Shenell Malloy: Fighting to Beat Glioblastoma
Stunned to her core when she was diagnosed with the aggressive form of brain cancer, Shenell committed herself to doing whatever it took to defeat her cancer.
In early 2019, my world flipped upside down and my life changed forever. One moment I am a healthy, active, 36-year-old mom of two beautiful children living a normal life. The next, I’m staring at an image of a mass in my brain, being told I needed brain surgery because I may have the deadliest form of all cancers, glioblastoma. At that moment, time stopped and my breath was ripped away from me. I was in absolute shock, so many questions racing through my mind.
While I was still recovering from brain surgery, my oncologist recommended I immediately begin 42 days of combined radiation and chemotherapy. Those 42 days were the hardest and darkest days of my life, and I am so thankful for the love and support I received from my family, friends, integrative healers, and doctors. I was determined to fight and do whatever it took to heal. Not only was this a physical fight, but I knew I had to begin a mental, emotional, and spiritual healing journey.
I began listening to my body, using food as medicine by eating organic foods and eliminating refined sugar and grains. I did weekly hypnotherapy, acupuncture, reiki, cranial sacral massages, daily meditation, walks on the beach, and Epsom salt baths. Basically, anything and everything I could do to help my mind, body, and spirit heal. I could not have made it through conventional cancer treatment without doing every one of these practices. I made the choice to fight, the choice to live, to be positive, and trust that my body has the power to heal. I worked through stored trauma and negative emotions and let go of anything that felt heavy or stressful. Feeding my cells with positive, loving thoughts and visualizing a time when I would grow old and one day hold my grandchild.
A moment that I would fight to live for.
Every day I told myself these healing affirmations: I am healthy, I am strong, I am HEALED, because that was the truth I wanted my mind, body, and soul to hear so that it could one day become my reality. I believe everything happens for a reason and there are valuable lessons and growth when we are faced with hardship and pain. I know I am alive today to help others going through this horrible health crisis and to help give others the hope that better days are ahead.
I hope to share my journey and lessons learned through Do Cancer, a nonprofit I helped create to provide a place of hope, support, and positivity for those who hear the dreadful words, “you have cancer.” A resource to help those in need of finding hope, inspiration, and the strength to never stop believing in miracles, because I am one. I know together we can do this, we can do anything, we can Do Cancer!
Until there is a cure for cancer, long-term survivors are the key to finding answers. Hope is the greatest medicine of all.
Whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver, or loved one touched by cancer, your story can have an enormous impact. You can provide hope and inspiration to someone recently diagnosed with cancer or a patient undergoing therapy.
Share Your StoryThe AACR was saddened to learn that Shenell Malloy died on May 18, 2024. We are deeply grateful to Shenell for sharing her journey and lessons through Do Cancer and with the AACR. We offer our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and loved ones.
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