I had lost my mother to cancer when I was 2 years old, she was only 36 years old. The fear I felt was profound and the loneliness of being in an airport with strangers not able to get home for 8 hours due to fog is a memory that remains in my psyche and reminds me every day how lucky I am to be alive and surrounded by people I love.

I returned to my home town of Perth 6 years ago. My passion to help my fellow cancer warriors took me to Notre Dame University in Fremantle where I graduated as a Master of Counselling. Now a qualified counsellor and my life mission is to provide support for individuals, families and loved ones who are dealing with cancer. Cancer changed my life in ways I could never have predicted. Whilst it has been a frightening and very painful journey, on reflection it has helped me grow and learn in a positive way and for this I am eternally grateful. I feel it is a great privilege to now be in a place where I am able share my experience and knowledge to partner with and help others on their own personal healing journey. Please read my personal story written by a journalist for a local magazine in Zurich a year after my "news"......

A Day in the Life of a Breast Cancer Survivor

We are surrounded by beautiful and inspirational women living in the Zurich region, and at times we are fortunate enough to learn about them on a deeper level.

If we are lucky, they provide us with permission to share their story with our Girlfriend Guide audience…it is an honor to share Helena’s story this October 2013: Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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When we met Helena Chlepnac, an accomplished business woman and entrepreneur, she recently learned some very private news that she was bursting to share…her Breast Cancer circulating tumour cell test results had shown a drastic improvement! She had been privately battling the disease for the past 12 months, painstakingly watching the cancer get worse every three months, until her last test just 2 weeks prior to our meeting.

Not only was this woman standing in front of us cancer-free…she took matters into her own hands and cured herself! After some heartfelt congratulatory exchanges were shared, we asked how she did it. She invited us into her home and said, “I’ll show you!”

We were greeted by the scent of frankincense, a healing oil that is familiar to anyone who has stepped inside a church, but in Helena’s home, she uses it for its properties that help to strengthen the immune system by increasing leukocyte activity. She served us a welcome drink: green juice filled with fennel, lime, ginger, celery, broccoli, parsley and apple. She is serious about her juicing and attributes much of her healing to her diet and clean lifestyle…taken seriously only 12 months prior as part of her health plan the moment she learned she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The News:
It was a routine mammogram that revealed the breast cancer invading Helena’s body. It was the 22^nd of October 2012 – a date she will never forget – when she was sitting at London City Airport when her phone rang. It was her gynecologist and the receptionist said, “The Doctor would like to see you…” Sadly, Helena knew immediately something was wrong and she sat in the airport by herself in total hell.

Fortunately for Helena, her cancer was Stage I and once the tumor was removed surgically, chemotherapy was not required; however, she knew that radiation and chemotherapy would be, for her, simply a “band-aid fix” on what she felt was a psychological and lifestyle problem that she needed to get a better understanding of. The doctor gave her Tamoxifen, a breast cancer treatment drug with hopes to prevent another tumor from appearing. Helena knew she did not want to rely on this drug as her fate, rather she took matters into her own hands.

The Research:
Internet research can be a blessing and a curse. Helena choose to remain positive and sift through all the negative and heart wrenching cancer stories she came across until she found what she was looking for: 1) The best clinic she could find which happened to beParacelsus Klinic in St. Gallen, and 2) The inspirational Dr. Mercola who introduced her to juicing, supplements and exercise regimes for her health according to Biological and Alternative Medicine and 3) Marnie Clark, a breast cancer coach who helped with guided meditations and words of support and care. Helena was determined to keep her cancer in remission…but she was curious why she got it in the first place.

The Findings:
At the Paracelsus Klinic, she discovered through blood and genetic testing that she had a “deleted gene” in her body composition, as well as leaky gut syndrome, which meant her largest immune system organ was not functioning properly. The gene responsible for detoxification of the body, and the gene that removes estrogen from the body were not part of her chemical makeup and she needed to compensate by leading a lifestyle to counterbalance this deficiency.

Her Diet:
“I was actually a vegetarian when I was a teenager,” says Helena, “but then as I got older I started to enjoy good food and wines. Well, I still enjoy a good glass of wine…” She knew that she had the foundation for a healthy lifestyle and simply needed to put all the information she collected over the years to heal herself naturally.

Today, she begins each morning with a warm glass of water with lemon, and a green juice. Her daily diet includes broccoli sprouts in abundance, which are known to help the body detox itself of bad estrogen and many supplements ranging from chlorella, turmeric and coriander to Vitamin D3, Co-Q10 selenium and milk thistle.

Her Body:
One of Helena’s treatments at Paracelsus Klinic included “Hypothermia” – a unique cancer fighting treatment where the body is covered in silver mylar and a fever is induced for 3.5 hours. Research has suggested that there is a correlation between chemotherapy and hypothermia, both attacking and killing cancer cells; whereas chemotherapy kills both the cancer and good cells. It has been reported that many oncologists have even said they would not have chemotherapy for themselves or their own family, however, hypothermia is fast becoming a reliable form of cancer-treatment.

Helena also underwent Ozone Therapy, where her blood was pumped full of oxygen and put back into her body. As it turns out, cancer does not survive in an oxygen-rich environment, so she continues to run or exercise for at least 30-minutes per day to keep her lungs working hard to increase her oxygen levels.

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Her Mind:
With western science and biological medicine practices helping her, Helena realized after 12 months she was not seeing the results she was hoping for. Helena’s circulating tumour cell (CTC) count was still increasing rapidly with each test and she started to downward spiral psychologically.

It was not until Helena discovered Dr. Joe Veltmann who helped her realize that one can change their genetics through nutritional supplements that help to switch on genes that were not functioning optimally. She then started with Marnie Clark’s guided healing meditations. Helena had meditated in the past, but she confesses there was a small part of her mind telling her she did not deserve to be well. So many others are killed by this disease, why should she get well? Marnie’s meditations helped her to start to feel more positive and less of a victim of the disease. Marnie also introduced Helena to some fabulous products for the immune system, called Transfer Factors. She feels this supplement is her saving grace.

Fortunately for Helena, she also believes everything happens for a reason and she knew that she had a bigger destiny in life awaiting her. She discovered new meditation techniques that helped her mind ultimately overcome negative thinking obstacles. For example, rather than getting angry and embarrassed by her hot sweats which would be a constant reminder that she was a cancer patient…she learned to love them, finding relief in them and she programmed her mind to envision her cancer cells being attacked with each sweating episode.

Some of her most inspirational meditation sources came from Dr. Gary Schmid who she calls, Dr. Self-Healing and Dr. Joe Dispenza who helped Helena to let go of the past and realize her internal power for change. Then, it was Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Beliefthat confirmed Helen’s beliefs that “You are how you think and what you think” She let go of many of her fears after her 15 month check-up (despite the increased numbers) and determined that this cancer was not going to control her life.

Three months had passed and Helena was feeling better than ever mentally and physically. She checked in for her routine Circulating Tumour Cell (CTC) blood test, then hopped a flight to Greece to relax by the ocean. When the email from her doctor with her recent test results appeared in her inbox, she was cautiously ready to read the news. She knew she had a different state of mind, yet she was scared to open that email.

To her relief, Helena’s CTC test results had gone from 27 to 1! This was the lowest count since she was diagnosed. She was jumping for joy and continues to lead a life of healthy living and now inspirational empowerment.

An Interesting Perspective
Through the work of Brian Weiss, a past life regression hypnotherapist and writer of (Many Lives, Many Masters) she began to develop a new perspective on life. Helena now believes we are a mix of the genetic background and energy of our past lives and our family’s lives, both physical and psychological. Some of us are able to recognize this and during times of struggle, such as illness, we are given the chance to get all that “stuff” up, process it and deal with it. She believes the answers and secrets about life are within each of us, if we can dare to explore the inner passageways of ourselves. Only then, can we learn from it and grow to become healthier, happier and fulfilled versions of ourselves.

Helena’s Top Tips:

• Juice! Use a cold-pressed juicer such as the Vita Leo Juicer. A centrifuge juicer is not as good and actually heats up and destroys the enzymes in your fruit and vegetables during the juicing process. Where possible use organic!
• Drink filtered water and only caffeine-free beverages
• Avoid milk…this is for baby cows! Processed dairy, such as butter is fine in small amounts. Drink quinoa-milk, rice-milk, coconut-milk or almond-milk instead.
• Replace your cleaning products with eco-friendly versions.
• Avoid red meat and when you choose to eat any form of animal protein, make sure it is organic and ethically sourced.
• Avoid sweets and try to stay away from gluten. Get your complex carbohydrates from brown rice, quinoa and gluten free grains.
• Replace perfumes with essential oils and popular cosmetics with natural versions. Globus has a great department filled with chemical free cosmetics!
• Never take no for an answer…only you have the power to take control of your life’s situation.
• Never allow yourself to be a victim…you have the power to heal yourself and don’t give up until you do!
• For preventative measures, Helena urges women to request an MRI instead of a Mammogram to avoid the radiation, “It’s like sticking yourself in a microwave,” she says.
• Watch the Cancer is Curable Now. It is enraging for anyone who has lost a loved one to cancer, yet it is incredibly eye-opening.

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This article was published with the permission of Helena Chlepnac, an inspirational woman who healed herself of Stage I Breast Cancer. All opinions expressed are her own and our hearts go out to all the families who have lost a loved one to cancer.