When Cancer Becomes About Living One’s Truth

Colleen Gallagher is very open about how her early formative years were filled with subconscious anger, guilt, and a persistent sense of unworthiness. All this after being diagnosed with cancer at age 14, a life event that drove her to blame the world for her constant state of unhappiness. 

Yet at age 23, she made the decision that enough was enough. This led her to explore ways in which to turn her cancer into a gift and discover why she was here. So she quit her job and abruptly moved across the world to New Zealand to heal herself through self-love. This period of her life and the experiences she garnered led her to discover the undercurrent of why many people live their lives in subconscious negativity, holding them from their true potential.  

In her book “Live Your Truth: Start Your Journey to Freedom and Healing,” Colleen shares her powerful story on how she sparked what she calls “The Intoxicator Moment,” which allowed her to look within, remove the toxic debris, and experience what’s left of their truth in the world. Live Your Truth challenges and empowers readers to undertake their own journey through this five-step process of not only finding their truth but living it. 

What sparked your decision to write the book “Live Your Truth?”

It’s ironic because I never saw myself as an author or writer. To be honest, English class was one of my least favorite because I sucked at spelling as I’m dyslexic. However, I was at a point in my life where I went through a horrible breakup with someone I deeply loved, a best friend, and someone I still feel to this day supported me in opening myself up to be who I am.

Can you recall the exact moment when this shift occurred? 

Sure can. I was working for a $23 billion company and came home one day after closing the largest sale in my career. I fell on the couch and started to cry. I said, “God, I know this cannot be it. I know there must be more to this life. Please show me.”

So what occurred next? 

Instantly the idea came into my head to Google the word “visas” as my biggest goal at the time was to live internationally. Because America makes it seem so hard to get a visa, I thought this was the case for every country unless you were working with a corporation or a student. So, in googling visas, New Zealand and Australia came up with information on how to acquire one-year visas for $25. I was shocked! I’d never been to this part of the world. But I had traveled all over Europe. I figured since I had not heard much about New Zealand this would be a new adventure. So I decided to go. 

Describe the roadmap you created which allowed you to make this happen.

I saved my money for three months, booked my flight, gave my two weeks’ notice, and went to New Zealand to find “happiness.” Within one month, I got a job with a $400 million company. It was then that I realized quickly that you cannot just pick up and move somewhere with a similar lifestyle and expect a different result. So I committed myself to yoga and meditation 4 hours a day, stopped eating meat, and drank much less. 

Looking back now, how did this experience prompt you to write a book? 

I felt this deep calling within me at age 23 that I just wanted to find a way to be happy in this life. I wanted to simply know I could wake up every day and do something I love, have a beautiful career, and make a difference in this world. I sincerely craved to understand that there was more to this life, and I wanted to figure it out for myself. And about four months into this journey, the idea just came to me to write a book. It was a thought just like a cloud passing in the sky, but now I saw it, and it made sense.

So, I grabbed onto that thought, and I acted. I got a coach and a mentor. I started to see how I could build a coaching business and brand around my book. I went to my first entrepreneur retreat in Fiji. The book flew through me, was self-published in February 2018, and then through my publisher Morgan James in January 2022.

You talk about having experienced cancer survivor’s guilt in your book. Can you share a little about the significance of overcoming this in terms of its impact on your life journey?

Wow, what a great question. Cancer survivors’ guilt was a huge part of my healing journey. It ruled my subconscious mind, and maybe it still does to some extent. However, I was diagnosed with cancer at age 14. From this, I was exposed to children and adults who died. Here I was a teenager experiencing the life of other teenagers dying, but it didn’t seem that horrible at the time. Because it makes you question what system is this that some get to die, and some get to live? Who is deciding this? How is this determined? There didn’t seem to be any consistent pattern I could pick up on how this whole system made decisions about who got life and who did not.

Can you describe the impact of all of this on your life at the time? 

It took an enormous toll internally on me, always thinking, “why me?” I’d see adults with cancer who now had to face the truth that they lived a life they hated. They hated their career, they were in marriages they didn’t love, their relationships outside of work were nothing, and their dreams were never pursued. I’d see the look in their eyes and it just terrified me. It also made me feel guilty that I was alive and would be well, knowing that there was a responsibility for me to do something with my life in order to now end up like that.

At this point, what did you do to move your life forward? 

As I began my healing quest and deepened my journey to remember who I am and why I am here, I saw how this guilt played out. In my work, for example, I would overgive myself and overshare information instead of charging for my services. I would constantly add more to my plate to have a new achievement to my never-ending resume list of accomplishments, to finally feel like I was worthy enough for life. It was this weird notion the more I did, the more I felt worthy of still being here. It’s almost like I felt indebted to those who lost their lives and dreams. 

I thought I had to do everything for others who were never willing to take the risk. Some people may argue that I’m still this way, which is why I do so much or am always creating. But my birthday wish for age 29 was to finally know I was worthy to receive it all simply because I was worthy.

So what’s your message for others given what you have experienced? 

I think it’s a journey. We all have guilt, whether cancer, relationships we messed up, a job we liked, or someone we let down. Each of us lives with regret in some capacity; it’s just how aware we are that we are carrying it within our daily actions and how we use guilt to be a productive feeling toward our future.

Circling back to your early life for a second, please describe what it was like to experience cancer at such a young age. And how has this experience informed the maturation of your life journey?

Oh gosh, massively. 

The most significant gift of having cancer at a young age was being able to take risks without knowing with absolute certainty if that risk would work out for me.

This started massively for me when I could take a risk to leave my six-figure benefits corporate job with a $23 billion company to move across the world to New Zealand, where I knew no one. That was a massive risk. Especially at that time when pre-existing health conditions were not a part of the federal guidelines here in the U.S.

I felt the calling so deeply to listen within and follow my dreams of living internationally because of cancer. I kept thinking of the children and adults I witnessed and wanted to do everything I could to live a life I was proud of. And I kept thinking, ‘what’s the worst that could happen? I go to New Zealand it doesn’t work out, I will bartend and get my Masters in Australia. It’s better than dying wishing I would have gone for my dreams but never did.

That must have seemed like quite a risk at the time

It was. I had only $5,000 in my bank account. But in setting out on my journey to travel the world full-time, start my business, and influence the world with love. I hit my first $10,000 a month within four months and made it to 13 countries within my first year in business.

Ultimately what gave you the courage to take this and many other risks in pursuing a new life? 

I always kept coming back to if I was to die tomorrow, would I be happy with where I am in my life today? Or would I want to take this risk to have a shot at my dreams becoming true? Cancer gave me the courage and confidence to trust myself and do it.

What advice do you have for others experiencing similar circumstances?

The most extensive advice I have is to trust yourself more. Trust the dreams and thoughts that are guiding you to dream big, knowing that you are meant for a vast and incredible life. This is part of God/Source/The Universe communicating with you to let you know that when you act toward your dreams, the world will have your back. 

Any final thoughts on what you hope readers will walk away with from your book? How do you want them to think and feel?

I want my readers to walk away from my book knowing they can Live Their Truth. That they can begin their journey to healing and freedom in a way that allows them to create a wildly successful life beyond their dreams and filled with the most incredible relationships and memories over a lifetime. In reading my book, I want you to feel that you are not alone in your journey with respect to the often unjust and cruel things that happen to all of us. 

I want everyone to know that love and time heal everything. And that you can become an Intoxicator [someone who looks within, removes the toxic, and becomes what is in life your truth]. I believe we are meant to intoxicate the world with love by recognizing that who we are is enough to create the most incredible, magical life in every area of our lives.