Episode
Stage 4 & Thriving: How Chelsea Hassink Merged Medicine + Integrative Healing | Not Today Cancer
- Podcast
- Not Today Cancer
- Published
- Jun 2, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3656
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://www.jendelvaux.com
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Summary
What do you do when you're 40, building a "perfect on paper" life, and a routine first mammogram turns into a stage 4 cancer diagnosis? In this episode, Jen sits down with Chelsea Hassink, who was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver — and later her brain — at just 40 years old, with two young kids at home. Chelsea takes us through her entire journey: the intuition that told her it was worse than the doctors first said, six rounds of chemo, her decision to stop treatment and spend a year going fully integrative, and her transformative three weeks at Hope for Cancer in Mexico. She opens up about the brain tumor that led to a craniotomy, temporary paralysis, and a recovery she credits as much to mindset as to medicine. This is a raw, hopeful conversation about refusing to be put in a box, advocating fiercely for yourself, and merging the medical and integrative worlds on your own terms. Chelsea shares the exact framework she lives by, the role faith and prayer have played in her healing, and why she believes the stress she was carrying — not genetics — created the terrain her cancer thrived in. In this episode, we cover: Chelsea's original diagnosis and the "boring" checkup that missed every red flag Why she trusted her intuition over her initial stage 2 diagnosis Stopping chemo after 6 rounds and going integrative for a full year What Hope for Cancer is really like — and the mind, body, spirit work that changed her The bold, specific prayer and the "messenger in the parking lot" that led her to her craniotomy Losing and regaining mobility after brain surgery Where her scans stand today — and how she handles a curveball Finding an oncologist who meets you where you are (without guilt or scare tactics) Her 4-bucket healing framewor…