- Today we learned stories that redefine courage.

That's what's coming up.

- As soon as I learned about cancer vaccines, and it was obviously after my own diagnosis with breast cancer in 2019, and I learned that there's this incredible research going on and nobody knows about it.

I didn't know about it.

- And I, that's what I would want.

I, I want to inspire people and I want to people to get the message that they need to not say no to the challenges in life.

- I'm curious and I have kind of a sensibility when it comes to how I want my life to look, and I pursue that pretty tirelessly.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multi-family investment in property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by FE o, Dr.

Stacey McClain, facial plastic surgeon, high five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong Empowerment Apparel.

- Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

When you think about the chapters of your life, I am sure there's one rooted in courage, and that's today's topic.

Awakening the soul of our story.

Come for the stories, save for the heart.

Wear every journey.

You might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

Whitney's here to share your - Dream.

It's the re show you I watching the Whitney Reynolds show Home - Real Lives.

- Welcome to the - Show.

So happy to be here.

I'm glad we finally made this happen.

- You know, when I saw, I think it was on LinkedIn or maybe Instagram, that you were leaving nightly news, which is one of my go-tos to get my information and to go and like listen to your heart to change the world.

I said, we got to get her on the set.

We had to get you in here.

- It sounds so crazy when other people say it.

Like at the time, it just seemed like the next logical step.

I mean, I loved my career at NBC.

I got to travel the world telling stories.

It was fantastic.

I spent almost 30 years amazing doing that.

But as soon as I learned about cancer vaccines, and it was obviously after my own diagnosis with breast cancer in 2019, and I learned that there's this incredible research going on and nobody knows about it.

I didn't know about it.

I said, I really can do something about this.

- The Cancer Vaccine Coalition was built in collaboration with doctors, scientists, and researchers based on what they want and need to move the science forward faster.

The CVC is partnered with the nation's top vaccine and cancer researchers with a goal of getting a safe, effective breast cancer vaccine to the market in five to 10 years.

- I wasn't thinking at all about cancer, breast cancer.

My grandmother had had it in her eighties, so I thought maybe it's something that I need to deal with down the road.

But we didn't have that strong family history of breast cancer.

And you know, I was in my forties and I had a young kid.

I was busy, and most importantly, I had had a clean mammogram just four months Wow.

Before my diagnosis.

And so I thought, I'm good.

And I was going about my life, and then it was my 47th birthday, I'll never forget it.

And I was getting ready to go out and I noticed kind of a dent in my right breast.

And I was like, oh, what?

You know, what is that?

I knew that it was something, it was a change in my body.

And that's really an important message for people is if you notice a change, just get it checked out.

Ask your doctor.

Do you know some type of imaging?

And I had had dense breasts, which someone had mentioned, but I didn't really understand what that meant.

And what it means is that mammogram has a difficult time giving you that image that makes the breast cancer very clear.

- After this discovery, Kristen was sent to cover a hurricane in North Carolina.

She immediately called the hospital and thought since so many people were evacuating, they might have a random appointment in between live shots.

She met with the doctors and they immediately said, you need to get home and have this biopsied you more than likely have cancer.

Within a few weeks she started chemotherapy and continued for four months.

She moved forward with surgery, a bilateral mastectomy, and then 25 rounds of radiation before cancer.

- Yeah.

- And after cancer, are these two different crystals?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Without a doubt.

I mean, you know, I like to, to think at the core, I'm obviously still the same.

And you always say, well, cancer is not going to define me.

But it kind of does.

I mean, it is that definitive moment in your life where you realize your mortality, where maybe you didn't think about it and you're forced to look at it.

So I think you reprioritize, you know, people think, oh, you go through the cancer treatment and then you're done and you wear your pink and you're a warrior and you move on.

And my message is, is that it's really difficult what people go through, and I don't think we give enough weight to how hard it is To lose a part of your body.

I have no feeling in my chest anymore.

I mean, that's just part of it.

And, and I didn't realize that ahead of time.

Just didn't give it much thought.

And so, you know, I have lymphedema in my right arm.

I have trouble lifting it above my head.

I have lung fibrosis from the radiation, you know, I every day think about recurrence, right?

So there's this mental aspect of it also.

And so it's not, you go through it all and you're done.

And that's where I think the beauty of a vaccine that keeps protecting us.

- Yeah.

- From this disease.

And also if people understand just what it's like to go through breast cancer, I, I think we would really push harder for these promising, groundbreaking treatments for me.

You know, I moved my family to Vermont.

We wanted a simpler lifestyle than commuting into New York City every day.

I had a three-year-old at the time of my diagnosis.

And while she's always been the most important thing in my life, I knew how valuable that time with her was.

And so I didn't wanna spend as much time away from her.

And so you do look at, you know, what is important to you.

And I had a metastasis scare where I had five weeks where they were waiting to see if something in my brain grew.

Ah.

- And - So, you know, that's a painful five weeks.

Yes.

And the only way they can tell if your cancer has spread is by seeing if it grows.

And so in that time, I really did a lot of reflection and I thought, what do I wanna do if I only have a limited amount of time left?

Which, you know, ultimately we all only have a limited amount of time.

- But this really got you thinking about it.

It - Got me thinking about it and I said, well, I wanna spend time with my family, obviously, and I wanna help people because I will be first in line to get a breast cancer vaccine when the time comes where we have these approved and available.

- Well, that's what sounds crazy when you say, because when we hear the word cancer, we all know someone has been impacted.

I mean, there's so many different types of cancer.

And then to hear the word cancer vaccine - Right - Now, that kind of does a little bit of a game change.

- Yeah.

And I want people to understand, so these are both treatment vaccines and maybe down the road preventative vaccines.

- So right now is for when you get, when you hear the word you have cancer.

- Exactly.

Okay.

Exactly.

And that's where it's a little bit different than, you know, what we're used to seeing from infectious disease vaccines like your flu vaccine or your COVID vaccine, because those are preventative a cancer vaccine.

In the trials that we're seeing right now, which are ongoing, these are real, this is actually happening.

And some of them are in phase two clinical trials.

There's a melanoma vaccine and a phase three clinical trial that should be on the market in 2026.

These are for people that have cancer.

You get the vaccine, you get your boosters, whatever the doctor says it's given in addition to what current standard of treatment is.

Standard of care treatment is.

And then it eliminates, it trains your body, your immune system to fight the cancer.

Wow.

And so it helps you fight off the cancer and eliminate those tumors, prevent it from spreading.

For someone like me, I am in remission, but I could be given a cancer vaccine.

And then as soon as that cancer and those particular antigens on a cancer cell popped up in my body, God forbid my T-cell would take care - Of them.

They would know what to do.

Have you taken the vaccine?

- No.

So it's not, I'm not eligible yet.

I am.

I couldn't even qualify for - You couldn't, you can't break the rules - Even though yet.

No, I know.

Trust me, I've tried.

No, because I'm in remission and because I have estrogen positive breast cancer, they haven't started a clinical trial that I would qualify for yet.

As soon as they do, I'm gonna be - One - Raising my hand.

So, and we're funding our first trials, and so they're in different subtypes of breast cancer and we're really excited about, you know, playing a role in pushing this science forward.

- Yeah.

So when we talk trials, we're talking research and sometimes I think people think the two are different, but the trials are actually research to understand how we get this out there.

- Exactly.

So, and a lot of these vaccines have already gone through, obviously the development phase where they were tested, you know, in mouse models and now they're in human clinical trials.

They've been proven safe in the phase one clinical trials.

We also have a lot of data on the different types of vaccine technology and that that's safe as well.

And so we now are looking at them into the phase two and three clinical trials, which is going to answer the questions of, you know, what are the dosages that we need and how does it compare to the current standard of care?

And what are the combinations that we need that can be most effective?

So it may be given with chemotherapy or with a checkpoint inhibitor or with a different type of cancer drug, but the end goal is so exciting because it is eliminating cancer.

Reach out to us.

We can't do this alone.

It's not just a coalition of scientists that we have.

It is a coalition of everybody.

Because until we stand up and say, you know what, we deserve better.

We need this cutting edge science advanced, it's not going to happen without each and every one of us doing that and supporting us.

- Hillary, welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for having us.

- Well, we just learned about the Cancer Vaccine Coalition, which, like I was telling you off camera, when you hear the word cancer, you think, oh boy.

And then when you hear the word vaccine after it, that is a game changer.

- Yeah.

I think it's really important the work that Kristen is doing, and to get behind supporting the researchers who are really at the forefront.

It, it's amazing to learn about just being at the forefront of all as a tipping point for everything.

And really being able to have these vaccines to market within a decade is remarkable.

But it's going to take support and teamwork and innovation and drive and other people getting behind this.

- Well, and getting behind it is exactly what you did by fate.

Your elementary school friend, Kristen, landed in front of you again and you found out that she was doing these cancer vaccines and your family foundation went all in.

- Yeah, we did.

One of the missions of our family foundation is to support people who are going through challenges with cancer.

And our, our grand vision for the universe is a world where we've eradicated cancer and there's a lot of things that we do to support people with cancer challenges.

But to say that there's potentially something that could help people prevent recurrence that could eventually be a, a preventative thing out in the future, it's amazing to think of that.

And when you say, wow, there's a potential for people to not have recurrence, we knew that we had to get behind it.

And it's so unique and new, what Kristen is doing with Cancer Vaccine Coalition, because she's really focused on two things on the advocacy and really getting the awareness out there and telling people that this exists in the world.

But also we are directly raising funds for the clinical trials that researchers are working on now.

There's, there's dozens of trials out there that are just waiting for funding.

There are patients who are out there waiting to get into these trials.

And the fact that our family was the first one to jump in and support the organization, we're just beyond proud to have done that.

And we, we didn't do it to play small, though.

We really did it to inspire other people.

We do really believe in your message of hope being the most important thing.

And especially when it comes to cancer and those cancer patients and their families and caregivers supporting people, we believe in that message of hope, and this is really to inspire other people.

This isn't hope, this is, this is beyond hope.

This is, this is a potentially game changing situation and it's bold and dynamic.

And even though it's a brand new charity, we are a hundred percent behind it.

And I'm so proud to be supporting it.

- Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Thank you so much for having us.

- I was fully blind at the age of 27, and that was hard for me.

It was, it was really hard for me to accept the fact that I, I lost that vision sometimes it's not easy, but I've always been a very determined person.

I want to show that I can do it, that I can accomplish what I set out to do.

I don't wanna waste my life just because I'm blind.

I wanna experience all the fantastic things in life and live my life to the fullest.

I think it's important that I just keep going and overcome the challenges that are in my life.

- And we now have Tim, joining us on the set.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- I got chill bumps when I was watching your story unfold in this sizzle that is now a documentary that's coming out.

- Yes.

It's, it's very exciting.

- What was it like for you whenever you were approached to be the star of this?

- Well, it was, it was just a fantastic feeling.

We met through a friend who used to work at the Lighthouse, and he met the filmmaker Camelia at a, at a health club, and they got to know each other.

She was, she was looking for another documentary and, and then we met and she, I trusted her and we decided to work together.

So we've been working on this for two years and it's been just a wonderful relationship and we've gotten to know each other really well, and - It's been good.

I bet.

Yeah.

You were water skiing together, snow skiing, and even running a marathon.

Your story is one that really does inspire people to keep going.

I was chatting with the filmmaker today and she said, you know, when I heard about Tim and I realized that he keeps going, despite any of the challenges, he keeps going.

How does that make you feel to know that you are inspiring people to go for it?

- It, it's a fantastic feeling, and I, that's what I want.

I, I want to inspire people and I want to people to get the message that they need to not say no to their challenges in life.

Just keep going, just overcome it and face it fully.

- You know, you mentioned the Chicago Lighthouse.

Tell us about what their mission is.

- They have a number of programs for people that are blind and also people that are just with disabilities.

And they have a, just a number of wonderful programs in, in fact, they employ, I, I worked there.

I I really enjoyed working there.

They, they have a senior program.

They have a program for people with other disabilities, but they, they have a mission of, of just inclusivity and just, just working with these people and, and en enabling people, enabling people to live their life fully like me.

And that's what I feel.

They've, they've been able to deal with me and all, a lot of other people at the lighthouse living their full life and, and just accomplish a lot in their life.

- Thank you so much, Tim, for coming on.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

- So today we're talking about chapters of courage and I have to say that your, your new season of the recruit, I mean, you just like encompass courage.

Oh, - Oh, thanks.

Thanks.

I, I mean, I think, I think that's all Alex Holly's writing.

He is the showrunner of the show.

He writes a great character, and Owen Hendricks, who I play, and he is very courageous, but he, he's also fighting with his back against the wall.

So he doesn't really have a choice.

It's either, you know, lay down and die or fight.

And I think he'd, he fights.

- Do you resonate with that in your own personal existence?

- I think it depends on the day.

I love that.

Sometimes I just am like, I can't do anything.

I'm just gonna lay here.

And, and then sometimes it's, no, let's fight.

- I went back through the archives to see where you got your start.

And I have to say the Oh no Retriever movie.

- No, - Tell me, I mean, like, how young were you when you stepped into acting?

- I started when I was eight.

I think I did that movie when I was 11.

- The Disney at a young age.

Do you think that's what really propelled your career to get here?

- I mean, Disney is a massive marketing machine without a doubt.

You know, that was the first time I had ever been on television was for Disney Channel.

I kind of had this drip irrigation exposure to having people recognize who I am and then also getting some more work and experience under my belt, which took, what was that?

It took like seven years of auditioning before I finally started to work on things where I was getting experience.

So, glad you mentioned that experience.

It took a long - Time, you know?

Yeah.

And you kept going.

You had that tenacity to keep - I liked it.

There was no, there was no stakes for me.

I wasn't, I was fortunate that, you know, I wasn't paying rent at the time.

Right.

Like, my money wasn't helping my family survive.

So there was, it wasn't like I had that pressure from my parents at all.

It was, you like this, just keep doing it if you like it.

And I managed to find some semblance of success and work before I turned 18.

And all of those responsibilities came down on me.

Right.

So the stakes were all personal, but they weren't existential.

- Mm.

You got to dream and go for it.

- Yeah.

- One thing that's remarkable to me about you is you are young and doing so much in this space.

- Thanks.

Thank - You.

You hold many titles.

What is the one that you find the most valuable?

- I'm curious and I have kind of a sensibility when it comes to how I want my life to look.

And I pursue that pretty tirelessly.

And I have been fortunate and lucky and blessed enough to be able to kind of translate that into my work so that my work is fulfilling.

- Well, you're touching on something super interesting about what you want your life to look at, because I'm sure our viewers that are watching are like, okay, like, I want my life to look something beautiful.

How do you identify that?

- I think fulfillment.

- Yeah.

- You know, and if I'm gonna be spending my time making film or television, you know, I want to, I want to be proud of the work that, that I'm doing.

- What are you most excited about with season two of the recruit?

- I'm just stoked for people to see it.

I think season two, dare I say is, is much better than season one.

There's so much more action.

We lean into the humor, you know, it, it moves.

It's such a dynamic pace.

We introduce an entirely new cast.

Half the cast for the second season is, are, are, are all from Korea.

We have te Yo joining us from past lives.

- Wow.

- It's just, it, there's so much energy in the second season and we had so much fun making.

And the thing is that the first season, you really have to establish the world.

The second season is let's just have fun and go crazy.

So I'm stoked for people to see it.

- I love it.

What did this season teach you?

- That the team that you, that you galvanize and, and onboard to execute on a vision is the most important element of a successful show.

- I love it.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Thank you for having me.

- And before we go, we wanna introduce you to the National Guard Spouse of the Year Meet Nicole.

- When my son was nine weeks old, it was my first day back from maternity leave.

I walked into his nursery and I found my son lifeless in his crib.

I placed him on the floor, started giving him CPR.

The first responders arrived.

I was treated like a criminal.

I was shoved into a bedroom, had to give a statement to the police, wasn't even allowed to tell him goodbye.

- And then you went through lost miscarriages.

- I went on to have two more miscarriages as well.

And that stayed with me for so long.

The death of my son and the death of the babies that I was carrying.

And my husband at the time, he ran to drugs and became very abusive and my life just completely fell apart.

- Nicole and Jared, the unthinkable losing her baby to Sids after a broken marriage and a broken heart, she nearly lost herself.

And that landed her in the ICU.

But she's still here and every breath is an act of courage.

At what point did your son heal your soul?

- I remember the moment I woke up and I really heard my son say, my son Samuel say, mommy, I don't want you to live this way.

I want you to live your life.

And with, with God on my side and with Samuel, I've been able to do that.

How did you do that?

I hired a coach to help me.

A lot of journaling, a lot of asking for help.

You said journaling.

Journaling.

You also wrote books.

When my son died, there was nothing out there.

There was nothing.

There was very little support, but there was no books that you could literally pick up and help you.

So I had Broken Wings, broken Dreams, which is a memoir to my son.

It's my why and it's the steps I've taken to get to where I am today.

Feeling beautiful and worthy.

And enough.

- Why do you think your life was spared?

- Because I have a bigger purpose.

I won Washington DC Spouse of the Year.

Part of my huge life is being a military spouse.

My husband has served in the United States Air Force for 27 years.

Everywhere we move, I start a pregnancy and infant loss support group and I get to serve these beautiful spouses and be that voice for them.

And it's, it's just been amazing.

- You are fully living now.

- I am fully living now.

You can lose a child, but you can still love yourself and find peace, be you, and embrace life.

- Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your - Story.

Thank you for having me today.

What an honor.

Thank you.

- There is profound significance in the word courage.

Take heart in the chapters you are writing, keep going and remember your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group, providing multi-family investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago when ships all over the country, children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of Learning Center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by Fe o Dr.

Stacey McLean, facial Plastic Surgeon, high Five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong Empowerment Apparel.

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