When cancer treatment ends, the world expects you to pick up where you left off. But what if you don’t WANT to go back?
In this episode, survivorship mentor, and author Kia Lee joins Leah to talk about the emotional reality of life after cancer—the grief, the rage, the loneliness, and the profound opportunity to become who you truly are.
Kia shares her journey through stage III breast cancer, how she wrote her book Lighthouse: The Path Through Cancer while facing her own mortality, and why healing isn’t about returning to the past. She also walks through practical tools like journaling, life audits, and reflection questions that help survivors process the emotions that surface once the doctors’ appointments slow down and the phone calls stop.
Whether you’re a cancer survivor, a caregiver, or someone supporting a loved one through diagnosis, this conversation offers real, lived-experience insight into the inner work of survivorship.
In this episode:
0:00 Cold open: Emotions after cancer treatment
0:33 Meet Kia Lee, author & survivorship mentor
01:28 The meaning behind “Lighthouse”
02:13 Writing the second book
04:07 An unplanned survivorship journey
06:30 Why you can’t return to your pre-cancer life
08:01 Survival mode: agency, bracing & the finish line
11:07 Processing emotions when treatment ends
15:29 Mentoring women through survivorship
19:22 The life audit: is your old life still working?
21:49 Grieving your pre-cancer self
25:15 Journaling: tools for inner work
26:41 Why Kia works exclusively with women
29:55 Free reflection questions & what’s next
32:27 Closing message and goodbyes
🔵 Follow Kia on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lighthousesurvivor
and on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@kialee_lighthouse
🔵 Subscribe to her YouTube channel @KiaLee_Lighthouse
🔵 Kia’s free reflection questions available on her website https://kia-lee.com/
🔵 Lighthouse: The Path Through Cancer available on Amazon
https://a.co/d/0aqr4dWc
🔔 SUBSCRIBE to the channel. New episodes drop the first and third Wednesday of the month.
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The Cancer Pod: Integrative Oncology Talk is a resource for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and everyone in between. This podcast is for education, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Do not apply any of this information without first speaking to your doctor. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast by the host and their guests are solely their own. The Cancer Pod is hosted by Dr. Leah Sherman. Music is Funkorama, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
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