HAYLEY

Cancer Dancer co-founder

The pain, shock, grief of my Mum being diagnosed with cancer at 13 and my Dad at 14 thrusted me onto my healing path. I read books “You can heal your life”, went to naturopaths and energetic healers. When I was 19 my Dad died unexpectedly from a different form of cancer and I really struggled with death and anxiety. I had internal thoughts and feelings like “I was going to be diagnosed with cancer next”. I was desperate to heal this wound and get to a place within my body where I felt safe again.

At age 20 I began bodywork. I studied and practised Massage Therapy, Kinesiology, Reiki, Hawaiian Shamanic bodywork and Kundalini yoga. My fascination with how the body has memory, an innate wisdom and knows how to heal blew my mind. This obsession took me studying and living all over the world as I worked as a private therapist in the USA, Europe, Caribbean and Mediterranean.

When returning to Australia I met my partner, we had children then decided to leave Sydney and took a couple of years hiatus to go travelling around Australia with our kids. Whilst travelling we found out we were expecting our fourth child. We gave birth to our only daughter in lock down, the world had become a crazy place. So we hit the road again with a 4 month old to continue travelling and settle in Queensland. 

Soon after settling in a home I started a parenting course which introduced me to the Polyvagal Theory and breathwork to regulate the nervous system. I was struggling with my 22 month old daughter for 6 months as she wasn’t sleeping. I was at the end of my tether and aware this was nothing unusual, (join the club) many parents to deal with this. By chance I saw something in our daughter's eye and she was diagnosed with grade 4 cancer.

I felt lost and scared and wanted to disconnect from the world as it felt too painful. When our children all had to be genetically tested I felt that I wasn’t strong enough for this life. Overcoming the fear of death of my parents then myself was one thing but fear of losing my children took me to another place. It was one of the darkest periods of my life. Yet something inside me gave me a weird sense that in some peculiar way I had been preparing for this my whole life.

Choosing to feel and heal has not been an easy journey by any means. There is always another layer to teach me something about myself. Always an opportunity to show up.This is how I choose to live now. I am deeply grateful to be able to share what in many ways I feel to be my life's work. I am honoured to be journeying with you!

SEVERIN

Cancer Dancer co-founder

When I was only 6 years old, my kindy teacher invited me into the world of sport. I started Inline-Speed Skating. I trained every day, sometimes twice and I can still sense the love for the sport I had but even more so for the people I met and competed against, that became my family. I was lucky enough that I was pretty good at what I was doing, so I became part of the German National Team and was able to travel all over Europe. This exposure from early on in my life taught me the power of a resilient mind. I had to realise that I won't be able to win every race, but the strength came from letting the last race fade away, to get up and put myself out there (or into the next training or race) again.

So it was just almost natural for me to study Science of Sport and Sports Medicine, where I got exposed to all kinds of theories and practices including sport psychology. It was here where my curiosity got sparked to learn more about the ability and potential of mental and emotional state and its impact on your physical body, and ultimately your joy in life. Whilst I followed with master study in business and ended up working in the corporate world for a while, the interest in that power of the mind never left me. 

 After travelling the world for a few years I landed in Australia where I put my roots down and was so fascinated by its open culture to explore different healing modalities and energy work, all in the search of creating a life full of prana and ease. It was just what I needed to fuel further my own curious mind. I dived into studies of reiki, naturopathy, breathwork, meditation, and I became a yoga teacher. I dived deeper into the ancient teachings, when my parents were diagnosed with cancer as I needed tools to manoeuvre my mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Additionally, becoming a mother and trying to find support and guidance for my daily life, I joined a parenting course together with Hayley, which gave us the first exposure to better understanding our nervous system. 

All those life experiences from sport, to travel, to work, to motherhood and of course the cancer journeys of my parents and friends lead to the creation of Cancer Dancer with handpicked, proven and lived practices that now can benefit everyone who trusts us and joins our programmes. 

 I grew up with a dad that had music in his heart, he was part of a band, then became a DJ and entertainer. In our house the music was always playing, my dad went through a length of work to make sure every room including the bathroom had a speaker so we can listen to songs, so I guess I feel blessed that music, movement and dance was always part of life, and maybe to no surprise it is also an integral to our programmes.