The Unremarkable Wendy Hammers.
Pancreatic Cancer Survivor and Thriver.

Diagnosed in 2015.
Deemed unremarkable (all clear) in 2016.
Living in gratitude every day since.

Turning pain into purpose, and utilizing humor and my optimist spirit, I have the privilege and pleasure of sharing my story of how I “broke up” with cancer with organizations from coast to coast. Whether long term survivors, folks new on their journey, or caregivers and support staff, I’d be honored to speak with your group.

I’m a keynote speaker, stand-up comic, actress, dancer, published author, storyteller, and creative community builder.

So here’s to health, to art, to life, and to the prospect of sharing my story with you soon.

Wendy Hammers

The Unremarkable Wendy Hammers.
Pancreatic Cancer Survivor and Thriver.

  • Worth it Rule – When it comes to men (or women), bread, and chocolate, there are only two kinds – worth it and not worth it. Seriously. And you can apply to almost everything in your life. Don’t waste your time with not worth it. Life is too short, especially for those of us that nearly lost theirs.
  • Close/Further Principle – Everything – every person, place, interaction, thought, and action, including what we put in our minds, hearts, and bodies – everything – brings us closer to health or further from it. I do my very best to make all of my life choices with this in mind.
  • Worry Later. Because we only have today. And when dealing with life challenging situations, thinking about tomorrow can sometimes feel overwhelming. And yesterday is old news. And if there really is something to worry about, we can do it then. But the practice of living in the now and breathing into this moment can squash some potential future bogeyman.
  • Self Love Masterclass – As a 10 + year survivor from pancreatic cancer, who is now thriving, I can look back and see that my time with cancer was a master class in self love. I had to weed my garden of everyone and everything that did not feel loving, so I could strengthen myself, physically and emotionally. I did not then (nor do I now) have the luxury of being unkind to myself. And I no longer want to anyhow, as I have come to truly understand what a magnificent blessing my precious life it.
  • Why Aging is a Good Thing – This is such a simple principle but so many people don’t seem to get it. Aging – getting older – is the opposite of dying. Aging is what happens if you are lucky.
  • What Are We Really Afraid of – it is my believe that people fear aging because it reminds them that they are mortal and that they are dying. I also believed that people fear dying because they are not truly living, tasting the moments that they have right now.
  • Community in Recovery – here’s the thing – even if we could heal and thrive completely on our own, why would we even want to? I believe we need each other to grow, heal, process, figure the darn thing out,  whatever it is. Having support doesn’t make us weaker; it makes us stronger. It gives us perspective, insight, potential solutions that we may not have discovered on our own.
  • Why I Got Cancer – this is the only thing on this list I don’t have an absolute answer for. My best guess is so I could live to tell the tale and help others. But in that – the passion to make a difference in someone else’s life – to turn my pain and challenging experiences into a golden salve that can help alleviate or eliminate pain in another – that is my best guess as to why I got cancer. I’m not sure why we get the challenges we get are important. The bigger thing of course is what we do with the challenges that present themselves. Do we turn them into gifts or do we allow them to continue to be our identities and our liability?
Wendy Hammers

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