What Sarah learned about cancer treatment success, the hard way…

“How do I reach the people who actually need to hear this now?”

Sarah is frustrated. 

Really frustrated…

For over 20 years, she worked in the healthcare system. She saw first-hand the disorganization, the misplaced files, the budgetary cuts.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault directly – it’s just the nature of a giant, slow-moving bureaucratic system…

A system that both Sarah and I are deeply grateful for, despite its shortcomings.

We both know that we are beyond lucky to live in Canada and to be able to benefit from our healthcare system.

And…

Like me, Sarah definitely had an insider’s insight into the challenges that occur when there’s not enough budget and too little time.

Still, she did her best to work within the situation. She felt good about her contribution to public healthcare.

And then she got breast cancer.

Sarah’s challenging journey with breast cancer…

Over the next 5 years, her case was mismanaged in multiple ways.

When she tells people what happened, their eyes grow big and inevitably they say, “I never knew that could happen here…”

Sarah was less surprised, because she had already seen behind-the-scenes ball-dropping that can occur. To anyone.

But she had never experienced the consequences herself until she got cancer.

Then it became a question of fighting for her life.

To give you a brief idea of what she went through: she had a missed original diagnosis for 5 years, then another misdiagnosis, way too much wait time between it all, then the wrong treatment…all while she was doing everything she could within the public system to advocate for herself. (And, all this despite the fact that she was very familiar with the healthcare system since she worked within it!)

Thankfully, Sarah is a very determined person. She refused to give up.

So she called me and my team at Cancer Treatment Options and Management (C-TOAM)…

Because she realized she needed backup. Pronto. Her own advocacy efforts were simply not enough on their own. Not without the scientific data that we could provide her with.

Finding cancer treatment success with Precision Oncology

Since we started working with Sarah, she’s gone from ‘no more options’ to being highly responsive to a new targeted therapy, with several more waiting in the wings (should she stop responding to this current one)!

She feels physically better than she has in many, many years…

And mentally she feels stronger, too. 

Because the power is back in her hands. 

Finally.

And now she’s advocating for others’ rights.

She doesn’t want anyone else to have to go through what she went through…

When I spoke with Sarah, this was her biggest point of frustration:

“I always end up talking to people who have already wasted years of being on the wrong treatment, or people for whom it’s almost too late. How do I get in front of the people who have just been diagnosed?? How do I tell them to not believe everything they hear from their doctor?”

It’s a great question. 

It’s something that’s on my mind everyday.

How CTOAM is trying to help solve this!

This is one of the biggest challenges we face at CTOAM… 

How to get the message out to people who are newly diagnosed with cancer?

So they don’t waste years on the wrong treatment, or with a diagnosis being missed… 

So they don’t end up with standard care telling them they have no more options…when they really do.

With Precision Oncology, there are almost always more options.

No matter what stage, no matter what cancer type.

And the sooner someone reaches out, the better chance they have of beating cancer. 

Remember this equation: 

Speed + accuracy are the two biggest factors in treatment success…

Cancer doesn’t wait. It just gets harder to treat the longer it grows.

So take it from Sarah – if you think you have cancer, or if you’ve just received a diagnosis, take action NOW. 

And if you’ve had cancer for a while, don’t put off getting a second opinion and advocating for extra options. 

You can do this!

If you’d like to get a Precision Second Opinion with our cancer expert, Alex Rolland, book in here. We’ve just opened some more spots for August.

This is the fastest way to get the ball rolling…

Or, if you want to learn more about what your options are beyond standard care, you can register for a Free 30-min Treatment Options Strategy Session with me! 

Whatever you do, make sure you’re gathering as much knowledge as possible. That is where the power is.

And we are here to help you get there.

Published by on August 11, 2021