Hannah Kate Ford

In this deeply personal, accessible compilation of stories and supportive resources, Hannah invites us on her complex journey through a year of poison— the multi-drug, weekly chemotherapy that saved her life. In 2020, Hannah was diagnosed with a rare stage IV cancer that came from her pregnancy, treated during the pandemic at Duke University Hospital. This is a story of cancer, but also of ancestors, parenting, and religious and spiritual questions. This book weaves fascinating narrative with potent integrative resources for finding hope, reclaiming your body, and moving toward spiritual peace through cancer and other difficult experiences.

The Platinum is not just an image or metaphor —the spoiler is that there was literal Platinum in the chemotherapy drugs. In the highest way, the key to surviving chemotherapy was embracing the light that was in the poison all along. Hannah teaches us to do this. She shows us through her own story, through the marriage of western and alternative medicine, and through specific materials, modalities, and exercises. Your journey is your own, but Hannah has arrived as a friend—a helper and a guide who has gone there and back again. She brings humor and joyfully readable prose as she untangles her year of cancer and shares spiritual and material resources for growth and healing along the way.

Only in the depths of our most painful challenges do we find the resources we need to break free. With them, we are able to illuminate what was unseen and listen to what was unheard. Hannah is here to walk with you toward that liberation.

Harmonic Press

The Platinum in the Poison: Stories and Resources from a Year of Chemotherapy

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