Thriving With Cancer: Meet Jenny Bradley
Jenny Bradley’s life changed in an instant when she heard the three short words none of us ever wants to hear: You have cancer. The holiday season was just around the corner, and Jenny had spent the last two years with a lump in her breast that her family doctor had declared benign. Now a specialist was telling her it wasn’t. This unexpected news set Jenny on a path that transformed her health, led her to cook and begin a business that supports cancer patients and their families.
A life-altering diagnosis, collaborative treatments and living with cancer
Jenny’s breast cancer was hormone driven and, based on her pathology results, chemotherapy was off the table. Radiation was a no-go, too. Surgery was possible, but not for at least six months. A single drug offered potential, yet it had several dangerous side effects (including an increased risk of several more cancers). Jenny asked her oncologist for some time to think about her treatment path.
This interlude allowed Jenny the bandwidth to launch into research mode for additional options that could help. Her career as a pastor and college-level instructor in Christian education meant she was familiar with reading, analytical thinking and interpreting dense texts. She applied those skills to anti-cancer research, while also connecting with an integrative clinic near her home in Kansas.
“I knew I wanted to bring in a holistic perspective and support my body in addition to the allopathic recommendations,” she says. “I was intentional about building a team with a variety of perspectives.”
Jenny was only in her 30s at the time of diagnosis. Over the course of six months, she tried a litany of treatments as well as supplementation based on deficiencies in her blood work.
She also began incorporating therapeutic anti-cancer foods, as well as avoiding certain foods that could potentially contribute to tumor progression and overall poor health. With very little background in nutrition or cooking (she grew up eating meals that came from a can or a box), Jenny soon discovered the vast impact food could have on her…
..