B4BC’S CHASING SUNSHINE DOCUMENTARY NOMINATED FOR THE ROCKIE AWARDS AT THE BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL
We are proud to announce that our Chasing Sunshine documentary, directed by Paul Watt and Megan Pischke, and produced by Erika Seward, has been nominated for the 2016 Rockie Awards at the Banff World Media Festival taking place in Banff Alberta, June 13, 2016. What is uniquely special about this nomination is that our B4BC documentary was nominated in the category of “Science and Technology” and selected by an industry jury of professionals working in entertainment and media from around the world.
Previously, Chasing Sunshine has been nominated and won awards in categories such as women in film, action sports, and snowboarding, but in this case, it was for the alternative scientific methods and research that Megan Pischke and her family, friends, and doctors put into her journey with breast cancer and recovery.
Megan, who has recently been promoted to B4BC’s Health and Wellness Manager, put together a list of the “science of it all” in order to share information and inspiration for other young women.
Here’s what she went through and some alternative options to consider as seen in Chasing Sunshine:
- Acupuncture treatments: 11 months for 24 visits. This took place sometimes weekly, sometimes bi-monthly…sometimes every three weeks, depending on what was going on. I really leaned on this for almost everything. From side-effects of drugs, after surgery, emotional wreckage, and for all healing.
- Vitamin C IV’s: Weekly infusions for 11 months/
- Radiation was once a day for 28 days in a row with weekends off.
- Chemo included 16 treatments. The first four of A/C was every three weeks; the following 12 were weekly.
- Localized Hyperthermia which was done with chemo: For A/C it was the day of, and two more the same week of, 48 hours apart. For the second chemo it was the day of–I had 24 treatments total of this. I now do an all-body Hyperthermia, that’s twice a year for the next two years. The hyperthermia I think was my best scientific weapon. With hypothermia, you can target the area where there was known disease, by heating up your cells in that area and lymph up to the exact temperature that (cancer) cells turn over and die, (42.5 Celsius), and if the cancer cells are stubborn and don’t turn over, this treatments make them more permeable for the chemo agent to do its job–actually 400 times more potent (real number).
- Cold caps: 256 times I put a cold cap on my head to keep my scalp frozen during chemo infusions. Brrr, but it worked.
- Craniosacral therapy was done quite a bit around surgery, and I believe helped me with some range of motion, and physical/emotional support.
- Chiropractic care which I did a lot. I counted 20 times within the 11 months. Nearly weekly, especially after surgery and recovery, during chemo, and now during recovery from all that. I was worked not only from not being active (which I am not used to), but chemo is very physiological, and I would constantly feel “out” and needed that support to keep working towards re-aligning. Plus my chiro does all sorts of weird stuff, I don’t even know what she’s up to, but it works.
- Meditation is an ongoing practice, but has definitely evolved, and I found a secure place within me for the rest of my life. It’s quite beautiful and powerful to practice being “detached” from your story…or just being. This was just as much a medicine as everything else.
The Rockie Awards ceremony takes place June 13, 2016, at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta. While we hope to win the Science and Technology category, we are forever proud of our documentary and the education, hope, and inspiration it continues to provide other people around the world!
Chasing Sunshine is now available to download on iTunes and as an in-app purchase on our B4BC app.
