Dear Cancer, I'm Beautiful Melissa Berry

Introducing my new friend, Claire L Paxman, who serves as the Brand Ambassador & Director of Global Training for Paxman Scalp Cooling. Listen to the amazing story about her mother’s chemotherapy-induced hair loss andhow it paved her path to her current position at Paxman Scalp Cooling. Claire is truly on a mission to help us preserve our hair and tells us everything we ever wanted to know about cold capping. What it is, how it works, if you’re a good candidate for it and so much more. Do not miss this episode!

This episode is part of my special series, “Your Voice, Your Health and is designed to teach us all about step therapy.  Joanna Doran is a cancer rights attorney, author, speaker, and CEO of Triage Cancer, a national, nonprofit organization providing free education on practical and legal issues that may impact individuals coping with cancer and their caregivers. Joanna has spent nearly thirty years working on behalf of individuals with cancer and co-authored a book called Cancer Rights Law for the American Bar Association. Tune in to learn how to identify step therapy hurdles, the appeals process - and how to educate your healthcare provider to do the same!

Beth Fairchild is an artist, metastatic breast cancer thriver, advocate and founder of a new non-profit called Cancer Culture. This patient-led non-profit organization is designed  to sound the alarm about the growing public health concern that is breast cancer. #CancerCulture uses art and storytelling to raise awareness, provoke and inspire change by bringing a hopeful view to the community and shining a light on the realities of the disease, all while creating a sense of community among patients, building bridges between those with early and late stage disease, and helping to fund life-saving metastatic breast cancer research. Tune in to hear Beth’s story and her “why” behind Cancer Culture!

I’m so excited to have my good friend Rachel Beller back on the show! Rachel is the author of several books including her latest one called, “Spice Rack.” She explains the benefits of the Beller Nutrition approach, offers up expert advice about maintaining a healthy weight during and post-treatment, and the easiest ways to incorporate the Beller methodology into our meals each day.

I’m so happy to welcome back my dear friend AND my very own breast oncologist, Dr. Eleonora Teplinksy. Tune in to learn about Dr. Teplinksy's expertise, as well as explore strategies for effectively navigating genetic testing and breast cancer screening for our daughters. This subject holds great personal significance for me, given that I have two young adult daughters with an elevated risk of breast cancer due to our extensive family history. Dr. Teplinksy guides us in forging a collaborative approach with our daughters, emphasizing prevention and empowering us with knowledge about risk factors and proactive measures to help safeguard them from developing breast cancer.

This was one episode I never expected to record. My beautiful mother Barbara is one of the sweetest, caring people you’ll ever meet. She saved my life by encouraging me to get a BRCA test and continues to be a true advocate for our entire family and for everyone she meets. A few months ago, and 17 years after her initial breast cancer diagnosis, she was faced with a very difficult decision to make about her own health. Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly be more proud of her. Do not miss this episode. Thank you Mom for being such an incredible example of self care, hope and resilience!