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B Y J O A N Z A M B E T T IP H O T O G R A H Y B Y R O X A N N E M c C A N N

Almost one year after an autologous stem cell transplant (a transplant using my own stem cells), I’m processing how far I’ve come since the diagnosis of multiple myeloma (MM),

which is a plasma cell cancer that develops in the bone marrow. There are 24,000 new cases per year; it often affects the bones, and, in my case, caused nine fractures and severe compression fractures along the spine. When I was diagnosed in January 2014, I was al-ready in a brace and using a walker; it would take 40 minutes of coaxing by various family members to get out of bed due to painful spasms.

Just six months prior, with a vague but increasing pain in my back that no one took too seriously, I had been paddleboarding, biking, hiking and generally running around. The family mantra is to “walk it off,” handed gently down from my father—a double Purple Heart recipient from World War II and über athlete for all of his 92 years; so, “walk it off” is what I did—until the diagnosis.

Then, I had shock, denial and fear, which all had to give way to education, multiple opinions and self-directed decision-mak-ing with the help of my medical team—my wonderful emergency room-doctor husband and exceptional registered nurse sister—as my guide. I invoked the words of the great Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road … take it” and went through the trans-plant at City of Hope over a 21-day process. Here, I held onto Win-ston Churchill’s words on replay: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Suffice to say, all went well and, one year later, I am riding bikes, hiking and swimming, hoping to ski, and liking my new An-

nie Lennox platinum hair. I’m in CR, which stands for Complete Response—they don’t like to use the word remission—and still slowly healing from back pain.

Unfortunately, there is a high likelihood of future progres-sion, but my oncologist—who just returned from an interna-tional conference in Italy—said there was a consensus for a cure by 2020. I feel it will be sooner with new immunotherapy-based drugs and vaccines coming on the market seemingly on a monthly basis.

Historically, MM has been a middle-aged man’s disease—Tom Brokaw fits this profile and wrote a book about being diagnosed. However, everywhere I go lately, I’ve been hearing about MM, leu-kemia or lymphoma diagnosed in a younger, female demographic—just recently, two 24- and 25-year-old women in Boston.

And the little issue of “cause” keeps me awake at night. The only responses from my team were “no one knows; could be chemi-cal or exposure to radiation, and there are very little funds to go around and those funds are earmarked for treatment.”

Malibu resident Joan Zambetti was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer in January 2014. Today, after pain, a transplant and a lot of hope, she is healing surrounded by friends and family (and loving her new “Annie Len-nox” look).

Walking it Off: A Journey Back to Health

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In my layman’s, investigative mind, I’ve concluded, being the only one in family history diagnosed, that my MM is due to my beauty

product addiction and slavery to my hair dye. No one else in my family colored their hair or changed skin care regimens, being ex-posed to toxic chemicals.

In April 2015, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Susan Collins introduced the Personal Care Products Safety Act to protect con-sumers and strengthen the FDA’s authority to regulate ingredients in personal care products, which has not been updated in 75 years. This initiative will devote research to five ubiquitous chemical in-gredients per year in beauty and home products.

At Fran Drescher’s outstanding inaugural Women’s Health Summit this year, top breast surgeon Kristi Funk stated that “85 percent of breast cancer is due to environmental factors.” Fran’s organization, Cancer Schmancer, is devoted to educating and pro-moting prevention through a “Detox Your Home Initiative” (as well as providing free mammograms for women in low-income areas).

Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company is committed to transpar-ency in its products, which includes a new skin care and cosmetics line. Its “Honestly Free Guarantee” means that products are made without ingredients of questionable health safety such as parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde carriers, PEGs, steareth-n, petrolatum, synthetic fragrances and many more potentially toxic/carcino-genic substances. Environmental Working Group—ewg.org—is an invaluable online database on chemicals and their links to disease as well as identifying safe products.

Just before my transplant, I read endless recounts of MM pa-tients’ transplant experiences and looked to the work of the MMRF (Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation) in Connecticut, started by Cathy Giusti, a Harvard MBA and MM survivor. She has moved mountains ushering in six “novel drugs” through the FDA in light-ning speed and has been named to the TIME magazine list of the world’s most influential people. MMRF, along with the support from organizations and blogs, gave me incredible hope and support.

I’ve been so lucky to have identified incredible mentors on this journey with whom I could not have made it—especially my ev-

er-positive MM BFF, Suzie Binch. I’m grateful beyond words to my family and friends who have broken open my heart with in-calculable kindness, support, referrals, books, funny cards, flow-ers, gifts, glorious homemade food, holy water from Lourdes, de-pictions of Joan of Arc, prayers and prayer groups, an amazing charm bracelet, a lot of laughs and fun celebrations.

The best is yet to come, and I want 2016 to bring a conse-quential leap forward in medical science’s ability to harness our own immune system’s genius in treating and curing disease, and hope for widespread education on the toxins wreaking havoc on our bodies and planet. I hope to very much be there for all of you “walking it off,” living every moment, and I’m so grateful for the healing beauty of Malibu. n

Walking it Off: A Journey Back to HealthMy personal account of fighting back from cancer, and my thoughts on the cause.