Carla Salinas is a tenacious 34-year-old woman from Boulder, Colorado.

She graduated from the Boulder College of Massage Therapy and has studied extensively at The Colorado School For Energy Studies.

She is a skilled Registered Polarity Practitioner and a Certified Massage Therapist with training in Franklin Sills style Craniosacral Work.

Carla has also completed a year long seminary training with the Chruch of Inner Light in Boulder and has a private practice giving intuitive healings and readings.

Over the years, Carla has used a sophisticated combination of traditional medical methods (surgery, both focused and local radiation, chemotherapy, blood tests, and brain scans) as well as more alternative therapeutic methods (homeopathics, naturopathics, living foods and macrobiotic diets, meditation, yoga, dance, music, art therapy, acupuncture, Craniosacral therapy, Polarity therapy, massage, clairvoyant energy healing, positive imaging, and prayer.)

Having consciously survived her own cancer for over 12 years, she now heals, teaches, and coaches those willing to actively survive their cancer.

Carla Salinas is a living example of a powerful person who used an integrative approach to surviving cancer. Her goal is to inspire, educate, and support others actively surviving cancer by telling and living her own story and by expanding the scope and reach of Circle of Hearts. Check out her new Jubilee Cancer Coaching business.

For the last 12 years (practically a third of her life!) Carla has consciously and actively survived the second deadliest type of brain tumor (anapalastic Oligoastrocytoma) against all "statistical" odds.

Below is Carla's heroic story of her past dance with this deadly cancer and her request for your continued financial support to help her recover from the residual damaging effects of the conventional treatments she underwent to cure her cancer (chemotherapy, radiation, steroids, anti-seizure medication, two brain surgeries).

Although she and her family did not know it at the time, Carla's brain cancer began in her early childhood and left Carla, her parents and her doctors confused and disbelieving about all the wild symptoms she was having while growing up (dizziness, headaches, lethargy, nausea, sensitivity to bright lights and high-pitched sounds, and bloating to name just a few.)

In her early teens she was blessed with several fantastic parental role models that taught her about macrobiotics, yoga, meditation, massage, shiatsu, polarity, psychic tools and spirituality---all powerful ways to evolve her awareness and heal her elusive illness. In spite of her poor health, during high school Carla excelled academically (second in her class) and in the creative arts while working at four jobs.

Because of her drive, hard work and brilliance, Carla was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school. She later decided to take a leave of absence from the university and pursue a Massage Therapy Certification to help pay for her college expenses. Carla was only 22 years old with just one quarter left before her final exams at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy, when doctors discovered her brain tumor.

Carla was lucky to have had a random head injury that brought her into the Emergency Room at the local hospital in October of 1993. Discovering the tumor while it was still small and growing slowly gave Carla more time to live than the average person with this type of brain cancer who is typically given only six months to two years to live.

She was advised by her neurosurgeon to postpone brain surgery and keep following this very slow-growing tumor through periodic brain scans over several years. There were at least three reasons for this advice: the surgery could easily lesson her quality of life and aggravate her cancer cells to grow much more aggressively and quickly; and with more time, perhaps brain cancer cures would be discovered. With this type of cancer, there are many more cells in the surrounding brain tissue than what one can see on a scan. So, Carla's general prognosis after surgery would have been a maximum of only two more years of life.

This was the beginning of what could have been a long and arduous battle for Carla. But instead, she always saw her illness as an unconscious mystery finally being revealed.

Carla has always been inclined to interweave the best of both sides of any situation for a greater good. This was no different with her healing.

During the next seven years Carla intensified her study of Energy Medicine and also entered the seminary program at The Church of Inner Light where she began learning specific skills for energetic and clairvoyant healing. Today, Carla still continues to deepen and ground her knowledge and healing gifts by taking ongoing advanced classes offered at the Church.

In 1999 Carla began art therapy and created numerous 3-minute self-portraits with pastels. Below are three drawings from this collection of Carla's artwork that she named "Inside Out Art."

However, by the winter of 2000, the brain tumor had grown large enough to become an eminent threat to her life. Carla consented to having her first surgery.

Although she suffered intense pain and trauma and had ongoing problems with speech and walking following surgery, Carla always felt deeply grateful that she was not permanently paralyzed or unable to speak, which often happens when tumors grow so near the speech and motor areas of the brain. Even though she had to relearn many aspects of speaking, she was extremely fortunate that her brain damage was temporary.

But unfortunately and as expected, even with focused radiation and selective use of chemotherapy, Carla's tumor did begin to grow back more virulent than ever during the next several months.

In October 2001, Carla traveled to Germany to be under the care of Prof. Atzpodien, who is world renown for his highly successful treatment plans developed specifically

First he referred Carla to Prof. Sammi, one of the world's best brain surgeons, who removed her brain tumor in December 2001. Prof. Sammi was gracious and generous enough to wave his entire professional fee for the surgery!

Thanks to Carla's enduring will to live and her hard work over several years, to Prof. Sammi's outstanding skills, and to the thousands around the world who supported Carla through donations and prayers, over 98% of her tumor was safely removed with little lasting damage to her speech or motor control. This surgery completed Phase I of the Treatment Plan.

Phase II of Carla's Treatment Plan began with her taking a round of Prof. Atzpodien's specialized combination of chemotherapy with localized radiation. This was followed by an antiangiogenic agent for several weeks. And as the German oncologist and neurosergeons had predicted, this type of tumor began to grow back yet again.

This seemed to scare Carla much more than it did Prof. Atzpodien, for he saw this growth as just inflammation from the radiation. Nevertheless, he had her begin an intensive regime of chemotherapy, which she augmented with wholistic therapies.

This August, 2003, Carla completed Phase II of her Treatment Plan proposed by Prof. Atzpodein. We are elated to report to you that a series of recent MRIs have indicated that the chemotherapy treatments did kill the brain cancer.

After ten long years of consciously focusing on

this challenge and another ten years before that of feeling physically horrible but not knowing why, this summer Carla finally heard the words "you are cancer free" from her doctors!

And after many years of implementing the tools she learned to use as a teen and young adult, Carla is still very much alive and sees her cancer as having been a blessing.

Carla's German oncologist thinks Carla and the chemo did such a great job eliminating her cancer that he is no longer requiring her to go back to Germany to receive her cancer vaccine (this was to have been Phase III of her overall Treatment Plan).

Instead Carla must repair and rebuild her body and strength. A program to cleanse and strengthen her body will last for the next six to twelve months and replace the former Phase III of her Treatment Plan. The cost of the treatments and therapies for this phase are $350 a month.

The original estimate back in October of 2001 of $37,500 for her entire stay in Germany was exceeded by about $20,000 since Carla had to stay an additional unexpected three weeks in the hospital in Hannover due to complications following surgery.

Circle of Hearts has been able to raise $48,000 for Carla's expenses . She is still owes nearly $10,000 for remaining unpaid medical bills from her long stay in Germany.

We want to publicly thank Prof. Atzpodein for keeping his fees so reasonable and to Prof. Sammi for having performed the long surgery at no cost to Carla or Circle of Hearts. A heartfelt thanks also to Prof. Sammi's colleagues who lovingly cared for her around the clock for an entire month following surgery. And an even bigger thanks to Carla's medical advocates who supported her during and after surgery.

To summarize, in addition to the $10,000 that is still owed for medical expenses in Germany, the monthly cost of completing the revised Phases III of Carla's Treatment Plan (repair and rebuilding from effects of chemotherapy) is approximately $350 per month for the next six to twelve months.

Carla needs your support! She is counting on generous donations of family, friends and folks like YOU to help cover these final medical expenses.

If you which to make a donation directly to Carla, please contact her via her new website.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support.