--- title: "Beating The Odds" episode: 149 date: 2025-02-27 guest: "Georges Córdoba" canonical: https://inclusionbites.co.uk/podcast/149-beating-the-odds audio: https://cdn.seech.uk/podcast/episodes/ibs-149/audio.mp3 --- # Beating The Odds Joanne Lockwood speaks with Georges Córdoba about his decade-long experience of living with and recovering from stage IV melanoma, including multiple surgeries and the realities of enduring treatment while trying to protect family life and work. Georges describes the turning point that led him to step away from chemotherapy and pursue a holistic health pathway, and how that shift reshaped his understanding of healing as something that involves lifestyle, mindset, stress, sleep, nutrition and emotional processing. He explains his “four legs of the table” model (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) and the role that forgiveness, faith and daily habits played in his recovery. The conversation also explores the pressures people can face from family and clinicians when choosing different approaches, the importance of support for caregivers, and Georges’ later transition into coaching others using his framework to build sustainable wellbeing. ## Chapters - 00:00 — Introduction and Welcome - 02:10 — Uncontrollable fires and smoke causing widespread devastation. - 03:24 — Family in Venice and San Fernando, smoke concerns. - 08:23 — Service to others: healing component within us. - 11:58 — Fought cancer for years; minds seek familiarity. - 16:06 — We make ourselves sick through lifestyle choices. - 19:15 — Cancer is a bigger pandemic than COVID. - 22:22 — Determined to defy family fate, survive diagnosis. - 25:25 — Navigating illness with unconventional treatment beliefs. - 29:15 — Believe in yourself; return to environmental purity. - 32:50 — Healing occurs internally, with subconscious wisdom. - 34:31 — Forgave others, sought forgiveness, felt relieved. - 37:32 — Reflections on Georges house and experiences. - 41:29 — Career influenced leading major company accounts. - 44:15 — Surgery, treatment, remission, recurrence�endless cancer cycle. - 49:52 — Transitioned careers at 57 despite scepticism. - 50:37 — Holistic journey accelerates healing; less side effects. - 54:49 — Maintaining balanced PH prevents disease growth. - 57:35 — Giveaway includes nutrition ebook, alkaline table, meditations. - 01:00:23 — Promoting inclusivity, episode by episode. ## Key takeaways - The aggressive nature of melanoma and the emotional toll of being a survivor within a family affected by cancer. - Transitioning from conventional cancer treatments to exploring natural alternatives, despite external pressures. - Integrating holistic practices that address physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health as part of a comprehensive healing journey. - The metaphor of the "four legs of the table" to explain the balance required in achieving overall well-being. - Practical advice on maintaining a balanced pH through dietary choices, reducing stress, and following proper sleep cycles. - Understanding the significance of emotional health, including the practice of forgiveness, in holistic healing. - The role of volunteer work and philanthropy in finding personal fulfilment and aiding recovery from serious illnesses. ## FAQs ### Who is Georges Cordova and why is he featured on this episode? Georges Cordova is a stage 4 cancer survivor, holistic health coach, and bestselling author. He is featured on this episode to discuss his journey from battling advanced melanoma to embracing holistic health practices, and the transformative power of this approach in his life. ### What is the main focus of Georges Cordova's story in this episode? The main focus of Georges' story is his battle with melanoma, his transition from conventional to holistic treatments, and how he has managed to stay cancer-free for 12 years. He emphasises the importance of balancing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. ### What prompted Georges to switch from conventional treatments to holistic health practices? After eight years of undergoing multiple surgeries and experiencing severe side effects from treatments like oral chemotherapy, Georges decided to explore holistic alternatives. His decision was influenced by the need to address the root causes of his illness rather than just treating symptoms. ### How does Georges Cordova define holistic health? Georges defines holistic health as a balanced approach that considers all facets of health: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. He uses the metaphor of "four legs of the table" to describe the necessity of maintaining balance across these areas. ### What personal challenges did Georges face during his cancer treatment and recovery? Georges endured numerous surgeries, including craniotomies and gamma knife procedures. He faced cognitive and physical challenges, such as speech difficulties and vision loss, which deeply affected his personal and professional life. He struggled to maintain his career while managing his health and supporting his family. ### Does Georges Cordova advocate against conventional medical treatments? No, Georges does not oppose conventional medical treatments. He acknowledges the life-saving role of surgeries in his journey while advocating for a holistic approach that includes medical knowledge combined with alternative practices. ## Transcript Joanne Lockwood: Foreign welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world without where everyone not only belongs but thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show. So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. And today is episode 149 with the title Beating the Odds. And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Georges Cordoba. Georges is a stage 4 cancer survivor, holistic health coach and best selling author who empowers individuals to transform their health vitality through holistic even practises. When I asked Georges is describe his superpower, he said it is turning adversity into a mission of hope, healing and purpose. Hello Georges, welcome to the show. How you doing Georges Cordova: Joanne? Thank you for inviting me and I'm honoured to share some minutes with you. Joanne Lockwood: Absolute pleasure. So we were chatting in the green room just now and you're New Mexico in the, in the, in the U.S. yes. And you were telling me a bit about how you have family and relatives in the California area with the wildfires. Do you want to tell me about how worrying that is? Yes, Georges Cordova: very worrying. Because on top of everything the fires are very tough to contain because they have 85, 90 mile an hour winds on top of everything. So like a perfect storm. Now they have like, and that's unusual, a tropical storm turning hurricane over there. So they, they're getting better but it's been, it's been crazy. When you see pictures it seems like it also looks like, like in the, an atomic bomb the way they burned all those homes. And there are some unexplicable situations where you see an entire streets of mansions burned out and then on the side you still see some trees that were not here. So it was like it's nature, it's, it's tough to, to understand sometimes when you see the, the end result but it's, it's worrying, not so much also, I mean the burning is amazing but the smoke they're evacuating folks in terms of, you know, for, for smoke inhalation. So my, my son lives in Venice beach which is well basically right at the coast. He's not being evacuated yet and I have some Greek family in San Fernando Valley and it hasn't been affected but again a valley getting all this smoke. They were talking about yesterday that also having these folks evacuate because of the smoking in late in fishing. Yeah. So it's, it's quite for us, you know, anywhere. I have my, my oldest son there and some of my mother's cousins like I said in Sherman Oaks. But hopefully by, by the end of the week, hopefully with right now is Monday, but we're hoping that very soon, sooner than later they can contain this stuff. Destruction is amazing. LA is not the same my son is saying and affects obviously the, the work, the folks are professionals. You have the elite there, the Hollywood stars losing their homes and you know, it's a little bit crazy right now. Yeah, yeah. Joanne Lockwood: People are given minutes to evacuate. They're leaving everything behind. Literally what they're wearing. Georges Cordova: Exactly. They can do anything. It's like, you know, like hurricanes. I lived in Miami, Florida for 30 years and we've, we've gone through a few of them. Particularly one in 1993 was very, very strong with 200 mile winds, 225 mile gust winds. Andrew, Hurricane Andrew and same thing. If you're in the evacuation zone, you leave everything behind and hope that is there when you come back. Yeah, I mean being in the uk we often play Joanne Lockwood: about our weather being too hot, too cold, too wet, too windy, whatever. But our weather really is not in extremes. It's kind of like middling. Whereas in the us I mean my family and I, we spent some time in Orlando doing the Disney sort of experience and we'd never experienced thunderstorms and torrential rain that lasted like 10 minutes. Thunderstorm, rainstorm, 10 minutes, then suddenly, poof, it's blue sky again. Never experienced anything like that. And also I spent some time working in California and la. Minor earthquakes, but I spent time in the Beverly Hills area, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Long beach, those places down San Diego. So yeah, you see these environments, you just think they're almost invincible. But this fire has been a great leveller, isn't it? Georges Cordova: Yes, it's levelling. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So George's, your Joanne Lockwood: journey from battling advanced cancer to becoming a holistic health coach is quite remarkable. And so how did this shape your purpose and to quote you, give you a chance to sing the song you were Born to sing. Yeah. It's Georges Cordova: interesting because many people, Joanne, don't find their purpose. They go through their life and in a way existing. Just like Oscar Wilde said that we were the most interesting folks because all we do is exist. And I believe in that. And in my case since I was a youngster, I always like to help people. Somehow I was born with that, some talent, if you will. I just. I was always aware of seeing the less fortunate around me, especially growing up in South America and Venezuela. My parents being immigrants, you know, they worked so much to get back to on their feet because they lost everything in World War II. My family from Greece and then the other part of my family from Spain, they went to Venezuela. They were, they were doing great in Europe with the war. They, they were victims of losing pretty much everything. And so, but, so, but they managed to go to clubs. My dad ended up playing Davis cup tennis. I learned tennis and that's how I end up in the United States. But I always wanted to help people. For example, they would give us allowance at the club, you know, for the day we would be working out, learning tennis and practising them. I became part of the junior national junior team and we had ball boys. These ball boys were. They were poor kids that they would, you know, bring in and they would give them uniforms and they would be our ball boys, even for kids to kids. And I, I had a lot of compassion for them and I would convince my, my friends to give them the change. After we will go and have snacks, we'll give them the change. So we would go to where they were gathering. They had them in a place in the club and we will just give them the change that we got from, from eating so they could go eat. So that was something that I grew up with. I learned. I went to school with the Jesuits and, and they had a ministry to do some, some help to the areas of less fortunate favelas and stuff like that. I went to a place to help the. It was a tribe in the border between Venezuela and Colombia and we spent two weeks helping them building, getting electricity and stuff and just living, you know, being in hammocks with this amazing things to protect ourselves with this huge mosquitoes and. But at the end we will leave and you know, when you serve others, and I have this in my book, service is healing as well. We, we have a component in ourselves, Joanne, that is to help people to, to be, you know, kind of like some of the avatars, not only Jesus, but you know, in, in the, in, in the East Indians, you know, Babaji. And later on more modern Paramahanta Yogananda. I read these folks and it's all about love and service. And I have to tell you this, when I was ill, I, I still had this compassion. I was going through regular conventional treatments, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, but I still joined a volunteer programme from the American Cancer Society which was about taking folks that were ill taken to their, their treatments. And, and the way they did this is, you know, I was working, I, I, I, folks in my area that were going through cancer like me. But you know, I just decided to join. I was in one of my remissions. I'll tell you in a second about that. But so I would drive, we would drive patients to their treatments, we would drop them off and then another volunteer will come and pick him up. Sometimes those treatments will take longer so somebody else will pick him up and take him back home. You know, it's interesting, every time you help somebody from your heart, at the end of it you think who helped who? You go home and you say, man, I feel I'm the one. You, you feel so, such a, you feel fulfilled. And in my book I say service to others is healing is one of the things that I experienced. And so that, that was it. So basically because of things in life, our parents though, they had a hard time in Europe, so when they get to, to America, South America, they wanted the best for you. We had to be either doctors, lawyers or engineers of some type. Of some type because in that case you would not suffer if you, there was a, another war or whatever. They had that trauma. So for me it was easy logic and mathematics, you know, natural. So I said, well, I'm going to study engineering. And then I, I had a, you know, I was very attracted to technology and it was starting, you know, I was born in 1960 but you know, in 1975 start, you started to see some things and 1980 started my, to study computer science. And I, I'm blessed because I've seen the transformation of technology. It took in the beginning, it was 50 years for a change. Now in our days is like five months. But getting back to the answer there, it's interesting because when I look back on my, I'm not sure if I mentioned this to you, but on year eight, I fought cancer, advanced cancer, melanoma for 10 years and I had 10 surgeries, including four craniotomies because I have metastasis in my brain and two gamma knives and two of my eight tumours. When I had my first Craniotomy, they told me. And again, and here's something very interesting. There's 13 rules of the mind, Joanne, and one of them is that for us in the west, and when I say the west is Europe, us, the mind goes to what is familiar. This is for everyone, but it goes to what is familiar. And in the west, what is familiar is to go running, almost running to an oncologist. There's no other option. You just go to an oncologist, you, you ask for friends and say, hey, do you have, you know anybody that is good? Because cancer hits everybody indirectly or directly here in the U.S. by the way, one or two men, if we don't change our ways, will have cancer in their lifetime and one of three women will have cancer in their lifetime. So we're not a healthy nation. Nation. 48% of the nation, it has one or two chronic diseases. But so anyway, we, we. I'm going through this stuff and I'm still a cto. I was, I became a, an executive in technology, chief technology officer when I got sick. And so I battled the disease for 10 years. I had 10 surgeries, four craniotomies. But on year eight, on year eight, and this is why, when you're gonna see now why I say it gave me the chance to sing the song I was going to sing. On year eight, after my first craniotomy, they finally, they say the FDA found a pharma and research found a type of chemo that would penetrate the brain. And so they gave me that in the form of, it was oral, it, it was capsules which by the way, $1,000 for each capsule. It's crazy. By year eight, we had to tap into retirement accounts, we had to tap in into our kids college funds that we were basically saving for. We were doing good. I was a cto. My wife was in the medical industry as a, as an ultrasound tech for, for cardiovascular and obstetrics. So we were doing well. But boy, when, when this stuff hit us. But on year eight, I started taking this pills. It was Monday through Friday and then take a break on the weekend and then Monday to Friday again. On my second Monday, my sixth capsule, I thought I was going to get a heart attack. I just could not. Like I said in my book in the introduction, pharmas almost killed me. I mean, killed me. And so I just had this very fast palpitations. I got dizzy, I started sweating and I was alone. The kids were in school, my wife was working. I had to stop working after 18 months. It was tough and so at that moment, Joanne and I decided, you know what? This is, this is not working for me. This, it's just really not working for me. I need to go on a different route. And by that time I was looking, looking into things, you know, that were natural, not chemicals. And because I'm a person of faith as well, I, you know, when my wife got home, I said, look, I'm stopping this. Are you sure? What, what are you doing? Well, no, no, say, look, I know myself. This is not, this is killing me. So I'm not doing any more chemo and radio already. I'm going to go natural. I'm going to go on the holistic journey and holistic health journey to, to, to survive. And this past July 24, it was my 12th year free of cancer. So. But it's, and you know, a lot of many things happened there and, and as I was going through my, my process, I, I stopped, you know, blaming the world of the universe. I mean, it was my fault, you know, you know, we need to understand we, if we handle humble ourselves, it was us, it's us that get us ourselves sick. Our lifestyle, maybe we're too stressful, doing too many things, whatever, whatever it is, but it, it is us. I'm, I'm a nutritionist as well. And you know, I have, you know, basically have to tell you that 25% of nutrition and digestion is what you eat. 75% is who you are when you eating, are you eating in a hurry? Do you chew very few times before you swallow? I mean, there are so many things that we do to get us ourselves sick. Then comes another thing. When you, when you study holistic health, and this is pretty much a fact, these are facts. All chronic diseases, Joanne, all of them, without exception, cancer included, start in an acidic body and inflamed bodies. We have inflamed tissue because we have too much acid in our cells. Dieting, maybe we stress so we produce cortisol. And also, and this is, was found out not too long ago after epigenetics. All disease by the way, is emotional as well. And that's why many people get recurrences because doctors are not nutritionists, they're not psychologists, they're not acupuncturists, they're not Reiki or massage therapists. They just know what they, they change. Go ahead. Yeah, so listen to that. It's Joanne Lockwood: just contextualising. So you had multiple cranial surgery. So that's basically peeling back your skin, taking all bits of your skull off. They Actually saw. I Georges Cordova: don't know if you can see because I have. It's a night. I have scars. Obviously I was lucky because I didn't get many cavities. You know, sometimes when they remove the tumour, then, then you get like a cavity there. My first one was from ear to ear. Here is two, three and in this side four. And the two gamma knives. Two of the eight tumours that I got in my brain were not operable. So that I'm gonna let. Let you guys if. If you have a chance to. To get the book. It. It is very interesting be. You know, I have not promoted my books and it's. I'm writing two more. When I say my books is because I first launched it in English, but then I launched it in Spanish three months later and on St. George's Day in April, this is 2021 Spanish in. They both made bestseller in my gender and the first day. And that. That was remarkable. I'm thinking how can this happen? And you, you find out that, you know, there's many people going through this disease. It's becoming really. To give you a perspective during COVID which actually I think took about 5 million lives in a year and a half to two years on 20, 21, 10 million people pass of cancer. So the real pandemic is this. You know, it's just why. Why does it happen and why does it still recurring, you know, and, and, and the reason is because the doctors are not into finding the root cause. They're just going there to throw the kitchen sink on you like it's. We say in America and try everything they can new new formalities and see how they can help Georges or you know, the different patients. Are you saying Joanne Lockwood: this. This all stemmed from melanoma, which is skin cancer? That's. It's Georges Cordova: skin cancer. Yes. And travel from that. Yeah. Yes. By the way, great, great question there. Great point. Because melanoma still is hard to. To really contain. It's very unpredictable and is very aggressive. It's probably. It's right neck to neck with pancreatic cancer. If you know, to give you an example, my last two tumours and I was already on year eight after those capsules, I decided to go natural and I was lucky because basically the moment I surrendered, I went to this chapel and I cried. I cried for. I just. I mean I was releasing so much. You know. Crying is healing, by the way. Cleans your soul and. But I surrender. I say, look, these guys, they're trying, but you know, this is not Working for me. Give me some discernment to look for alternatives. I'm really very close to make this decision. And obviously, I have a surgeon in my family. His wife. They're both my. My daughters got parents. They were. And my wife. No, no, you crazy. Keep going. Like there's no other alternative. But I. Because of my tennis, too, I saw cancer. It got to a point. Point for me that said. I said, you know what? There's a reason why I'm the only one from all my cohorts that started with me, the treatments, that I'm the only one that has survived. I had some survival, like guilt, survival guilt. I'm the only one that survived. There's got to be a reason. And at that moment, I. When I decided to go natural, I said, you know what? This is going to work. And I have to share something with you, Joanne. From my Greek side of the family, I saw cancer taking the life of my grandparents, his brother, and that was four or five years old. Then my grandmother's two sisters of three. She had three sisters. Two of them passed from cancer. Then my godfather, also part of the Greek family that went to Venezuela, passed with cancer. Then my uncle, my mother's brother. And three weeks before I was diagnosed, my mother passed of cancer. So for me, as a kid, I remember this. The secret, the power of the. You know, not like hearing something and you might actually end up getting it. I was not surprised when I was diagnosed, I couldn't even mould my mother. But I said, because I always thought, man, I'm doomed. And I never saw anyone. And here's part of the title of the talk of what we're doing today. I said at one point, when I went through all the emotional roller coaster, I said, you know what? I'm going to beat the odds. I'm going to be the first person from my Greek family that survives this thing. And I went on my journey, and I. It came to a point that I said, man, this is not happening to me. It's happening for me. There's something going on here. I loved. I love technology, but my inner self, without knowing this, I mean that I always felt it. If I could help somebody open a door, an elderly person opening the door in the. In the gas station or at a supermarket or a store, I would do it. So. So I made that decision, and I went to my oncologist again. I thought he was going to, you know, give me hard time. And he goes, are you sure, Georges, that you want to stop? And I said, doctor, look it's been almost eight years and I'm, I'm here, you know, surgery, treatment, remission, recurrence. Surgery, treatment, remission, recurrence, eight years and the last one now in the brain. So I'm going natural. And so he asked me again, I said, yes doctor, but I would appreciate if you could continue to do follow ups on me. And he agreed. He said, okay, Georges, and if what you're doing is not working, something else came up approved by the fda and then maybe that would help you because all they're doing is applying the stuff that they find. You must have felt a lot of back pressure from the Joanne Lockwood: medical professionals because medical science says holistic non medical intervention is just a myth, is mumbo jumbo. You're signing your own death warrant. Medical science is proved to work. Everything you're doing, you're just effectively praying and hoping and miracles don't occur. So you must have felt a lot of pressure from your family, from your friends. Yes, absolutely. Almost like you're giving up. Yes, a Georges Cordova: few friends, a real good ones. And even one of my best friends, my brother, he played doubles with me since we were little and we, you know, we went to different countries and played tournaments. But his wife was into holistic stuff since she was 18. She was, you know, they say whatever you do, George, we, you know, we support you. And my kids were little so they, they had no, no say there. Poor things. Say, they actually grew up fearing that that will go like their grandma, you know, and they just, they had to live. I, you know, I, I feel so bad. I went, I already, you know, had a, that go. But for a while I was feeling guilty that I couldn't do many of the things that I was doing, you know, when, when I wasn't sick. But yeah, it was, it was tough. I had to do it against the mindset of many folks that, you know, believe that the only option is treatments, conventional treatments. Now I'm not against the medical world. If it wasn't for these 10 surgeries and four of them being craniotomies, I would not be talking to you, Joanne. So I mean, my son, we have twin bro sons and those twins are the ones that made us grandparents. One of them, I had to fly an emergency flight to Miami in July. He had that, an infection in his blood, mrsa. And he, he almost, we almost lost him. He has three little kids, three toddlers and four, four, six, eight, six, six and five. This, you know, the one that's turning five now. But yeah, and now when you see the, the, the credits in my book. One of the doctors says that, you know, which, which he, he really, really advocated for me to not stop. He says, you know, George has proved us wrong, you know, that there are other alternatives. And now I've been doing this for seven and a half years, Joanne, and I've met some, what they call themselves now holistic MDs. They're doctors that got sick with cancer and realised and year three or four, this is not working for me, let me see what, what's out there. And they end up, you know, going parallel and then little by little just moving into more of a, of the alternative, which is a combination of things. You know, it's not just what you eat and your lifestyle. Holistic health is really a combination of your physical body, your emotional body, your mental body and your spiritual body, which is not really has to be religion, like a formalised religion. It's your connection. You're embracing the universe, I call it God through nature. You and I are connected, Joanne. I mean soul wise and learning to do that. One of the things I, I, I use a metaphor. It's called the four legs of the table. One of the legs is your physical self, the other one is your emotional self, your mental self and your spiritual self. If one of those or two of them are missing, the table can't stand. And that's really the holistic approach. And you know, once I surrender because this is something that all the avatars say, not only the service and love, but it's really being humble. Humble yourself. He who humble himself gets in a way stronger. He who is always up here one day will really drop down. And so when I humble myself and surrender and I say God is up to you, I like to see my, we're, we're Catholics and so I like to see my daughter first communion, my kids finishing high school, you know, and being a better husband, a better Christian, you know, better friend and, and things started to happen when it, you know, when you put your faith, which by the way, faith is nothing more than the certainty of what you want because you know there's something bigger than you that if you take action it would help you. It's not a magic one or like some folks say now is a perfect example. Everybody has a New Year's resolution and stuff and that's the intention. But an intention without action becomes an illusion. So I took action. It sounds Joanne Lockwood: that what you're saying here is it's mindset, you have to believe in yourself, believe in what you're talking about. And what you're doing, but also it's also radically changing your relationship with your environment, your food, your things around you. Because as a human species we obviously we didn't evolve to live in society we are in today to eat the food, to breathe the air, interact the way we do. We were village dwellers in forests and caves and by the waterside, living a very holistic, very clean life. And we've polluted ourselves with sugars and additives and everything else. So we're trying to get back, what you're saying is, trying to get back to that simplified intake purity if you like, not, not today's sludge fat and sugars and all these other chemicals. So that's, that's quite difficult to achieve in society today. Everywhere you look, right, fast food and bad food and bad, bad air, bad. Water everywhere isn't there and going Georges Cordova: that's amazing. Yes, that's one aspect and, and then the other thing is that it's a fast paced world, we don't take time for ourselves and that is a key situation we could have another episode about. I like to usually explain the human cycle. The sun is 365 days or 66 depending on the year. The moon is 28 days. We have 24 hour cycle and some things need to happen there. And guess what? 99% of us don't honour this particular cycle. We do need to eight hours, six to eight hours of those 24 hours to detox and restore, which is when we sleep. But many people don't eat well during the day and then an hour or so before they go to bed they eat this huge meal. So what happens? I'm just giving an example of how we actually cause these diseases upon us. We bring them, we are the ones that get ourselves sick. But the good news is that we also are the ones that can get us ourselves back to healing. And that's where the mind comes in. The power of the mind and subconscious mind. However, you know what you were saying, like I said, 25% is what you eat, 75% is who you are when you're eating. If you're stressed out, you're producing cortisol and you're one of the branches of your, of your nervous system, the sympathetic branch of the nervous system. Fight or flight. It says, oh you know what, Joanne is stressed. We're not going to have a good digestion and so what happens because of the cortisol and the stress, the vagus nerve tells the gut, hey, you know, Joanne is stressed out. So we'll See what you're going to do. Stomach, the stomach, instead of going through the process, the beautiful process of digestion stores everything to fat because it's not, it's. It already received a nervous system message that says, you know what? This digestion can go. This is the example that I got from a naturopath. That's the first person I went to visit because an angel, I started calling this angels in human form coming to me when I made a decision to go natural and she told me, go see this naturopath. He helped my sister basically rid of hepatitis. So I went and he explained me a lot of stuff, which by the way, later on I'm going to tell you that I have a giveaway for your audience and for you, which is very powerful there, there's some good stuff in there that if you use it'll get you on the way for health. You don't have to be ill. If you are ill, you can manage your way back to hell. And the reason for that, that I found out, and here's two things that are very important. Healing, Joanne, happens from the inside out, not from the outside in. This is if you go to the east and, and, and, and in many other cultures, they understand this. We have such wisdom in our subconscious mind. That's why it interested me and I became a hypnotherapist. It is amazing how emotional emotions have a big role in us getting sick. So in my book, I, I, you know, you gotta get recurrences, my friends. You're gonna get recurrences unless until you find the root cause of what made you sick. And usually most of the time, I would say almost bluntly, a hundred percent of the time is emotional. So I was reading about this and I, one of my employees gave me a book on emotional intelligence. And in there they were talking about the whole topic of forgiveness. So I started to look for avatars past, you know, and, and you know, even the llama, things like that on forgiveness. So I, because I was humble, I looked for people that hurt me. When I was younger and one passed away, I had to do surrogate work. But I, the other ones, I basically went and said, you know, hey, you know, I forgive you. Guess what, Joanne? None of them remember that they hurt me. I kept holding all this poison in in me for decades. But I was, when I did that though, I felt like a piano went off my shoulders. And then I worked on being forgiven, approached some people that I hurt, particularly some girls in high school, not hurt, but it's just Like I did, I was. I was, you know, immature, you know, but I went to say I'm sorry. And only one, one lady I remember, the other ones didn't either. But still, that helped me release some of this stuff that I had in me. And then the toughest one was forgiving myself. But I worked on that. If you humble yourself and understand that we're. Like you said earlier, we're humans, we make mistakes, which is part of us, but if we deal with those, because, you know, those memories and those beliefs also produce cortisol. So there's two ways that we get all this acidity in our bodies. The cortisol from emotional clutter that we have and the cortisol that we produce even when we eating, because we're in a hurry, we need to do some errands. So fast food here and then we chew very little. We chew six to 10 times, especially here in America, in the US, the average American chew six times before they swallow. When in reality, I can tell you as a, as a nutritionist, I specialise in the digestive tract. We should be chewing between 20 and 32 times, depending on what we put in our mouth, because digestion starts in the mouth. The saliva enzymes process the food. Yeah, Joanne Lockwood: I'm really being enlightened by what you're saying. Can I just take you back to that period seven or eight years ago, when you were in the middle of this? So you were, you were CTO company, so you're involved in tech, advising them, and you've also got a family and you've been diagnosed, as you'll say, in the US healthcare system. It wasn't that you had to invest in your treatment, you know, these thousand dollars a day pills or whatever that cost. How did your family cope at that time with your condition? How, how do. How Georges Cordova: was work? Were you. Were you accommodated with. By your Joanne Lockwood: employer? Was it quite tricky to try and keep everything going? Georges Cordova: Yes. Great question, by the way, Joanne. Yes, it was. It was not fun. It was. It was. First of all, a lot of people forget about the caregiver. Everybody is, oh, how. How's George's? Naomi, How's George's house? George's. And they would not ask her. You know, like, we had five kids and that was a six kid after 18 months, you know, I couldn't really take all those treatments and I was, you know, working. I managed to do some work from home, but being a cto, and I remember perfectly, I was at the pool and I was scratching, I had long hair. I used to Be in the sun all my life in the Caribbean. Surfing, snorkelling, water skiing, playing tennis, soccer. I love soccer. So I got, you know, I thought it was just a lot of accumulation of UV through the years, but it really did not, you know, come up. And I had no idea until I saw my mother suffering her last six months of life. So I was very emotional, very close to my mother. I was living in Miami. I would fly to Caracas, Venezuela, every weekend to see her. And then when, when it got to a point that my kids could go, we went. And, you know, they stayed there three weeks at the house with my mother. My wife went, took some time off, so. But I was at the office, I was at the pool. I was scratching. I thought it was a pinball. And I got some blood. So I called my wife. I was at the pool at the house with the kids. And she came and saw it and she didn't like it. She goes, your chest doesn't look good. It was a Sunday. I'm going to call the kids dermatologist tomorrow to see if you can go. He can see you. So that's how the whole thing started. And so she called on Monday. They said, look, we have no, no, no place until a month from now. And she goes, look, this is probably melanoma. She said, I know it. I mean, I'm. I'm a. I'm in the medical world. I work with Baptist Hospital. So Lise, he asked the, The. The assistant there if some. If somebody cancels, let me know. Well, that afternoon, Joanne, she got a call from. From this lady and said, look, we have a. We have an opening Wednesday morning. We going. So we went on Thursday morning. Well, when, When I was there, she had some resident students, and when she saw my lesion, she. I mean, what I had on my sculpt right here, you may see across. Because there was a. Then they had to do a little craniotomy there, too, because he reoccurred there. But so she. She started talking to them about, look, you see how it's irregular and this and that? And it's ulcerated. That's why it's. You know, so that could mean that, you know, it kind of gone into his lymphatic system. So I thought, oh, boy, this just doesn't sound right. But on Thursday morning, I'm up in my office and my secretary said, Mr. Cordoba, Dr. Trousers is on the phone and she says, it's, you know, urgent. And I go, oh, my God. If you. Nobody, nobody wants to hear the Word that you know, you're diagnosed with cancer. All I could think is about my five kids and that this doesn't make sense, man. You blessed maybe five beautiful kids and now I'm getting this stuff. My mother just passed three weeks ago from cancer. And I thought the Greek, the great landscape, you know, of cancer. And so it was really. I was frozen when she told me, Mr. Cordova, you have malignant melanoma. It's ulcerated. You need to go get a biopsy right away. Oh my gosh. Everything changed. I was going, if we in the average think 60,000 thoughts a day. Well, that morning I was probably close to 300,000. It was just like all over. And so, you know, so I started thinking first my kids, my wife, obviously. But I'm thinking, what am I going to do here? I had no idea how much it was going to influence my career as a, as a leader. We were serving some big brick and mortar companies. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Ryder System, Del Monte. And they were my accounts. And so I'm thinking my account in terms of technology, obviously the companies. But it came to a point I really tried. I tried almost like I said, 18 months going through already a couple surgeries. But it was already hurting me. Not only me, but my team. My team started seeing that I would. I could not come because I had a surgery or then recruit recuperating or another biopsy or doctor visits. You have a new routine in your life that. So all of a sudden it was thrown to you. So it was tough. I could not coach my kids in soccer. I was a soccer coach. I. I taught him how to play tennis. We would go camping, to the beach, vacation. All this stuff had to stop because it was very aggressive. For me, when it was, when the time happened here I was already. It was stage three. So. But you know, if you look at me, the first surgery was up here. And then later on it became also one of the craniotomies because in a way it wasn't because they didn't have to like saw my skull. But I did have some biopsy because I was having this like a heart limb doted my left, my right ear. It came positive. So they decided to do to extract 23 lymph nodes from my right side. But they couldn't get to three of them on those 23. So they sacrifice a muscle. We are amazing our human body. The other muscle for it took a few years, but it kind of compensates. But if you see me without, without. The listeners, basically it's in your neck, going down. Joanne Lockwood: So from your ear down through to. Your shoulder, down through my Georges Cordova: shoulder, 23 litres. But those three, if they didn't sacrifice the muscle, they couldn't get. And Those were, those three were positive. The other 20 were negative. Four months later I was already in treatment. I had the same situation on my left ear and it was positive. So they took 22 lymph nodes from there. That was one, two, that was my fourth surgery. And then the whole loop again. Surgery, treatment, remission, recurrence. So I have nothing against surgery, especially the new things that they're doing with robots and stuff. I didn't get that. But my, especially for me, all of them, because my surgeon oncologist worked on anything that was my head and the neurologist worked, you know, my four craniotomies and two gamma knives, which are those, are they consider surgeries as well. I don't count them. If I, that was, that it was 12 surgeries but, but I stopped doing treatments on, on the eighth year pretty much. And when I start get still some recurrences, like I said, I fought it for 10 years. You know, I, I, I could hear or feel the energy of my family and risk and relatives kind of like, hey man, go back to, go back to this stuff. But I did and I stayed strong. I knew that the other stuff was killing me. So, so here I am, 12 years later, I'm cancer free. I mean, listen to that. Joanne Lockwood: The amount of surgery you had, how invasive those surgeries were, are you aware of. Because doing operations on the brain that can affect motor functions, cognitive ability, speech, hearing, everything like this. Are you aware that you've become impaired or lost function due to the surgery or have you pretty much escaped that? That's Georges Cordova: why you're asking some great questions, Joanne. Yes. For each of the craniotomists, particularly the other ones, that would tell me what could go wrong. It's part of their protocol. They have to tell you, but with the craniotomists, every single one, they say that I could end up with a cavity. I could have some cognitive issues. My speech, which by the way, my first craniotomy I had right here in the front lobe, it came like this. I went to do a scan and it wasn't there. Three months later, I had almost like a small like key line. I had a tumour right here that was affecting my vision and my speech. I was prefrontal cortex, isn't it that that's Joanne Lockwood: where your creative thinking is, that's where lobotomies happen. So that's really a part of your core you, isn't it? That's how my wife Georges Cordova: realises something was wrong on the kids as a daddy. Stuttering. And not only that, I had a client that did not know in Miami. A lot of people speak Spanish too, but because it's my. I guess it's my native language, my first language. Not only was I stuttering, but I was stuttering in Spanish. My wife realised that I was coming in to the house and I was talking with this client that she knew. Sometimes we would eat some cocktails and stuff at the office. And his name was Don, Don Smith. And I was talking to him in Spanish. Okay, Don. And my wife is saying, what is this Smith? And he's talking in Spanish and stuttering a little bit. So that's what kind of like brought everything up. And then one day at the office, going up the elevator, we climb with two clients of the same company, two guys from the same company, we went to lunch and going up the elevator, I lost my vision momentarily and I just, you know, I held to one of them. I freaked out. I. I really thought, oh, my God, what's going on? So that at that point I said, look, I call my wife. We went upstairs, they set me down, I called my wife and then she called over there to the clients and said, take his keys out, don't let them dry. I'm going to take the Metro rail. And so I'm going to pick them up from there. She took me to the hospital and that was it. They. They did an MRI and they show the tumour. So you staying home here? We're going to have to do some surgery. And so. Yeah, but it was. It was a trauma. When I first heard of this, I was thinking of the kids, what was going to happen to them. And financially, I mean, it got to a point that I had to give. I first asked for a leave of options, but in this type of environment where you have to really, you know, come up and finish your projects, usually on budget, you know, we were putting all the Internet cafes for these ships and I was managing that, you know, doing some proxy satellite stuff. And then. So. So at the end of the day, I had to say, look, I'm going to find a replacement. They gave me six months and. And it was tough even then because, you know, I like what I was doing, but I had to work on, you know, focus on my. Even with the kids, taking them to sports, I. I just had to worry about surviving, you know, I mean, taking care of myself. Yeah. Seven, eight years Joanne Lockwood: on from your, Your all pair, for one of a better way of describing it, you're still playing tennis, you're still doing your 10k runs, your fitness, athletics. Yeah. Living your best life. Living my best life. And like I said, you Georges Cordova: know, I look back and I. I see my survival experience as a blessing because God gave me the chance to sing the song I was born to sing. And one thing I have to share with you, Joanne, is I asked my clients, which, by the way, only three in almost 88 years that I'm doing this, I. I transition from being a cto. That's another thing. Everybody, you're crazy. You're comfortable. I wasn't, you know, really a CTO anymore because I had given my position, but I could. I knew that I could get back into that. But it was interesting because when I was making that transition, everybody also, again, no, you're crazy. You're going to start again at 57. You're going to start again at 57 people, retire, 65, retiring at 65. What do I do at the resume? But I made that decision and I went and I got all my acolytes to provide the best value to my clients. But I want to share this. In this eight years, only three people, one from London, by the way, decided to go completely natural right off the bat. The other ones, they have that strong rule of the mind that they think, you know, hey, I got to continue to be in this route. I say, okay, I'm not gonna advocate for you to do it, but you're gonna notice that by going through my protocol, through the holistic journey, you're gonna feel better, you're gonna have less side effects, and you're gonna heal. You're gonna start. Your process of healing is gonna accelerate. And when they realise that a couple towards the 90 days, you know, my protocol is nine, three months pure, working on the four legs of the table, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. And. But in many cases, they want to continue because they found somebody that has the method and that holds them accountable with the support. And now that they're seeing the difference, they're going, can we go? Can we keep going? And we usually go. Then instead of weekly, we go once every two weeks and then ultimately once a month until they feel okay. It takes almost like a year. And. And they say, man, I'm. I'm free of cancer. What? This is great. So it's interesting because when you're doing something that you love and I imagine you're part of You're. You're an example. It's not. It's not a job, man. You're doing. You're doing something. You have a powerful tool right there. What, what you do with podcasting and you. And you understand. So really, I ask my clients sometimes, are you going to be the same person when. When you back healthy? And they say, no, no way. I don't know. I don't. I say, look, usually it goes around, you know, it's. It's aligned with your talents. But, you know, when you go to hospice, which we do sometimes as. As we did for a while as volunteers, my wife and I, the common denominator there of everybody tell. Tells you, man, if I had time, I would do the really love to do. And why we don't do it when we're okay. We are not good stewards of our time. We are the ones that got us sick. You know, our lifestyle, like you said earlier, it's. It's all in a hurry. And, you know, hurry here, hurry there. You have a discussion or some sort of an argument with somebody on the street, or you're in traffic and you stressed out, and then you go, eat fast, boy, you're Ukraine. And you do that day after day. Two meals a day. Sooner or later the body says, here's a medical bill, whatever disease, you know, because we. Producing acidity. So I have a massive stuff that I have for you guys. I have a link that has so many things for. For you, Joanne, for you and your audience. One of them is to me is the mo. Well, there's very important things in there. We talk about our emotions. I give you a little bit of each leg of the table. Okay. But I have to share this if we have a few minutes. When I went to see this naturopath, he had this scan that he got either from Germany or Sweden. It was not approved by the fda. He had it. This is in Palm Beach, Florida. Gabby, my. My best friend's wife told me, go to him. And I went. I opened myself, which is important to learning how to receive. It's very hard for us to receive. It's easier to give. We could talk about it in a different moment, but this guy says, let's do this scan. And which was. He put some wires in my. In my. In my head, in my hands, in my feet and in my heart. And then he started the scan and he had the screen and you could see yourself inside. And Joanne, my body was like the Fourth of July fireworks. There was so much acidity, obviously, from the Chemotherapy, that's, you know. And he says, boy, you line up all over the place. And that's because of the chemo. So he talked to me about the PH balance and take note because this is, this is key. He says, look, disease cannot grow on a balanced PH body. And if you have it, what you're doing by balancing your PH and not being acidic is that you're destroying the environment for of the disease, for the disease to grow. So it is key to have a PH balance. And he said, look, imagine you have a pool. You said, yeah, yeah. If you put too much chlorine in the pool, it becomes too acidic. It's, it's just dangerous to jump in there for your skin, your eyes, if you swallow some of it, your hair, on the other hand, if you don't put enough chlorine in your pool, it turns, the water turns green, which is also not healthy. There's bacteria there that if you swallow some of that water, it could actually damage your red blood cells. So he's telling me this and I'm thinking why I'm making the right decision to go natural. So the first thing he did was he took me on a 25, 21 day detox. He called it bad body reset, which was all about reducing the acidity in my body. So after 21 days we did another scan and it was like nine a day. There were a few, a few areas, but very little compared to the 23 weeks before. So we did another 21 days and when I come back from that, first of all, people would see me and say, man, you look great. George, what's going on? I said, look, I feel great. How are you feeling? So they could not understand a guy with so many surgeries and all this, this stuff being so positive, which, which is also an amazing part of the mental leg of the table. It's, it's own mindset. It's, it's amazing. Yeah, it's Joanne Lockwood: been absolutely insightful. Fascinating to hear your story, to hear about your mindset, your ethos around your own journey and how you're helping others. How can people get hold of you? So if you've got a website, LinkedIn, tell us about your bit about your book. Georges Cordova: Yes, the website, I'm changing the name, but still is Qualivita, which in Latin is. It means quality of life. And I'll give you all the links and you know, I do have obviously a social following in LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and quite a bit in YouTube as well. You know, you'll have the link to my YouTube channel. I have some great stuff. It's in the show notes for the listeners to, to click on and follow Joanne Lockwood: you. Yeah, absolutely. And the most important one Joanne, is, is Georges Cordova: the, the giveaway. It has a lot of value in there. It has the, the ebook I wrote on the balanced ph and your health has some recipes. It also, also sharing a, a table there, I call it the alkaline table that describes which foods are acidic and which foods are alkaline. And I don't believe in extremes like okay veganism or paleo or keto as a. You have to just have some good proteins, good fats and good carbs and learn how to create balanced ph plates. So if you're having red meat instead of eating it with other stuff that is acidic, have it with salad, have it with greens, with veggies which are alkaline and then there you go, you're not, you're not really you, you, you having an alkaline plate, that's one thing. Then I have two recorded meditations on forgiveness. One for men, one for women. There's. They're there. I have some information about how to water tips. You know, we need to drink water, we need to hydrate, how to sleep as well. And like I tell you before we started, there is an interesting conversation about us honouring our 24 hour cycle. Human cycle, but that's in there. Fantastic. Yeah, brilliant. I'll put links to all of that. The rules of the mind, you'll see. Yeah, I'll put links to all of that on the Joanne Lockwood: show notes so that everybody who's no doubt fascinated by your, your story, your journey and your ethos then they can, they can take inspiration from your, your content, your YouTube and I'll certainly be checking out your YouTube straight after we hang up and subscribing to your channel. So Georges, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you so much Joanne for having me on your show. Georges Cordova: I appreciate it. Awesome. As we Joanne Lockwood: bring this conversation to a close, I want to express my deepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending your ear and heart to the cause of inclusion. Today's discussion struck a chord. Consider subscribing to inclusion by and become part of our ever growing community driving real change. Share this journey with friends, family and colleagues. Let's amplify the voices that matter. Got thoughts, stories or a vision to share? I'm all ears. Reach out to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk and let's make your voice heard. Until next time, this is Joanne awkward, signing off with a promise to return with more enriching narratives that challenge, inspire and unite us all. Here's to fostering a more inclusive world one episode at a time. Catch you on the next bite.