Continuing our Survivor series with a story that will blow your minds. You know I like to say that before cancer I lived on caffeine and cortisol. I may have avoided the bad foods and looked really healthy, but as I got closer to my GBM diagnosis (looking back) I realize just how stressed out I was and what a toll that took on my body, especially my immune system. Jennifer Dickenson was living a similar way - probably times ten - when she was diagnosed with glioblastoma. The good news is she's now a 14 year survivor, living her best life and is here to help all of us chase that same dream, to not only survive cancer but to live even better after diagnosis. Author, Speaker, Cancer Survivor and Outlier, Jennifer Dickenson is an inspiration and I know you'll love her story as much as I do. Please check out her book, A Case for Hope. Because she lost her ability to read and had to relearn it took Jennifer 7 years to write this book, and I cannot wait to read it.

https://www.amazon.com/shop/thatbrainyblonde/list/29B1GJ1R6EVEF?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_2X2H989MK6BZZAPV8MQJ

https://www.instagram.com/jenniferldickenson/

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I want to thank YOU for taking time of your day to listen. I don’t know if you’re here because you’ve gotten a tough diagnosis or someone you love has - or if you just want to learn more about how to feel empowered to change your story and find purpose in your life. But I’m glad you’re here. If I can beat a universally deadly cancer and live a better, happier life, truly grateful for my cancer wake up call, I know the tools I’ve learned will help you too. Your life is about to get so much better.
Please share the Brainy Blonde Podcast with someone you love. See you soon!
Love you, Rebecca

https://www.instagram.com/thatbrainyblonde/
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Dr. Saskia Biskup is my hero, the doctor I attribute to my success in beating Glioblastoma for nearly eight years. Many of you know her as the innovator behind the "CeGat vaccine" or the vaccine in Germany. Dr. Biskup will explain in detail how the vaccine works, why she is specializing in GBM now but how she dreams this technology will one day help with many cancers. And she shares the news about the vaccine coming to the US in clinical trial in 2026. Please listen and share and let me know what questions you have afterwards. I will work on getting this into video format with captions as well.

Saskia Biskup, MD/PhD, is co-founder and managing director of Cecava. After inventing the neoepitope vaccine technology, she applied it to patients suffering from tumors of various origins in her doctor’s office in the setting of individual treatment attempts. Building on this experience, she co-founded cecava with her husband, Dirk Biskup (PhD), to conduct clinical trials to ultimately prove the efficacy of this novel therapy and to enable its approval for the benefit of cancer patients.

As a specialist in human genetics, Saskia is head of her own Center for Human Genetics and founder of the Medical Care Center for Diagnostics, Prevention, Oncology, and Gastroenterology (both in Tübingen, Germany). She is also co-founder and managing director of CeGaT GmbH, a leading global provider of genetic analyses for a wide range of demands in medical practice, research, and the pharmaceutical industry. In 2011, she was recognized as one of the ‘100 Women of Tomorrow’ by Germany’s Federal President, and in 2014, she received the Women Innovators Prize from the European Commission.

Between 2012 and 2014, she was medical director at the Institute of Clinical Genetics at the Olgahospital (Klinikum Stuttgart).

Saskia holds an MD and a PhD in genetics from the University of Würzburg.

https://cecava.com

https://rebeccadevine.wixsite.com/thatbrainyblonde/why-germany

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I want to thank YOU for taking time of your day to listen. I don’t know if you’re here because you’ve gotten a tough diagnosis or someone you love has - or if you just want to learn more about how to feel empowered to change your story and find purpose in your life. But I’m glad you’re here. If I can beat a universally deadly cancer and live a better, happier life, truly grateful for my cancer wake up call, I know the tools I’ve learned will help you too. Your life is about to get so much better.
Please share the Brainy Blonde Podcast with someone you love. See you soon!
Love you, Rebecca

https://www.instagram.com/thatbrainyblonde/
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Welcome back to the Brainy Blonde Podcast! Wow, you guys it has been quite a week. I am recovering from surgery and it’s a planned surgery as part of my protocol to prevent cancer because I now know my inherited cancer risk. It’s been quite a ride, but I’m sitting here thinking about how incredible the human body is once again and how fragile it can be.

Last week I was doing push-ups with a 15 pound weight between my legs and a few days ago I could barely walk from my bedroom to the bathroom, which is about 15 steps. On the flipside we are so darn strong. It’s amazing how we can come back from something really difficult and thrive!

Today on the podcast I am continuing the Survivor series with Amanda Melby. You are going to fall in love with Amanda. I’m telling you right now. She is sunshine. She is so funny, so warm and so kind. I am so excited to have made a new friend in her. Amanda is an ultra athlete and endurance athlete and while she was training for the most incredible intense endurance event that I’ve probably ever heard of called 29029 Everlasting she found out she had glioblastoma. 16 months later she is coming back and coming back strong.

What is incredible is not only how Amanda could be at the top of her fitness game and still get this horrible diagnosis (because that is how it goes with GBM), but on the flipside how this woman who has limited sensation in half of her body - half of her whole body - she has to tell you the story! - is still running. I’m so inspired by her I just love her to bits and I know you were going to be just as inspired.

Amanda wanted me to note the surgeon she talks about is Dr. Cheng and you can listen to him on Peter Atilla's podcast. I'll link it.

Amanda supports the Outlier Fund if you are looking for a place to donate in her honor as she continues to train.

https://peterattiamd.com/edwardchang/

https://www.theoutlierfund.org/

https://www.instagram.com/theamandamelby/?hl=en

Support the show

I want to thank YOU for taking time of your day to listen. I don’t know if you’re here because you’ve gotten a tough diagnosis or someone you love has - or if you just want to learn more about how to feel empowered to change your story and find purpose in your life. But I’m glad you’re here. If I can beat a universally deadly cancer and live a better, happier life, truly grateful for my cancer wake up call, I know the tools I’ve learned will help you too. Your life is about to get so much better.
Please share the Brainy Blonde Podcast with someone you love. See you soon!
Love you, Rebecca

https://www.instagram.com/thatbrainyblonde/
https://www.instagram.com/brainyblondepodcast