Town Talk | From battle to balance: Jen Scandolera’s healing journey

By Marnie

Oct 18, 2024

*Jen and Mike Scandolera on a morning walk with their dog.* Photo by Contributed

Welcome.

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Last week I enjoyed a coffee with Jen Scandolera.

When I first knew Jenny, she was a laughing, singing, delightful teenage girl. I can’t remember whether we met through Shepparton Theatre Arts Group or if the first connection came because my son was in a band with her brothers. It was called ‘Chinese Cooking’. However, I clearly remember her audition for the part of Nancy, in Oliver. The audition panel didn’t hesitate.

Today, she is a warm, thoughtful, and considerate woman, supported by her husband, Mike, her three adult children and a large and loving extended family.

However, in November 2019, she was visiting a naturopath; he was doing a study of her eyes, which can indicate how the body is functioning, and he asked her if there was cancer in the family. She said there was not. In February of the next year, he suggested she visit her doctor, which she did — and test followed test.

In May 2020, during a lockdown, Jen was at home, on a teleconference with her doctor for a diagnosis. She was expecting a prescription to ease the slight discomfort in swallowing. Instead, she was told she had cancer of the oesophagus. She was 54 years of age, healthy and fit. She took care of her body, practised healthy eating, had been teaching in the fitness industry for 30 years and taught yoga for 10 years. I asked if she remembered her first response to this news, and she said she was calm, taken back — but it took some time to process. Mike arrived home to the devastating news.

How to handle this? Jen decided to take a yogic approach. She kept up with her yoga and meditation, Mike did energy healing every night and they both did a twin heart meditation. It was important to Jen that she take responsibility for what was happening. She gathered together a support team. A naturopath, an acupuncturist, a pranic healer and of course, her terrific kids, husband and family.

The surgeon called; this was an aggressive cancer and could metastasise quickly. It needed to be dealt with. There would be six weeks of chemotherapy and simultaneously, daily radiation therapy. This, they hoped, would reduce the size of the cancer. The surgery would be performed at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, in August.

By mid-July, Jen’s hair had thinned, but she didn’t lose it all. She didn’t much care and made me laugh when she said “I am not my hair”. She decided to cut it short and embrace her new grey.

She also gave her husband and children a ‘white flag’. She told them that if she talked too much about her situation or if she provided more detail than they needed to know, they were to wave the imaginary flag and say “white flag”. They used it from time to time. Jen had no intention of using cancer as an excuse for anything. After all, in their own way, they were all sharing this experience.

The surgery was successful; she had lost 13 cm of her oesophagus, but the surgeon was comfortable. They had got it all and there was no metastasis. However, this was 2020; COVID-19 was spreading widely — and the two weeks in the hospital, without a visitor, were long.

Twelve months later, her check-up showed she was still free of cancer. She was determined to live in the moment because there was always the possibility that she didn’t have a future. However, her sister-in-law, Sue Wong (with writing partner Justin Robinson) had written an interesting book about living a fruitful life. It is called My Manifesto and Jen decided to go through the exercises and have a good look at her present — and her future. She found herself thinking differently about the years to come; thinking more positively about her choices.

She created a number of phrases, to repeat to herself, which she feels have helped her recovery — and she is happy to share them with you.

‘I am well, healthy and feeling fulfilled in my life and living true to purpose.’

‘It’s not what you go through but how you go through it.’

‘Everything has its time, ebb and flow, and conclusion. Simply ride each wave as it comes.’

Her check-ups in 2022, 2023 and this year have all indicated that the cancer has not returned.

JEN’S CLASSES

As I mentioned, Jen is a local yoga teacher, and she is also a qigong instructor. Qigong is connected to tai chi. It is not a martial art but focuses on health and wellbeing. It is pronounced as ‘chi-gong’. (Chi means energy; gong means work/mastery.)

Jen has a lot happening right now.

She is involved in the free Greater Shepparton City Council Activities in the Park program, featuring yoga, qigong and labyrinth walks.

On Saturday, October 26, at 10.30am, Sue Wong will launch My Manifesto. There have been strong recommendations for Sue’s book, and she will tell you more about it. All welcome. At 3pm there will be a free Labyrinth in the Park session. Held at Stuart Reserve Labyrinth — The Boulevard, Shepparton.

Another free Labyrinth in the Park session will be held in Ferrari Park Labyrinth, Mooroopna, at 6pm.

Many have found walking a labyrinth to be very beneficial, but the benefits vary considerably. If you’ve never tried it, the above are opportunities. Enjoy!

And on Monday, October 28, there is also an opportunity to experience Qigong in the Park — free of charge at Queen’s Gardens at 10am.

In addition, Jenny is offering local retreats on Sunday, October 27, and Sunday, December 1.

For more details on these, or regarding any of the free sessions, or to hear more about Sue’s book, the classes, or retreats, you will need to contact Jen.

You can bring more balance to your life by emailing inabalanceyoga@gmail.com or giving her a call at 0408 332 811. If she’s unavailable, please leave a message and she’ll give you a call back.

She’s rather busy right now — sharing her passion for life!

LET’S TALK PORK PIES

Without even a sniff of modesty, I want to tell you that I have just made the best pork pies in the history of pork pies. And I am something of an expert on this topic because I ate one — once upon a time — and swore never to do it again.

It’s a strange thing to have on your bucket list — ‘Eat a pork pie in a London pub’ — but there it was for more than 20 years. We had been on British soil for about three hours, when my husband found himself in a pub, with me ordering a pork pie. The first disappointment was that the guy running the place was from Echuca. I think I expected a merry, overweight person, preferably with a Cockney accent. The second, very real disappointment, was that the pie was awful — tasteless and fatty. (The pastry was okay, I suppose.)

In 1986, the food in England was very ordinary, perhaps because we avoided the expensive restaurants. But, over our next two or three visits, it seemed to us that it was improving — immigration does this — although we definitely stayed away from the pork pies. We weren’t there for the food anyway.

So, you may (or may not) be wondering what was so good about the pies I just produced. The answer is — I was cheating, yet again, in the kitchen.

For some time, I have been buying slow-cooked pork shoulder, for one of my husband’s favourites, pork rolls. I was tired of roasting pork, with fat splattering all over the oven. The pre-cooked pork shoulder did the trick. He didn’t even notice. Then recently, I spied a slow-cooked pork shoulder ‘Chinese inspired’. That, I thought, must be tasty, and I bought it to try.

Tonight, running late again, it occurred to me to make pies out of it. It took around 10 minutes, including time for the sheet of puff pastry to defrost. I cut four circles of pastry, using the lid of a canister that was the right size. Put two in the pie maker, added spoonfuls of the chopped-up meat, put the tops on and closed the lid of the appliance. They were yummy — although there was nothing particularly Chinese in the flavour. My man said, “You can certainly add those to the menu.”

Victory! And it took longer to tell you about them than it took to make them.