Di Foster is from Christchurch, and was diagnosed in 2003, when she was just 31 years old with an aggressive form of breast cancer in her right breast (stage 3, infiltrating ductal carcinoma, HER2 positive).
With classic Di humour, she remembers:
My surgeon said, “Di, we’ve got a bit of a problem. We’ve got quite a large tumour in a very small breast.” I thought, That’s not exactly what you want to hear from a cute doctor every day! Can we just talk about some of my best features, rather than how small my breasts are and how big this tumour is?
Her doctor recommended an immediate radical mastectomy of her right breast, followed by aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.
A few weeks before her diagnosis Di had serendipitously taken a weekend self-help course led by Dr. John Demartini that focused on gaining mastery over your mind, emotions, and personal issues. This unwitting preparation helped Di understand that she was deeply connected with her body. It also taught her that she had the power to think positively and could work on changing things herself as opposed to waiting for outside people or situations to change.
Already a longtime meditator, Di recalls:
When they explained to me what they wanted to do, I said, “Give me a couple of days and I’ll think about it.” And they said to me, “You don’t understand! You don’t have a couple of days. You need to decide now!
Di, you really don’t have a choice.” And I said, “No, this is my body. I have a choice. I will take two days to decide if that’s what I need.” My gut feeling told me that anybody who feels in control over their own health is going to have a far better survival rate.
So two days were not going to make any difference. And every time I meditated during those two days, I heard a ticking time bomb. I thought, I don’t have time to figure out how to do this naturally.
There was an overwhelming sense that I needed to follow the traditional path. But I didn’t sign up for all three things at once.
I signed up to have the surgery first. I meditated and felt certain that it was the right thing for me at that point in time.
Because Di was only 31, her doctors decided to treat her cancer aggressively. Their theory was, “The younger you are, the more you can handle.”
The chemotherapy they gave her was so hard on her body and its side effects so brutal that there were times when Di did not think she would live through it. After she finished the six difficult rounds of chemotherapy, her doctor admitted that he, too, had been unsure if she would survive the treatment.
In 2009, Christchurch was a new city for Di, so she did not have her usual medical support team near her, and she struggled to find a good general practitioner to help her resolve the worsening chest infections. Di insisted that her chest infection was not normal for her body and knew that something was very wrong, and yet she still struggled to get taken seriously by any doctor. Di’s cancer recurrence in February 2010, at age 38, was devastating.
The biopsy confirmed that her breast cancer had metastasized to her lungs, meaning she now had stage 4 breast cancer.
There was cancerous activity in her left lung, a significant tumour and other active spots in her right lung, and her entire left lung had collapsed. After the needle biopsy by the respiratory specialist confirmed the diagnosis, he immediately referred her to an oncologist.
While at the oncologist’s office, Di once again trusted her intuition and her intense need for positivity.
I was quite unwell and fragile. When the doctor and I were getting down to the pointy end of the conversation [about my prognosis], I asked my fiance to leave and he just quietly got up and left the room. I turned to the oncologist and I said, “You won’t repeat this, but I want to know how long you think I’ve got.” He told me I had 12 months [to live] with a 0 percent chance of [living for] 18 months. I had asked my fiance to leave
the room because I didn’t want the prognosis repeated—I didn’t want it to get an energy of its own. I was very clear that it was just a piece of information that I wanted so I could feel the
urgency (or not) and know what I was about to embark on. . . .
He said 12 months. I decided five years.
The doctors offered me palliative care chemo. It was my right to refuse it. I’d done traditional treatment and it was my right to say, “I’ve done chemo before. Thank you very much,
but no thank you. You’re offering me candy and I’m looking for fruit and vegetables. I’m in the wrong store.” It was the easiest decision in the world for me because at that moment, I thought,
If I’ve only got 365 days to live, what am I going to do with them? I only had 365 days to learn all the lessons I’m meant to learn before I die. I’d better listen because it is going to be a journey and a half!
The quietest of whispers within me said, “If you’ve got 365 days left, be happy, go natural, and be grateful.” I chose to listen to it.
At that point, however, I had an entire collapsed lung and I couldn’t do a lot. I thought, What the hell do I have to be grateful for?
And then I thought, Don’t worry about it. You’ve got 365 days to figure it out. I left the hospital with those three things on my mind, and each day I honed them. Being happy for 365 days very quickly turned into being present for 365 days. That
meant if I was angry, or if I wanted to cry, or if I wanted to hide under the duvet covers and tell the world to leave me alone, then that’s what I did. I was just really present in it.
So instead of researching terminal cancer and how I was going to die, or what I could do to prevent it, I decided to embrace exactly where I was at. So I read books about innate healing, energy healers, and miracles—not books about cancer. I just quietly read, and with every cell in my body, I knew that my body could heal.
Di is alive and extremely well. Her healing story is incredibly powerful, insightful and inspirational…there is so much more to uncover with her healing story, and if you would love to learn more, her story is featured in Dr Kelly Turner’s Radical HOPE book – which reveals real-world examples of how to rise to the challenges of living with cancer and to not only survive but thrive.
Ever since Di first heard her intuition whisper “go natural,” she has not taken any conventional medicine or treatment. She remembers taking a few paracetamol tablets for a headache
She had while visiting family, and she received pain medication during the birth of her son, but those are the only medications she has had since her stage 4 recurrence was diagnosed more than ten years ago.
Di and I met several years ago while I was visiting Christchurch. At the time, Di reached out to me to talk about Dr Kelly Turner’s Radical Remission project, and we have kept in contact since.
I am thrilled that Di is a regular guest speaker who joins the 10-week Radical Remission workshops with me when she share’s her insights about the healing factor “Increasing Positive Emotions”.
Di is simply the most incredibly inspiring and vivacious human being. You will be filled with so much HOPE and inspiration from what Di will be sharing with you if you can join us too.
