My

Story

Hi!

My name is Simran.

Cancer and I were first introduced to each other when I was 13 years old. Since then, I have experienced a lot of life – through my own lived experiences, through the eyes of my loved ones and through the stories of my patients – who all shared two things in common with me, a genetic mutation or cancer.

Over the past 20 years, I have experienced how it feels…

➡ to watch your mom, lose her hair and so much more of herself from cancer treatment at 13 years old followed by years of suffering from premature menopause, depression & ultimately divorce

➡ to find out in your 20s that you carry the same genetic mutation as your mom that radically increases your lifetime risk of cancer

➡ to be a doctor and patient simultaneously, witnessing the worst-case scenarios of serious illness, especially breast and reproductive cancers – premature menopause, chronic pain, loss of control, suffering and worst of all, death.

➡ to go down the google blackhole looking for ways to decrease your risk of cancer 

➡ to lose a loved one to cancer

➡ to care for someone, as their doctor, with the same genetic mutation as you, at the end of life.

➡ to have years of doctors’ appointments, screening tests and a couple of biopsies for suspicious lesions

➡ to be a woman of color, bound by cultural taboos & family resistance, in the world of cancer

➡ to witness your mom be diagnosed with cancer again the same month she celebrated being 15 years cancer free.

➡ to feel the intense pressures of back-to-back pregnancies & new motherhood while working as a full-time physician

➡ to be a mama of two babies, who each have a 50% risk of inheriting this mutation from you, and the remorse that comes with that

➡ to be plagued by one tough medical decision after the next and being unsure how it may affect you physically, mentally, emotionally or sexually in the future

➡ to find the blessing in disguise -- that knowing about your mutation gave you choices to proactively decrease your risk of cancer that your mom and patients didn’t get

➡ to make the brave decision to have a preventative bilateral nipple sparing mastectomy with aesthetic flat closure (no reconstruction) and a total hysterectomy putting you into surgical menopause at the age of 32 during a global pandemic while working as a palliative care physician married to a critical care physician caring for the sickest people affected by COVID-19

➡ to have emergency surgery following your procedures and be dependent on your husband for your most basic daily needs for the weeks to come

➡ to finally get a call to action from the universe – to make the decision to commit yourself to your self-care, or rather your self-preservation and quality of life. 

On this journey, here is what I have learned:

1.

Food is medicine. Movement is medicine. Your mindset is medicine. Your lifestyle is the most powerful medicine that has ever existed.

2.

There is incredible power in choosing what to focus on, what meaning you give to things and making committed decisions on what you will do next.

3.

Have an abundance of gratitude over fear.

What I realized was that the most amazing things, the biggest opportunities, and the life-defining moments that happen to people, are often disguised as impossible situations. My BRCA1 mutation diagnosis led me to discover the powerful effects of evidence-based lifestyle medicine – my life’s ultimate purpose. It took me from cancer awareness to ACTION against cancer, not only through the advances in medical therapy, but more significantly through embracing lifestyle habits that empowered me to transform the way I think, eat, move, sleep, manage stress, and connect with others.

My transformation, which began with adopting a vegetarian diet in 2015 to a vegan diet in 2018 to a full lifestyle revamp in 2020 after surgery, has given me back what I was longing for all these years – Autonomy, Confidence and Wellbeing!

I hope to support you, through 1:1 coaching or one of my signature self-paced courses (coming soon!), in cultivating a lifestyle that allows you to reach your highest potential and make the most out of this very short life that we have been gifted. I’ve been through this, so I truly know it feels. As hard as it has been, I literally “grew through what I went through” and made it to the other side. I want you to know that you will too. And I’m here for you -- let’s show the world we can do hard, beautiful things! 

In Health & Happiness, 
Simran