HEALTH
LIVING HER PURPOSE
MADDIE SIMONE How working through survivor’s guilt led Maddie to refocus her life and find purpose in helping others By Alley L. Biniarz Photography by Trevor Booth
When Maddie Simone lost her two brothers to the congenital heart defect, they all share, she could not help but wonder, “why not me?” Their genetic condition “FTAAD: familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection disorder, means they are all prone to aortic rupture. Maddie’s older brother initially survived a partial tear, only to lose his life four years later to Duodenal Cancer, a disease related to the genetic mutation. Their younger brother died four years after that, he died instantly of a full aortic rupture. Receiving the genetic testing and finding out that she lived with the same condition, halted Maddie’s life. Survivor’s guilt consumed her, leaving her wondering what she brought to this world. The journey through living with fear was a long one, but then she found hope. “For so long, I was scared that I was next to die. Then, I came across the Dr. Wayne Dyer quote, ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ So, I decided that instead of focusing on ‘I have this condition,’ I focused on: ‘what’s next?’”
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Wanting to do something in honour of her brothers, Maddie initially thought of her older brother and the care that he needed through his time with cancer. Having completed school for Massage Therapy, Maddie brainstormed the idea for bringing her work to those who were too sick to leave home. But when the complications of this idea took hold of her, she looked up and asked her brother for a sign. That next morning, she woke thinking of lymphatic drainage.
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“Manual lymph drainage, amongst other things, treats those with a condition called Lymphedema. This is when there is damage to your lymphatic system, either born with or acquired through post-surgery or cancer treatment.” Maddie says that the lymphatic system functions as a cleansing system, which helps to take away impurities, infections, or broken tissues through lymphatic fluid. This fluid (clear fluid that you see when you get a cut) takes away all of the damaged tissue and leaves nutrients for encouragement of new cell growth. “It’s a wonderful system, but damage to it can cause chronic and severe swelling, so I work with your lymphatic system to help encourage movement to drain those areas,” Maddie explains that lymphatic drainage involves a light, rhythmical skin-stretching massage onto the skin, and she combines this therapy with compression bandages or garments.
As of now, there are only two full-time therapists of this kind in the Windsor area and it isn’t enough to keep up with demand. “It’s difficult as a therapist to speak to someone who is in pain and discomfort and want to get them started, and then have to tell them that they have to wait three months for treatments,” Maddie says. This is why she’s been in talks with the Dr. Vodder school, where Maddie did her own schooling, about bringing the first round of training to Windsor in the Spring/Summer of 2021.
