For 24 years, I fought a rare autoimmune disease, and in the middle of that battle, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. This is the story of how a 30-year experienced Korean mom survived, healed her body, and reclaimed her life. If you are currently facing a dark tunnel of illness, economic despair, or deep family conflict, I want you to read my story. You, too, can heal. We were all born to be happy.
1. The Perfect Storm: A Broken Dream and Economic Suffocation
Before my life was swallowed by illness, I was a passionate career woman, working as the editor-in-chief of a magazine in South Korea. In my late 20s, I married my husband after dating for several years. However, marriage often reveals hidden realities. My husband was deeply conservative and stubborn, making true emotional communication incredibly difficult.
Yet, my ultimate philosophy in life was always to build a happy, harmonious family. For the sake of our peace and the future of our precious son and daughter, I always chose to compromise, dedicating myself entirely to supporting my family as a full-time housewife.
The turning point came in my early 40s. My husband resigned from his stable position as a congressional aide to run for parliament. Our financial situation was modest, and I desperately wanted to stop him, but his stubborn will could not be broken. He lost the election. Overnight, he lost his job and became unemployed.
I chose to stand firmly by his side. I constantly encouraged him, saying we could overcome this, trying my best to keep the family atmosphere bright and positive. But reality was cruel. A year passed, and our cash reserves completely dried up.
Despite the financial suffocated state of our home, my husband’s spending habits did not change. He continued to meet social figures, spending money we did not have. The most heartbreaking moment came when my daughter, then in the 6th grade, was elected as the school’s student body president. In South Korea, joining the school’s mothers’ association requires a certain level of financial wealth and mandatory donations. When I had to attend that meeting, I looked inside my purse—there was not even a single $10 bill (10,000 KRW) in it.
2. When the Mind Screams, the Body Breaks: The Nightmare of Livedoid Vasculopathy
The stress was eating me alive. For a woman who had lived honestly, devoted everything to her family, and done nothing wrong, this sudden poverty, marital silence, and hopeless future felt like a daily war zone. Every single morning, I asked myself: How do I survive today? How do I win this battle?
Deep inside, I kept forcing myself to believe: This will change. I have the strength to overcome this. Haven’t I always pushed forward in life? I will taste the joy of victory again. But the reality was that I soon didn’t even have enough coins to pay for the subway fare. Shutting down completely, my husband hid inside the computer screen, spending whole nights playing games and gambling, abandoning his duties as a father.
That was when my body finally collapsed.
Suddenly, red spots resembling kidney beans began to erupt all over both of my legs. A local dermatologist prescribed steroid ointments and anti-inflammatory drugs, but they did nothing. My condition deteriorated rapidly. Soon, I had to be rushed to a university hospital. By then, my calves were swollen bright red, looking like elephant legs. The pain was so agonizing that I could barely walk, and I could no longer wear skirts.
At first, the doctors couldn’t even give me a proper diagnosis. My skin was undergoing necrosis. Small holes, the size of beans and sometimes plums, opened up on my legs, exposing the deep dermal layer of my skin. Yellow fluid constantly oozed from the wounds. It was a horrific sight. This brutal cycle of skin necrosis, temporary healing, and sudden recurrence repeated itself for over 20 painful years. It was later diagnosed as a rare autoimmune vascular disease: Livedoid Vasculopathy.
3. The Second Strike: The Ambush of Stage 3 Colon Cancer
After enduring this painful vascular disease for about ten years, another nightmare struck in my early 50s. It started with what seemed like chronic enteritis (severe stomach flu). One day, my family ate mushrooms together, but I was the only one who violently vomited and suffered from severe diarrhea. The hospital dismissed it as simple enteritis.
However, it wouldn’t go away. These episodes lasted for weeks at a time. Three or four times a year, for several years, I spent endless nights clutching the toilet bowl, vomiting, crying, and burning with fever.
Then came a day in my mid-50s that I will never forget. I went in for a routine health checkup. The next thing I remember, I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a university hospital ward. A resident doctor walked in, looked at my chart, and delivered a devastating blow: “You have Stage 3 Colon Cancer. We need to operate immediately.”
4. Fighting Two Deadly Enemies at Once: My Path to Healing
Just like that, I underwent major cancer surgery. I woke up with an ostomy bag (stoma) attached to my abdomen, facing the most brutal period of my entire existence. I had to fight two terrifying enemies simultaneously: a rare, painful autoimmune disease that attacked my blood vessels, and an aggressive stage 3 cancer that had invaded my colon.
It was a total war—medical treatments, an intense mental struggle against despair, and a complete overhaul of my diet and lifestyle. As a 30-year veteran housewife, I realized that if I wanted to live, I had to turn my kitchen into my ultimate pharmacy. I began to research, cook, and eat gentle, healing Korean foods that balanced my immune system without irritating my healing colon.
Seven years have passed since my cancer diagnosis. Today, I am completely healed. I am no longer trapped in that dark bedroom of pain. Instead, I travel the world, and today, I am writing this story to you from the United Kingdom.
A Message to You: You Born to Be Happy
If you are reading this and feeling overwhelmed by your current circumstances—whether you are fighting a terrifying disease, drowning in financial hardship, or suffocating from family loneliness—please look at me. If a woman like me, who carried a rare vascular disease for 24 years and faced stage 3 cancer, can stand up, travel the world, and smile again, so can you.
No matter what situation you are in, your body and mind have an incredible capacity to recover. Never give up on yourself. We did not come into this world to suffer; we were all born to be happy.
In my upcoming posts on this blog, I will share the exact healing Korean recipes, gut-friendly diet plans, mental strategies, and lifestyle routines that saved my life. Let us walk this path of healing together.