Yoli Origel’s story is movie-worthy. After battling breast cancer, Yoli started an organization called Cancer Kinship, a program that equips cancer survivors with mentorship, support systems, and socialization, and they seek to educate survivors about the unique physical, mental, and emotional effects of cancer. Podcast host Brittany Moses got the chance to sit down with Yoli and hear a little bit about what her holistic health, and particularly her mental resiliency, has looked like during her cancer journey.
BM: Could you share a little bit about the importance of that mental resilience and how that played a role for you or how you were able to create some mental resilience for yourself? What contributed to those times that helped you continue to fight?
YO: …My mom was also diagnosed in her thirties, and she ultimately passed away at the age of 42. But during her cancer battle, I always saw her in this Spirit-filled way. She was a very faithful woman, loved the Lord, and that was her fuel to just keep fighting. But also, when she knew she wasn’t going to make it, she was still praying for others. She was just this loving, amazing woman… So when I heard the terrible news of being diagnosed with stage three cancer, yes I was scared, I started crying immediately. But as soon as I was able to learn a little bit more about my specific cancer case and learn what was gonna be ahead and how I could be a part of the healthcare solution, the things I could take control back from after this diagnosis, then there was this shift in my mindset… Instead of why me, here I am with this diagnosis. Let’s go, let’s fight. So for me it was really experiencing and witnessing firsthand my mother and her incredible grit, her resilience, and her faith.
BM: Something that we’ve talked about in the past at WeShare is the importance of health literacy… are there any practical approaches that you took to healthing both mentally and physically?
YO: There’s not a lot of information, or at least there wasn’t when I was going through cancer sixteen years ago, about the importance of nutrition while you’re going through treatment, and definitely not a lot of information about mental health back then, and there’s so much more now which I’m so grateful for…For me, it took a friend who noticed that I was struggling physically, and she said you need to go talk to an integrative health doctor and look at your bloodwork and see what’s happening in your body… He just looked at the bloodwork I had from my oncologist and he gave me this entire massive list, this whole protocol…and as soon as I started eating differently, hydrating differently, supplementing what I needed. It was like night and day change…my inflammation went down to the point that for my last two chemotherapies, I didn’t need to take pain medication. Before that, I was taking pain meds around the clock and it wasn’t working. Nutrition helped me significantly during the treatment and gave me enough of a boost to keep fighting.
Yoli is a light and encouragement to any who meet her, and we know you’ll love her just as much as we do! To hear the full episode, search for The WeShare Podcast on any listening platform or head to our site.
