Debbie Hulbert
How Debbie Hulbert used TED* and 3VQ to survive triple-negative breast cancer with a 10% survival rate — and become the first of her nurses' patients to beat the diagnosis.
The Challenge: A Cancer Diagnosis with a 10% Survival Rate
It was July 2021, and Debbie had found a lump in her breast. When she went to her doctor, she knew it wasn't going to be good. She was right — triple-negative breast cancer, high-grade stage three, with a 10% survival rate.
Debbie became very sick very quickly. On top of her illness, getting the care she required was not always easy because of barriers from her insurance company. No one would have blamed her if she had sunk into despair.
But because of Debbie's deep knowledge of TED* and 3 Vital Questions — frameworks she had internalized through years of work with the Center for The Empowerment Dynamic long before her diagnosis — she knew she had the tools to empower herself and do her best to live.
"There's nothing easy about going through what I went through," Debbie says. "But I can't imagine going through it wallowing in a Victim's space thinking about how I'm going to die."
"Pretty much nobody survived the cancer that I got. And if they did, they didn't survive very long. At the end of the day, one of those ten people would still be standing. Why can't that one be me?"
Key Issues
- Stage 3 Diagnosis
- Insurance Denials
- 10% Survival Rate
Context
Aggressive triple-negative breast cancer with a 10% survival rate — and an insurance company standing between Debbie and the treatment she needed to live.
The Solution: Deeply Ingrained TED* Framework
Debbie's solution was already part of her character and way of living. Instead of becoming a Victim, she immediately accessed all of the knowledge and tools she had learned from TED*. She looked at her situation through the lens of the TED* roles of Creator, Challenger, and Coach — using the Coach role daily to ask herself what she was trying to achieve at any given moment.
"The first thing that I did was tell myself the truth about my current reality. That's the basis of where TED* starts — you must tell the truth. Telling the truth gives you a real place to begin your journey." She used the Challenger role — the truth-teller that provokes learning and growth — to face the statistics directly.
The truth was that only 1 in 10 people with her diagnosis survived. Rather than fixating on the odds, she put her focus on being the one. "At the end of the day, one of those ten people would still be standing. Why can't that one be me?"
Stepping into her Creator role, Debbie armed herself with research — and knew before her oncologist did that the FDA had recently approved a new drug for her kind of cancer. When her insurance company denied coverage, she engaged them as partners: "I asked, 'What is in your power to do today to help me live?' This changed their attitudes — they didn't view me as a Persecutor but as a Challenger." Debbie also took to social media to advocate for herself, and her treatment was ultimately approved.
"I was so weak that sometimes the only baby step that I could take was a sip of water. I knew water was medicine, so even if the only step I could take was to take a drink of water, then that's what I did. I always had an action step to keep me going forward."
The Results: Equipped with TED*, Debbie Lives to Tell Her Story
Survival odds she beat
Only 10% of patients with her diagnosis survived — Debbie chose to focus on being that one person
Patient to survive
First of her nurses' patients to survive the diagnosis — her self-advocacy secured the new treatment for all who followed
Cancer-free
Now considered cancer-free, Debbie continues to share her story — and has her culinary trip to Italy with her daughter planned
Because of the mindset TED* and 3VQ had instilled in Debbie over the years, she was able to navigate the healthcare system effectively, receive groundbreaking new treatment, and pave the way for future patients like her.
She describes her process as a series of baby steps that often would lead to quantum leaps. "I was so weak that sometimes the only baby step I could take was a sip of water. I knew water was medicine, so even if that was all I could do — that's what I did. I always had an action step to keep me moving forward."
One of the key tools Debbie implemented was Dynamic Tension — telling the truth about her current reality, then getting specific about the outcome she wanted to create. She invested her energy in a vision of herself and her daughter enjoying a culinary trip through Italy, imagining it in full detail. Rather than focusing on what she didn't want — cancer — she placed her efforts on creating what she did want: health.
After Debbie's final treatment, one of her nurses pulled her aside and said: "Because of you, now everyone who comes through here will get the treatment that you did." Now cancer-free, Debbie looks back at the gifts and learning opportunities her cancer journey brought, and says she is grateful for all of them.
"How we choose to think, where we choose to place our focus and attention, and what actions we take can have profound impacts on our quality of life. Even when things are going terribly wrong, we always have the capacity to make empowered choices."
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