Sometimes it takes more than medicine to beat a disease as deadly as cancer.
The power of positive attitude can make all the difference, and according to doctors, it may have helped a Dallas woman beat the same kind of brain cancer that killed her brother and uncle.
61-year-old Nancee Chambers has been making gowns for decades and finally, in 2017, was given the opportunity she had been waiting for.
One of her daughters had just gotten engaged; Chambers would get to design and sew the wedding gown.
"After all those gowns, I had my own daughter getting married!" said Chambers.
However, one month after she started on the plans for a dream dress, Chambers' health began to unravel.
Pain in her arm sent her to the emergency room, where doctors found a tumor deep inside her brain.
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"I remember I had poured my heart out to God and just begged for my life," said Chambers.
Baylor Scott & White neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Jackson knew surgery would be risky, but it was Chambers' best option.
Surgery comes with serious risks like paralysis.
"There’s a limit to what a surgeon can do with this type of tumor," said Dr. Jackson.
"The night before the surgery, I stayed up and made her prototype of the sketch just because I didn't want to think negative, and I thought, 'well, maybe I'll be able to sew!'" said Chambers. "Sure enough, I came out and I was shocked to see that I could move my hands and feet. It was outstanding."
With most of the tumor gone, Chambers began to sew, even though her fight was not over.
She still needed rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, but used the dressmaking and joy of the upcoming wedding as a distraction and reason to stay positive.
In nine months, during her cancer battle, she created her daughter's wedding gown, seven bridesmaids gowns, a flower girl dress and her own mother-of-the-bride gown.
"I was just caught up in being the mother-of-the bride, so I think that was probably important, to have something else to do," she said.
"I can't give you scientific evidence that a state of mind of positivity is going to guarantee longevity or longer survival," says Dr. Jackson, "but it's been a general observation by physicians that people who are positive have longer survival."
Chambers is now in remission and believes the power of distraction and positivity helped her get there.
"It's always positivity. Never thinking you're going to die."
