For those of you who missed the AFA 5K on July 23^rd and the interview with cancer survivor Kristin, below is her story.

At forty three years old, Kristin was doing better than ever with her health. A few years prior she had been sixty pounds heavier and struggled with high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and depression. She went on a mission to tune up her body. She became a vegan. She became a health coach. She practiced a healthy, naturally-focused diet and lifestyle. The pounds shed off and she felt fantastic, finally headed in the right direction along the tracks of life.

Unbeknownst to her and despite how great she felt, this train would quickly derail and come to a screeching halt. She started noticing that her hair was thinning and that she began to have nail ridges, which she had never had before. Suspecting that it might be due to a thyroid issue or stress, she went in for a routine physical to figure out what was going on. At the request of her doctor, Kristin agreed to get a mammogram although she wasn’t entirely sure that she needed one. Something inside of her told her to just check in case. That little voice of intuition must have been guiding her with good intent, because the results showed that she had breast cancer.

She was floored. She didn’t understand how this could be, as she was incredibly health conscious and spent so much energy on maintaining her vitality. The doctors said that they believed it to be Stage 1 Breast Cancer, guessing that the tumor itself was around 1 centimeter in size. They recommended getting a biopsy and she complied. The results showed that the tumor was in fact cancerous.

On October 22, 2014, a Lumpectomy was performed. The tumor was not 1 centimeter; the Tumor was 7 ½ centimeters and had spread into her lymph nodes. In a split second, everything had changed. What they thought was Stage 1 Breast Cancer was actually Stage 3 Breast Cancer. This was far more serious. Due to her age, they recommended aggressive chemotherapy and radiation and wanted her to begin with these therapies in 8-12 weeks.

She was caught in a storm that she could not escape. She knew how serious the diagnosis was but also had a strong desire to stay committed to her natural lifestyle. Could she fight the disease in a holistic manner, without the commonly-used and highly-recommended traditional methods? She wasn’t sure. Experts were telling her one thing. Her heart was telling her another.

She had more fear about making this choice than she did about dying from the disease. “When I was with the oncologist there was a spirit of fear. Every time I went to the oncology building there was just a spirit of fear. And I understand it because cancer is a scary thing. But I was just not willing to make the decision from a place of fear”. So what did she do? She refused to accept that she had to use traditional therapies to win this war. She dug her heels into the ground, and said no.

During those following weeks that she would have otherwise been preparing for chemo and radiation, she started researching places that would provide her with the alternative treatment goals that she preferred. After searching in other states and even in other countries, she suddenly recalled a place right near home. The Total Health Institute in Wheaton, Illinois, was a place that she was already familiar with. She had gone there in 2011 somewhere near the start of her health journey but because she was doing okay at the time, she had never continued on to use a treatment plan. How strange that life somehow brings us right back to the beginning…

Total Health was founded by Dr. Keith Namac who has traveled around the world researching and discussing alternative methods with some of the top healing minds in our time. His belief is that God created humans to live in total health and that we can do so by repairing the very connections that make us who we are. In essence, along with physical changes that need to be made, there are a number of intangible issues that need to be handled as well. Kristin says that “the whole theory behind the treatment is getting mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual alignment so that your body can do what it is designed to do, which is heal itself”.

Their belief at the institute is that we all have cancer cells, but when our body is out of balance, we are unable to keep these cells from proliferating. Therefore, they set in place an intensive six month program to get her realigned and heading down the right tracks once again. She began a number of treatments designed to fight the cancer at many different levels. Along with an intensive, raw, vegan diet, she also took many supplements for deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. She began a nine-part therapy program that involved Biophoton Laser Therapy, Colon Hydrotherapy, Lymphatic Drainage Therapy, IV Vitamin C Therapy, PEMFT (Pulsed Electrical Magnetic Field Therapy), NeuroVisceral Therapy, Heart Brain Entrainment Therapy, NeuroHormonal Therapy, and Oxygen Therapy. Each and every one of these separate pieces work together in harmony to mend the whole.

For the most part she felt okay during these treatments. On her best days she had to remind herself that she even had the disease as she physically felt well. On her worst days, she had exhaustion and nausea from the detoxification that was happening in her body. She pressed on, though, determined to heal herself in the most natural ways possible. Throughout the ordeal, Kristin began processing her experience and emotions in healthy ways such as through counseling, writing in her journal, light exercise, and praying. She recognized that many illnesses are directly influenced by outwardly issues. “When we internalize what’s going on in our world, it has to be expressed somehow. Our emotions have to be expressed. And if we don’t handle them in a healthy way, our body will get them out somehow and it’s usually through illness”. She believes that her trapped emotions expressed themselves genetically through cancer, just as others will experience illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes when they fail to release present and past burdens on the mind and soul. “For me, that was key. I really had to address that”.

She also counts on her faith and connection to Christ. As a spiritual person, she prayed and attended church. After a year and a half, her prayers have been answered as she has had three clean mammograms. She also had large fibroids that decreased fifty percent in size despite the doctors saying that these would be sticking around until they could be removed. She believes that if she continues, these will be completely gone as well.

This is not to say that it was an easy road. On top of the taxing physical and emotional aspects of her recovery, she also racked up $20,000 in bills for her treatments. Her insurance would have covered half a million for conventional therapy, but wouldn’t contribute a dime towards a natural, alternative approach (and one that has helped her tremendously). She reached out to the community and to family and friends for support and created a GoFundMe account to assist with the colossal debt that she has acquired in simply trying to get better.  After hearing from a friend about Answers for Angels, she reached out to us as well. She then became the tenth recipient of the AFA grant.

Kristin’s costs for supplements and organic foods are still very high.  Please help her make ends meet by going to her GoFundMe account to donate.  If you’d like to receive a tax receipt, donate to AnswersForAngels and mention Kristin Sauer in the memo; we will send Kristin 100% of the funds.

Kristin, we are so happy for you and are proud to assist you on your journey and fight against cancer. We fully support your alternative approach and your healthy, optimistic views on healing. We will be with you every step of the way. Here’s to your happiness, health, and to reaching five years of clean mammograms!