From Cancer to Kilimanjaro: Healing Through Adventure

Chapters

• 1:00 Verbalizing my biggest dream
• 2:12 How Kilimanjaro gave me purpose
• 3:47 Overcoming fear after cancer
• 6:14 Training one step at a time
• 8:10 The dream to help others climb
• 8:56 Tanzanian guides sing at Barafu Camp

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Last week I was leading a Hike Like a Woman trip to Costa Rica and during that trip we were sitting around and we were talking about like our goals and our dreams and our aspirations and what we wanted to do in the future, and shout out to my friend Michelle she's actually been on two Hike Like a Woman trips and I think she's got third and fourth already booked. But Michelle asked me like what's your big goal? And I took a deep breath and I said something that I had only thought about but never verbalized and I said my big goal, like my biggest dream in life right now, is to stand on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with 20 women who have experienced breast cancer. That came out of my mouth and I was like I can't believe that. I just admitted that. I can't believe that. I just talked about that as my big goal, as my big dream. But something just clicked inside of me once I verbalized what I was really feeling about that big goal and I realized that it's because climbing Mount Kilimanjaro last year was one experience that was so, so, so powerful in my life that I just wanted to experience it with other women who have been through breast cancer. In some ways, I think that climbing Kilimanjaro gave me my life back after cancer. Climbing Kilimanjaro gave me a sense of purpose, it gave me a goal, it gave me something to look forward to, it gave me something to plan and it gave me a reason to get out of bed and move my body every single day as I was training to go to climb Kilimanjaro. And it's the reason why, when I stood on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on June 6th 2024, I told myself I'm bringing another group of women up here next year because this experience is so meaningful, so special and so powerful. I want to keep sharing this with other women, but as I was talking to Michelle in Costa Rica, I was like I want to share that experience with other women who've been through cancer, who are on the other side of cancer and who are willing to do something that requires so much training and grit and perseverance. I just want to be with women who try to do something difficult.

Speaker 1: 3:10

After cancer, as I was coming out of chemotherapy, I was really feeling bad about myself. I was feeling bad about my bald head and all the weight that I'd lost and gained, and lost and gained, and lost and gained. I was feeling exhausted. I was feeling this big shift in my career and this big pivot. I was feeling stressed out about going back to work. I was also feeling really scared about the future. I was scared that maybe they didn't get all the cancer. I was scared that maybe chemotherapy didn't work to kill any rogue cells. I was scared that maybe my radiation burns weren't worth it. I was so scared of cancer coming back. I was so scared of being sick again that I had a hard time setting a goal. I had a hard time even planning a family vacation, because it was like I feel great today but I don't know how I'm going to feel in a month. I don't know, cancer could come back in six months and I could be sick again.

Speaker 1: 4:15

But it was like once I put Kilimanjaro on my calendar, once I confirmed the trip, once I bought my plane ticket to Tanzania, once I got my new gear to take on the climb, the future didn't seem so scary anymore. The future seemed really exciting and even though there's uncertainty with cancer treatment we don't know how treatment's going to affect our bodies and there's uncertainty with flying all the way to Africa to climb a mountain that's 19,341 feet, where we don't know how the guides are going to be. We don't know what our bodies are going to do at altitude. We don't know how difficult it is going to be to climb so high and to get to the top of that mountain. The uncertainty of Kilimanjaro was so much less scary than the uncertainty of cancer. I needed a goal that was capable of showing me my body was still capable, and I needed a goal to show me that my body wasn't trying to kill itself. I just needed a goal that would show me to trust my body again and to restore the trust in myself which sounds so weird, but the trust that was lost in myself throughout my diagnosis and treatment.

Speaker 1: 5:38

So, to prepare for Kilimanjaro, all I started to do was get up and go for a walk. Wake up and walk, and I started walking around the block, and then I started walking around the park and then I started walking a mile, and then I started walking two miles, and then I started walking three miles, and then I started walking four mile and then I started walking two miles and then I started walking three miles and then I started walking four miles and then I started walking five miles, and then I added a weight vest and then I added my backpack and then I started going up big hills and I started really really planning and preparing and training my body for the climb. And it might've been a little selfish, but I just wanted to see if I could do it and one step at a time, that I started to realize that I was capable of doing hard things that I had chosen for myself. You don't choose cancer, cancer chooses you. But being able to choose to do something hard really restored power back to me. Anyway, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro changed my life, it saved my life, it gave my life purpose and I'm probably going to keep going back every single year leading hike.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Like a woman trips up Mount Kilimanjaro, because there's something so amazing about climbing the tallest freestanding peak in the world. It's incredible. But I take clients up Kilimanjaro who have paid guides, who have paid me a little bit to be their leader, and I would love it if I could figure out how to find someone to fund an expedition with 20 women who've experienced breast cancer to stand on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro together, because I can think of nothing more empowering than standing on the mountain with women who have been through exactly what I've been through and I don't want to start a nonprofit. I don't want to beg people for money. I don't want women who have been through exactly what I've been through and I don't want to start a nonprofit. I don't want to beg people for money. I don't want women who've experienced cancer to have to pay a penny out of pocket to climb this mountain.

Speaker 1: 7:44

But it doesn't stop me from dreaming or from setting another big goal to figure out how to finance and lead a breast cancer expedition to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. So I just want to go public here with my next big goal, and that big goal is to stand on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with 20 women who've experienced breast cancer. So there you go, mount Kilimanjaro. It's special, it's a special mountain to me, and thank you, michelle, for inspiring me to share this, this experience, here on the pod, and I think this is a good place to share this awesome song. This is our guides singing to us at Barafu, the final camp before the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Speaker 2: 8:33

There is no matata. There is no matata. There is no matata, there is no matata, there is no matata. There is no matata, there is no matata, there is no matata. The Lord's Word, the Lord's Word is very good, the Lord's. Word is very good the Lord's Word. Thank you Jumbo Jumbo, bwana Aparigani, nuzuri Sana Wageni Wakaribishwa Kilimanjaro.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Hakuna Matata, kilimanjaro.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Kilimanjaro, kilimanjaro.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Kilimanjaro.

Speaker 2: 9:40

Mimambe Kusana.

Speaker 1: 9:42

Kilimanjaro, kilimanjaro, kilimanjaro.

Speaker 2: 9:46

Kilimanjaro. I am a man of the land. I am a man of the land. I am a man of the land. I am a man of the land, hey you you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. Thank you.