. When was that, and how was that, and how did you feel?
Jennifer Dickenson:You know, honestly, I'm about 11 months into this thing. I knew I was cured and they never give that word. When you have something like I have, they just say you're in remission, which really pisses me off. I knew I had changed everything in my life and that I had this confidence, this understanding, and I was only 11, like I'm saying, 11 months into it. Now I'm 14 and I am like a force, like you know, and everybody is different and I would never tell anybody oh, there's a guarantee. How can we possibly know? We're all so complicated and and different. But I'll tell you what I do. Deep, I even went deep into like I had a, a holistic lady who sort of like a coach, and she helped me unpack the horror of how I found out about it and something that was said at the, when I was getting my surgery, grand surgery.
Jennifer Dickenson:There was a day I was all backed up, you know, I mean wrapped up, and it was dripping out in the middle of the night. It's like one o'clock, two of the, there's water coming out. Something was coming out and I pushed the button. I'm like well, excuse me, well, one of the nurses come in here, something is leaking, and so the doctor or not the doctor, one of the staff people. They came in. He's like oh, it's just your. But my reaction was in this crazy situation, I'm laughing too. So I'm like this crazy situation. He goes no, no, no, it's just leakage. It's just this. I'll clean that up, don't worry about it, it's nothing at all. But he said that. Now I carried that for me for about five months until I found this wonderful coach who helps people deal with stuff like this and go into older concepts. Why did you get sick? What steps were you taking that helped support this illness?
Jennifer Dickenson:Because an illness is not normal. We have a part of this. So I started seeing her about five months into this and then after three months I came in and I tell this story and I'm sobbing. For the first time I'm allowing me to talk about the horror of that man saying it's just your brain dripping out of your head. That's a horrible thing, but to save my life, I couldn't deal with all that right then, and so that's why I think that I feel like I'm getting off on track here, whatever your question was. But I do think this is an important part to get support out there, because we carry it's like a computer right. This was in my brain, which is part of my brain computer, but all of us have our own computers and our own thoughts, and if you have old thoughts in you that are knocking you down, this is a really good time to put the light on that and not let it hang you down.
Jennifer Dickenson:I've had so many breast cancer people. The breast cancer people have a. There's a similarity with them. A lot of them are giver, giver, givers. They take care of everybody else oh, I don't need anything from me and a lot of my breast cancer people also have problems with their husbands or their spouse. It's not 100% and I'm sort of don't you know but or emotional. I've heard emotional cheating with the spouse and with somebody else and then they're just sort of ignoring it, ignoring it and then it sort of comes out or a not a healthy relationship with the husband.
Jennifer Dickenson:The brain cancer people is their type A personalities. They're usually in business and managing business for other people, taking care, managing other people in the business. This is very similar. They're often sensitive souls. I discovered through my journey what was I doing? Running this huge firm, 14 offices all over the place, you know, in charge of everything. I was 44, you know I was 40 when I had that company. It's a lot of stress and it's not to tell people don't go for your dreams. But I say go for your dreams, but pay attention to your balance in your life and that's a really important thing for anybody.
Carsten Pleiser:I love that and also try to find who you really are, because when I was diagnosed, I also I'm a business owner. I run a global design company and the moment I was diagnosed, all of the plans of scaling it, growing it, were out of the window. I couldn't care less about it. Instead, I went back to my filmmaking, I went back to photography. I was drawing. I really found my inner creative person that was always there but never really showed it or was never confident enough to actually live it. I always thought like society would expect you to be very, very successful with your business and I realized no one cares. You are enough. You are just enough to be like who you are right and you don't have to prove anything to anyone.
Jennifer Dickenson:That's just so beautiful, it's so true. You know, when you have this rush to death, you do have the opportunity to see things differently. And what you just explained is just, it's just the truth. When we die, when that time happens, we're not going to have our phones and our jewelry, we're going to have our soul right. So here is this environment where we can explore our soul, what feels right to us. You know, trying to impress the neighbors or trying to impress the bosses and all of these things. Well, if you love it, if you really enjoy it and you're also taking care of yourself, cool, go for it, whatever. But at the same time, people think life is so long. I think life is very short. I think we're here for a purpose, I think we're supposed to be learning something here. And the people who get the wake up call? I think they've been given a real wonderful opportunity to figure out where we were not in the right path. Right, it's an opportunity to find a new path. But, like I told you so many people, they just go back to the same exact thing.
Jennifer Dickenson:I was dealing with one guy. He's a brain cancer guy, glioblastoma. I mean, what are you doing? And so I was talking to the wife and I'm like she needs to talk to me, he needs to hear my voice because I am so clear, he needs to hear me. And so finally I get him on the phone and you're talking and I said, well, so are you working? He goes oh, I work from seven o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night.
Jennifer Dickenson:Like, what are we doing here, right? Like, if you know you've got 12 months to live, are you going to spend all your time working? Is that the most creative you can be? You know, no, it's not, it's not at all. Start living, you know, and you might actually beat 12 months, you might get five years, you might get 10 years, you might get never have it happen again. So there's a sense of this feeling.
Jennifer Dickenson:That's why the book you know, the book is the case for hope. It's so important to have hope and it's not a strategy, it's a place to start. So, like if one of your people hear our conversation, your story, which is phenomenal mine, I think, is also a pretty darn good one. It's about how. It's about changing this little shift in your mind, opening your mind to some different ideas, and then you're gonna have a really story. You're going to have a really good story. You're going to have the best story you know, and it doesn't come from doing what you used to do. That's what got you sick. Figure out what is missing and fill that part of you that you need so exciting.
Carsten Pleiser:You gave me so much energy today, so much positive energy, because in this world of cancer, there's so much negative gloom and doom on social media. I completely removed social media. I wanted to have something inspiring, something that gives you hope, and I started reading your book as well and I got the Kindle version of it, so it's also available on Kindle. From what I read so far, it's absolutely amazing and hopefully gives people listeners some tools that they can use to actually start the healing process, start the healing path. And I was wondering, before we sum it up with some quickfire questions I have prepared for you is there any way people can find you on social media or do you prefer to be people visiting your website?
Jennifer Dickenson:I think it's jenniferdickinsoncom, right? Yep, that's my website. A lot of information there, and then in my website it also has a place where you can connect to me. Info at jennifer dickinsoncom, but I'm also in instagram.
Carsten Pleiser:I'm an instagram jennifer l dickinson and facebook jennifer l dickinson and linkedin, which I think is just Jennifer Dickinson and, out of interest, besides being an author, do you also do coaching with people, or is this something you don't do?
Jennifer Dickenson:Well, it's funny, I do a lot of public speaking to groups and churches and different you know, just all kinds of different people. Every once in a while somebody will come in and I will help them, but I can't charge for that. I just can't charge. I charge for my book, I charge for my public speaking opportunities. It just feels not okay, right, because God has given me a gift to be alive and part of this path is to share this with other people. So I will talk to somebody and give them the bullet points and stuff.
Carsten Pleiser:But I know I don't do official coaching, but I'll talk to somebody wow, yeah, so people think these are good reasons to connect with jennifer either way. I got a few quick fire questions. One of the questions I had, like what's the worst piece of advice you received during the treatment? First piece of advice when I was the worst, the worst piece, yeah, the worst piece, worst, the worst yeah that it's gonna come back and that will be the end of it.
Jennifer Dickenson:How dare you?
Carsten Pleiser:how dare you, isn't that yeah?
Jennifer Dickenson:that's, that's like a sled, a sled, and a lot of people believe it. Thank God, I didn't.
Carsten Pleiser:Yeah, I mean some of the other questions you actually already answered in the conversation. But I was wondering, like obviously you are into nutrition, what's your go-to comfort food that still aligns with your nutrition and wellness journey?
Jennifer Dickenson:Oh, good one, A couple of things, a couple of things I really like. There's this thing called Yononas Yononas, okay, and it's this little tool and you put in frozen fruit in it, basically, and it comes out like a yogurt. So you're just putting holistic foods like bananas and other kinds of fruits, blueberries, and it's just delicious. It's great. Kind of don't cheat. I just not into it. But I have some little treats that I make with cocoa and different things like that. A little honey in that. If it's natural honey that comes from your area, I have no problem with that. You're going to have sugar out of that type. Don't get baked sugar that's been processed. That's garbage, garbage all day.
Carsten Pleiser:So that's just those little things, Great, great. And then the last question is what's one misconception about spirituality that you wish people would understand?
Jennifer Dickenson:Oh, you asked the last question that it is not complicated and you already have it built into you and all you have to do is open the door. And I've resisted this for years. You know, like I'm not a, I don't get it, I don't believe it and I would say, oh, maybe there's a universe and stuff like that. But you already have it. You are already so deeply loved by this other realm that you can't even imagine and it's just given to you and it's just for you to be curious, to look for it. I think that's one of the greatest things I've found in this whole journey is finding a connection to God.
Carsten Pleiser:I love that Really, really powerful. And the last one a book besides your own, one that inspired you during your healing process.
Jennifer Dickenson:Well, I had no books. Well, I was. I had no books for like four years, so what I discovered here was like, all organically, I was looking for one book that would have all the things that we can do, and there was nothing I could find. After about four years, I got this book. I'm looking at it over there. It's called Radical Remission, so I get sick in 2011. Do you know it?
Carsten Pleiser:I've read it.
Jennifer Dickenson:Okay, so 2011,.
Jennifer Dickenson:I get sick, I'm stumbling around, but I figured it out within a relatively short period of time. I figured that out. But then in 2014, that book came out, Kelly Turner, Radical Remission. I literally got the book and I read the book, I saw the ingredients and I just started to cry. I started to cry because it was exactly what I stumbled into. I don't know how I got so fortunate to just. I think I was driven right. I think something was helping me find all of these healing tools quickly. I didn't have a lot of time, remember, but that book, Radical Remission, is man bomb.
Jennifer Dickenson:She was a PhD and she worked with people dealing with brain cancer like doctors, and she didn't like the results and stuff. But what she was curious about is the people who survived against the odds, like me. And so she went for 10 years. She went all throughout the globe and she went to the people who survived grade four, level four, whatever it is and she asked, she quizzed them what did you do? You know what are the things that she came up with? Nine things in her book. And so I think that book is beautiful and I think if anybody, even if you're not sick, read this book. It's going to help you. Maybe you might avoid getting sick in the first place.
Carsten Pleiser:Wonderful Jennifer. It's been an absolute pleasure. I'm sure we keep in touch Always a pleasure. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please subscribe and leave a rating and review. It would mean the world to me To stay up to date with the Survivorship Project and get all the behind the scenes content. You can follow us on Instagram at the Survivorship Project and I'm sending you lots of love until next time.
