Some people simply don’t know how to give up. It doesn’t make sense to them. They’re like a gnarly desert plant that you chop, burn, uproot, and poison … and yet the damn thing still happily sprouts leaves and flowers and throws seeds all over the place as if to spite you.
That’s my friend Tondra Thompson. She’s been through everything — abuse as a child, divorce, myriad heath issues, and now cancer — and yet when I saw her Thursday, she was the same old Tondra: chipper, buoyant, selfless, and utterly unstoppable.
Tondra is one of those “package deal” people. She’s multi-talented, super intelligent, and business-savvy, but she’s also trustworthy and relentlessly determined, and she always puts others first. She has nine children, and nearly half of them are adopted.
As a social worker, she has worked as a counselor and a therapist with teens and parolees in California’s prison system. She’s taught at the university level and has started, developed, and managed several successful businesses. She’s a tremendous vocalist — think Whitney Houston meets Janis Joplin — as well as a songwriter and owner of Dame deVille Music.
She was in the middle of recording an album when cancer struck.
Cancer is a bitch no matter what form it takes. But Tondra was also diagnosed with Gilbert’s syndrome, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal except that it can cause serious problems for people undergoing chemotherapy. And in Tondra’s case, extensive chemotherapy is a certainty.
This all started in January when she went in for an ultrasound after finding a lump. Her nurse practitioner said that it was nothing to worry about, and an MRI also suggested that everything was fine. But Tondra has unusually strong intuition (whereas I usually can’t even find my keys) and knew that it was serious. She just knew. Tondra followed her heart and went straight to surgery.
She had the lump removed, and immediately afterwards she was informed that her intuition was correct. She was the lucky winner of not just run-of-the-mill breast cancer but also grade 3 invasive carcinoma.
Translation: Cancer was John Mayer, and Tondra’s body was a wonderland.
After a second surgery, a double mastectomy was next. Both of her lungs collapsed — which is insane to conceive if you’ve ever heard her sing. You know the part in Spinal Tap when Nigel Tufnel explains how his amp goes to eleven? Well, so did Tondra’s lungs. The left lung had to be punctured for life support.
The cancer’s estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and Her2 levels were all measured at 100 percent. That’s extremely rare in the sort of way that it’s extremely rare for someone to randomly sneeze $50 bills. Her surgeon was flabbergasted by these test results.
Translation: Cancer was House of Pain, and it came to get down.
Currently, Tondra cannot move her arms more than six inches away from her body. She is on oxygen at night, and her body is having trouble absorbing nutrients. As you might imagine, she is in pain. She depends upon her children and friends to help her dress, wash her hair, and tuck her into bed. One of her adopted children has gone on family medical leave, leaving her own children with her husband so that she can stay with her mother and care for her and her siblings and run errands. Tondra moved from her large house in Enoch to a smaller, more manageable home in Cedar City. Her church family at True Life Center is helping with meals for her four at-home children.
Tondra’s approach to all of this? Bring it on! “I plan on thriving through this experience,” she said. “I hold the hand of Jesus. I refuse to let go!”
Tondra has liquidated all of her assets to pay for medical expenses. Ironically, despite her hard work, she does not have medical insurance. Or rather, she did — but now that she actually needs it but can’t work, she doesn’t. One of the greatest shames of our nation is how we have allowed the medical insurance industry to feed upon us like some vampire and leave us to die when we’ve been bled dry.
She will be going to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City next month. She is doing everything she can to cleanse and empower her body in preparation for the years ahead, including going vegan, exercising daily, and getting plenty of sun.
Fortunately, she has been approved through Utah’s Cancer Control Program, but while it helps with medical costs, there is a great deal that it will not cover. She has undergone three surgeries but has two more ahead of her in the next five months.
She is raising funds not just for herself; she’s taking someone with her. For starters, she’s planning on doing both a concert and a luncheon as fundraisers “to raise enough funds to help another walking through the fire” with her. She says that she wants to bring more resources to the area as a result of her experience.
Today, Mother’s Day, Tondra goes to the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego. There she will undergo more treatment in order to strengthen her immune system and alkalize her body.
Tondra isn’t the only person in the world to get cancer. It’s the No. 2 cause of death in America today. Cancer is simply what happens when damaged, mutated cells grow uncontrollably, and prevention is the best medicine. Protect your body today and you’ve beaten cancer before it has a chance to attack.
Learn ways to change your diet and lifestyle in order to minimize your own chances of developing cancer. While genetics play a role, your diet and lifestyle are your main defenses. By eating organic foods and minimizing processed foods, GMO foods, animal foods, drugs, and alcohol, you can lessen the damage you do to your own body that can manifest later as cancer. In the relatively radioactive land of Southern Utah, iodine drops can be a simple, cheap, and effective tool in cancer prevention (ask your doctor). By keeping your body in a more alkaline state through diet, you help strengthen it against disease. One easy thing to do is to drink lemon juice and add a pinch of baking soda to your drinking water. For a basic list of acid and alkaline foods, click here.
Think about your friends and family and the pain they would suffer as a potential consequence of unhealthy diet and lifestyle choices. Don’t do it for yourself; do it for them.
In addition, prayer works. It has nothing to do with religion. Studies have shown that both traditional prayer as well as nontheistic intention practices, like metta or tonglen from Buddhist traditions, have an impact on patient survival and recovery. I don’t know how or why it works, but who cares? The point is that it works.
So this Mother’s Day, please pray for Tondra, and follow the hashtag #TriumphantTondra to follow her progress. Consider making a donation of any size at her GoFundMe page. And think about how cancer would affect your family if it struck and what you can do to prevent that from happening.
Like Linda Carter and Gloria Gaynor, Tondra Thompson is a wonder woman despite all odds, and she will survive.
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Love,AC