Cuisine for Healing was created by Wendy Wilkie in the midst of her brave and tenacious battle with cancer. During her fight, she turned to food to help heal and prolong her life. The power of healthy, healing food allowed Wendy to defy the odds, and she created Cuisine for Healing to help make food and educational information easily and readily available to others fighting for their lives.

Originally diagnosed in 1999, Wendy passed away in August, 2008 during her third battle with cancer. She was driven and passionate about Cuisine for Healing’s mission to the very end. Her big heart, selflessness, tenacity and spirit live on!

Here is Wendy’s story….in her own words:

“Hi, my name is Wendy, and I am a Stage IV Breast Cancer Survivor!

I was first diagnosed May 1999…I was 42 years old. The cancer was very small, but very aggressive. I had a mastectomy followed by 6 rounds of chemotherapy. I took Tamoxifen (the recommended hormone therapy for estrogen positive cancer). Four years later, October 2003, a bone morrow biopsy confirmed the cancer had metastasized. It was in my bone morrow, liver and spleen. I had Stage IV Breast Cancer and the doctors at MD Anderson told me the average person might live 2 years! Wow…what do you do with information like that? I quickly responded with ‘I’m not average’ and proceeded to fight for my life.

By September 2004, I had endured 5 blood transfusions, 9 months of various chemotherapy ‘cocktails’ and numerous scans and biopsies. After all of that the cancer was only stabilized. Well, at least it hadn’t grown. During this time, I was doing massive research on the internet reading everything I could about breast cancer, conventional treatments, complimentary treatments and alternative treatments. I had 2 children, ages 8 and 10 and I wanted to live! It had always been important to me to take a good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement. The information available on the internet regarding cancer and treatments was overwhelming, to say the least.

A friend of mine sent me a book Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin, PHD, RD, CNS. Dr. Quillin served as Director of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) for 10 years. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in nutrition and is a registered and licensed dietitian (RD & LD) and Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) with the American College of Nutrition. He has been a consultant to the National Institute of Health, U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Group, Scripps Clinic, La Costa Spa and United States Department of Agriculture. What I read in his book brought together alot of the information I had found on the internet from many different sources. I also learned there were actually certain foods and spices that helped heal the body as well. I made an appointment at CTCA to be seen as a patient. At this time, my cancer was stable but it wasn’t getting better. I learned a lot about nutrition and its role (and difference) for a cancer patient. CTCA has a cafeteria at their hospital unlike any you’ve ever seen. They serve healthy, healing food and it taste fabulous!! I learned that not only is a well nourished cancer patient better able to manage and beat the disease…it gives them such a better quality of life.

Back home it was extremely difficult to find food that was ‘clean and untainted.’ Not only eating out, but buying food at the grocery store as well. I was reading labels on everything, mainly to ensure that I didn’t ingest any hormones, antibiotics, preservatives and most important…sugar! At the time, I couldn’t even find any bread that was made without trans fats.  Panera was where I would go to buy bread and happily discovered they served hormone-free chicken!!

One day I was discussing all of this with a friend of mine who had graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and had owned a catering company in Austin. We talked about how much information was available regarding healing food on the internet, the bookstores and libraries. There were millions of recipes available as well, but there wasn’t any food ‘readily available’ or ‘already prepared.’ The only way I could eat this way was to shop for the food and make it at home. I was a single mom with 2 young children and still working full time while taking chemo treatments. I didn’t have the energy. This food needed to be readily available, already prepared. We had identified the need and the idea was born.

A few months later, my aunt called to tell me their ChristCare group from church wanted to supply us with some food from ‘Super Suppers.’ She asked me to take a look at their menu offerings and let her know which one we would like. I called them to inquire about the source of their chicken. Was it hormone and antibiotic free? They couldn’t say, and I couldn’t eat it. I decided then that I wanted to work to change things. The idea of Cuisine for Healing began to take shape and we’ve worked for a year and a half to develop the concept. It’s a huge undertaking…but I think we can make a huge difference for people who are fighting a life threatening disease as well as those who are interested in prevention.

It IS an idea whose time has come!!”