Fighting Cancer

Thank you.

Well, first of all, I am so honored to be here today.

I mean, I just think this whole organization is amazing. And I was asked to speak a couple of years ago and wasn't able to because this is kind of a difficult weekend usually. But I was so thrilled I got to do it this year and I had no idea that it was 36 years because next year is my 30th birthday of of becoming healthy and sort of changing my lifestyle. And you guys are seven years ahead of me, but, you know, in seven years is even better. I mean, it's just amazing that this has been going on and we have such a fight ahead of us still. We are. I am seeing things changed so much over the last 30 years. But we still have a long way to go. And I hope that next year we have twice as many people and twice as the venues even bigger, and that people become more and more aware of the alternative therapies that are available to people who are fighting cancer or fighting any kind of life threatening disease or just want to get healthier. You know, I've my husband is here with me today, and I know we only have, like, you know, a short time to speak. And it was so incredible to listen to Dr. SEVENTY-NINE. And there's nothing like walking. We went out to like, you know, go to the bathroom and to go through our notes and stuff like that and to walk into a standing ovation. So I know that he was just an amazing speaker. And I hope that next time we all get more time to spend with everybody and to really, you know, really connect with everybody, even on a more personal level. I wanted to start my speech today by talking about how I got into this. And I'll be very brief about that, because it wasn't really through cancer, but it was a real wakeup call for me. My parents both died in their 50s. My father died of a heart attack at 52 years old. He was seemed to be this vibrant, healthy man who was knocked down in a second by a heart attack. And my mother, who was 58 and she died of arthritis a few years after my father passed away and hurt her. Her disease took a little bit more of a progression. My mother was teaching dancing in December because we had a dancing school in our backyard. We all took dancing and everything. My mother was teaching dancing in December. She went to bed