I wanted to share a story with you about a friend of mine. Her name is Meghan, and she’s survived cancer three times. Once when she was 13 years old (germ-cell tumor), again when she was 16 acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and again when she was 27 and pregnant (squamous cell carcinoma). Her courage and persistence are very inspirational to me, and she’s found a natural way to help fortify her health I think is worth sharing with our readers.
When I asked Meghan about the key to her survival, she said, “Constantly want more for yourself. If you’re not satisfied with the answers you’re getting, be your own number-one advocate.” Having struggled with severe fatigue most of her life, Meghan had to do her own research to find a solution.
“Part of it is taking ownership of your own health,” she says. “Doctors are not gods, and Western medicine is only one piece of the pie.”
Meghan went through a bone-marrow transplant to help cure her AML, and then suffered a serious infection. She found herself in bed for months, unable to beat the fatigue. “As the years went on, my fatigue would be shortened. I would have a good spurt, and during that time I’d try to live quickly, because I didn’t know when I would slip back again.”
At 21 years old, Meghan launched a successful career as an actress in film, television, and voiceovers. Her career blossomed, she got married, and it seemed life was turning around. “But it was like I always knew that fatigue was there. I had to pull myself out of work at times. It was always my reality, no matter how good my life was.”
It wasn’t until she was diagnosed for a third time, however, that Meghan found her solution. She was 27 when doctors diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma, and a tumor on her tongue. She lost a third of it, along with 40 lymph nodes from her neck. She would lose her career as a result, which hit her hard emotionally, but at the same time, a girlfriend finally convinced her to try Usana Health Sciences nutritionals. “I got on a nutritional program and in five days I noticed a difference,” she says. “The color in my cheeks came back, the dark circles under my eyes dissipated, and week after week I got better and better. My family wondered what was going on. My body hadn’t responded to so many of the other things we’d tried over the years.”
She credits Usana’s pharmaceutical-grade products for her health turn-around. “Most supplements fall under the food-grade act, which allows lower-quality, but Usana’s live up to pharmaceutical standards, and are more bioavailable to the body.” Now, four years into using the nutritionals, Meghan said she has the best health she’s ever had in her life. “I would never say it cured my cancer, but it supported my body at the cellular level. I’ve had so many toxins from radiation and chemotherapy and drugs, my body didn’t know what to do with them, so it was dragging me down in endless fatigue. The nutritionals help your system clear out the toxins, releasing energy.”
Meghan says it’s unfortunate that many oncologists tell patients not to take nutritionals, because they’re unsure of the effects. “Western doctors will be the first to admit they don’t know enough about nutritionals. The people I’ve known who’ve chosen to listen to themselves and use the vitamins, minerals, wheat grass, colonics, whatever that they need, have an easier time through treatment, and more longevity.”
I asked Meghan how she’s remained so positive after surviving so much. “I didn’t hang on too much on ‘why me.’ Why anyone? Why did the Holocaust happen? Why do young children get sick and die? We can ask ourselves that question in so many ways. Why, why, why? It doesn’t make it change. Instead, I would ask, ‘What do I need to get through this?’ I’m constantly striving for more in my life everyday. We don’t have to settle. Ask yourself what you need in this moment, and then do your best to get it. Everything you do is one step closer to having a little more for yourself.”
To learn more about Meghan and Usana nutritionals, please visit her web site: www.meghanblack.usana.com.
