This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer.
Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more.
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Up next, a story from Christine Handy about survival, forgiveness, and strength. Here's our own Monty Montgomery with the story. Christine Handy was born in Chicago and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. I'm certainly a Midwestern girl.
I am a mother of two sons. I'm a motivational speaker. I'm a writer. I And a lot of things. including a model.
So I started modeling when I was at the tender age of 11. I loved it. I actually loved being a model. It was. Easy for me.
I began to hone in on Learning those skills to brighten up and be in front of that camera, and it became something that I depended on. And throughout her career, Christine would land modeling gigs at Pepsi, J.Crew, Petco, and Target to name a few. But success, as great as it is, has its downsides too. Especially when success comes at such a young age. I missed a lot of things that were really important for my development and.
I try not to blame anybody else because my parents weren't really interested in me becoming a model. They had three other daughters, and it wasn't their goal for me to become a model. But to be honest with you, when you have, I was obviously very attractive. And when you have people commenting on who you are, which was solely based on what I look like, you yearn for more of that attention. And when you're that age, when you're that young, you don't realize that.
Other people are getting nurtured in other ways. Like when I would come home with my report card and it would be straight A's. I would be excited to show that to my parents, but I wasn't getting a lot of attention for that. I was getting a lot of attention because I was getting bigger and bigger modeling campaigns. You know, like I had just gotten, I remember as a freshman in high school, I'd just gotten this big campaign with Pepsi.
And I remember bringing my report card home going, look at me, look at me, I've got straight A's. And it just, I wasn't getting. The foundation. Right? I wasn't my My life wasn't built on My mind, my brain, or inside.
You know, I wasn't learning self-introspection, I wasn't learning self-worth. And most people at 13, 14, 15, 16, You know, society can correct them.
Society's applause was not correcting me.
Society's applause was pushing me forward into this narrative of. You know, depending on that outside beauty.
So the external. Facade became my measure of my self-worth, so to speak, but I didn't realize it at the time. I started to also develop an eating disorder a few years after I started to model. And part of the reason I believe that I started the eating disorder was because. I had some sort of control.
In my life, when I felt out of control, right? I'd show up on set as a model, and the client might say, Oh, your hair is not. The right length, or your blonde hair is too dark, or your waist is too. big or or whatever they were criticizing me for. I knew that I can control what was going in and out of my body.
And so that became. Kind of a lifeline for me, a very destructive one. And the longer I modeled, the quicker the eating disorder blossomed and ultimately erupted. And so I came home from my sophomore year in college and I literally said to my parents, I sat them down and I said, This thing, this eating disorder that all of us are ignoring, this thing exists and it's controlling me, and I can't stop myself. And so my mom looked at me and said, I'll take you to the hospital.
And I was there for 30 days. And it was great. I mean, I really took it, it changed my life in a way because I didn't have an eating disorder after that.
So it worked. But when I was leaving the hospital, one of the nurses said to me, Here's a pack of gum. And I said, well, what's this for? And she said, well, just in case you mess up. Just in case, you know, you throw something up.
Chew a piece of gum. And I thought to myself, She doesn't believe in me.
So she's a nurse. And she's seen this before, so if she doesn't believe in me, why would I? And so after that, It took a few years for me to really eliminate the eating disorder because I went back to it a little bit thinking in my mind.
Well, everybody goes back to it. She she told me. But it was that doubt, that doubt that I clung to. It wasn't the It wasn't the strong belief in myself that I'd conquered this, right? It was that doubt that she had put inside of me.
That's what I clung to. By the age, you know, like late 20s, modeling had become a constant. It became the biggest constant in my life. I felt strangely safe in front of the camera, and I felt confident, and I felt loved. But I was getting older, and I was starting to feel this yearning for something, meaning, purpose.
I had no idea, but there was a slight emptiness inside of me. But I squandered those thoughts and I reminded myself over and over again. That the next steps in my life were what I was living. I was supposed to get married, I was supposed to have kids. And at this point, my self-esteem was so dependent on society and the rules of the place of women, I was locked in.
Like that was my measure. I was living a performance-based life. I found out quickly that that beauty, that external dispendency. was quicksand. And when you lose that, you better have some pretty strong foundation.
And for me, I just didn't. And you've been listening to Christine Handy talk about her struggle with, of all things, beauty. It can be a blessing, it can be a curse, like so many things in our lives. When we come back, More with Christine Handy and her life story here. On our American story.
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That's ouramericanstories.com. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer.
Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com.
Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY. Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart.
Minimum balance of one cent required to earn advertised APY. Early pay not guaranteed. APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured.
For a limited time, get 20% off in NFL Plus annual plan. With NFL Plus, stream live out-of-market preseason games, live local and prime-time regular season games on mobile and NFL Network, including seven exclusive live games this season. With NFL Plus Premium, watch every touchdown every Sunday afternoon during the regular season with NFL Red Zone. Catch game replays and access NFL Pro. Limited time offer ends September 21st.
Sign up today at plus.nfl.com/slash radio. Terms and conditions apply. And we return to Our American stories and to Christine Handy's story. When we last left off, Christine was at the top of her professional life. that being modeling.
He had gotten gigs at Pepsi, J. Crew, Petco. and many more, but her life felt empty, and things were about to get harder. Here again is Christine.
So, I guess at this time, you know, being a wife and mother and staying in that box that I was. Living in kind of got confusing for me because I still didn't feel like I was enough. And what was missing, I believe, was who I was. I had no idea who I was. I often ask myself that.
I would say to myself, what do you like to do? And I did a lot of things. I modeled, I took care of my house, my kids, I was a wife, and I loved my kids, I loved my job. But You know, looking back. I was, I felt very lost.
My soul was. Trying to figure out, you know, what was life about? And I really didn't know. And so I would ask myself, like, what do you like to do? The things that popped into my brain were tennis.
Yoga. going to lunch with my friends. and things like that and I would stop myself and go well do you really like tennis? And I couldn't answer it. And so instead of taking the time, now I'm in my late 20s.
You'd think that I was mature enough at that point to sit myself down and. And saying, you know, really go through those questions instead of taking the time and the introspection work that I needed. I started to socialize more. Small talk became kind of normal for me. You know, cocktail parties and shopping and materialism, and trying to fill myself up with.
Things instead of controlling my portion size and controlling my eating, I started to control my happiness by going to buy a new bag. And so I was just switching idols. And also at that time, I would turn on the TV and I'd look at e-network and Bravo, and I'd idolize those famous people and those wealthy characters in society that were displayed all over the networks. And, you know, my placekeepers were falling apart. Meaning I was getting older, right?
So I was aging. And crises started to happen in my life. Stress, anxiety began to become a stronghold in my life. I was numbing that. And soon, a huge crisis would begin to unfold in Christine's life.
So in 2011, I tore my right ligament in my right wrist. which is not that big of a deal, but it required surgery. And I picked the doctor who I believed would perform the best surgery. Not that I was worried that there would be any permanent problems because of it. My biggest concern at the time was that I was gonna be out of yoga for six weeks.
And so when the cast came off six weeks later, I did physical therapy in his office for a day. And then it was the weekend. And the next morning I woke up, it was Saturday morning, and my arm had ballooned.
So my right arm looked like my thigh bone. Literally. It was. a deep red, it was swollen, and the pain was grotesque. And so I gave it about 24 hours before I called the doctor on a Sunday.
Which was scary for me. I didn't have enough self-worth to think that he would even take the call. And if he took the call, when he took the call, he acted put out. He acted put out. And so the shame that I had felt in my life was reinforced immediately.
And when you are in intense pain, it's hard to see what's around you. It's hard to listen to your inner warnings because Basically, you're saying all your brain is telling you is get out of pain, get out of pain, get out of pain. and you have a marginalized perspective. For me, I was looking around going, okay, I have to take care of my kids. I can't be in this pain.
On that original conversation on that Sunday, he told me I over-iced my arm. And so he said, take off the ice and leave it be. And so I did. And I know that sounds crazy. That That was his prescription.
And looking back now, it does sound crazy to me. But like I said, when you're in that kind of pain and you've been taught that authority has the final say, listen, he got the medical degree, not me. He's the one that went to Stanford Medical School, not me, and so I trusted him. Which is why Christine continued to see this doctor, even though the pain refused to go away. then on one of her many visits to his office.
He told her what he thought was causing it. He didn't take an x-ray. He didn't take a blood test. He looked at me and he said, You have this thing called RSD. It's a disorder where your brain is telling your limb, which in my case was my arm.
that there's pain and swelling, but it's really just in your head. And I thought, Wow. I've never heard of this. I can't believe this thing called RSD can be causing this much pain. And so subsequently, he sent me down the hallway to a different office, to a different doctor who was a pain management doctor.
who concurred with his diagnosis. Christine then endured two nerve black surgeries, pain meds, and was sent to physical therapy. Yet nothing changed for months. the pain was still there. That was because her doctor had misdiagnosed her.
and it was a random comment that finally led to Christine seeking other options. Um One day I was on a walk, and one of the employees of the town said to me. Hello, and you know, I said hello, and he stopped me. And he said, Is that a new cast? And I looked down at my arm and I thought, wow.
If the town's worker noticed that I'm on my like eighth or ninth cast. I need to see a second opinion. And it was that day that I picked up the phone and called a friend and I said, I know you have an orthopedic doctor that is your friend. Do you think you could call and get me it? This doctor would agree to see her.
And Christine would finally get the answers. She needed to know. The doctor came into The examination office, and he said, I know your doctor. He's very well liked, and he has a great reputation. Let's take a look at your arm.
Let me take an x-ray.
So he took an x-ray and I came back into the room and he came in like 10 minutes later. And he was Pasty white. And he asked my husband to come outside with him for a moment, and now I started to really worry. And they both came back. And said, Every bone in your wrist is broken.
All those bones have broken and fallen into a pile at the base of your wrist. There is no cartilage left, which means you have an infection that has been undiagnosed. I'm going to put you in surgery today. I'm canceling the rest of my day. And I'm going to dig out as much infection as possible.
I have no idea. what I'm going to find. I have no idea what the outcome will be. but I know for a fact that we have to get in there today. Christine was then sent to a specialist in New York.
and was told she would never have function in her right wrist again. Her arm was fused. and on one of her many trips back to New York. Received. Even more bad news.
My arm was fused in 2011. And so I was just trying to figure out Yeah.
Now, with bone grafts in my arm and a cadaver bone that replaced my broken bones. how I was going to live. for the rest of my life and be a mom and be. Do laundry and drive and cook and all those things that I did, how I was going to do those. And so here's where the story gets a little bit more tricky.
I was in a hotel room in New York City, and I went into the shower to shower. and I immediately felt a lump in my breast. And five days later, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. And you've been listening to Christine Handy tell her harrowing story. And my goodness, just having gotten through so much in her life, from an eating disorder to just an emptiness in her life, a recurring feeling that she didn't know who she was, as she said it, I didn't feel like I was enough.
And my goodness, in this country it's so easy to feel that way, man or woman.
So much is coming at us. And then a misdiagnosis, and then an actual correct diagnosis, cancer. When we come back, we'll find out what happens next. In the life of Christine Handy here. on our American story.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the US and can become harder to treat if left undetected.
That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at Let's Get RealaboutskinCancer.com. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY. Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay.
Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of 1 cent required to earn advertised APY. Early pay not guaranteed.
APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. For a limited time, get 20% off in NFL Plus Annual Plan. With NFL Plus, stream live out-of-market preseason games, live local and prime-time regular season games on mobile and NFL Network, including seven exclusive live games this season.
With NFL Plus Premium, watch every touchdown every Sunday afternoon during the regular season with NFL Red Zone. Catch game replays and access NFL Pro. Limited time offer ends September 21st. Sign up today at plus.nfl.com slash radio. Terms and conditions apply.
And we return to Our American Stories and Christine Handy's story. When we last left off, Christine had endured months of pain due to a misdiagnosis resulting in her losing all function in her right wrist. and she had just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Here's Christine talking about the moment. He found out about her diagnosis.
Actually, I was home alone. And I was waiting for my husband to get back from wherever he was. I didn't know where he was. I'd been looking for him in our house. And because I couldn't change, I couldn't get dressed, because I had this massive cast on, I needed help.
to help me get out of my robe into clothes. And I felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my robe. And I looked at the phone, and it was an unknown number, and I knew immediately. that it was a doctor. And so I picked up the phone, and sure enough, it wasn't a nurse to tell me everything was fine, it was the doctor.
Who I had seen who did the breast biopsy, and he said to me in a very small, meek voice. You have breast cancer. And the only thing I remember about that conversation or that day, to be honest with you. I said to that man, am I going to die? And he did not answer me.
I really quit. Because if you think about it for the past year, that year. I had depended heavily on my friends and family to drive me, to take care of me, to take care of my family. They used their resources, they used their time. and they left their own families to help me.
And now I was facing 28 rounds of chemotherapy and who knew how many surgeries. And I still had a cast on. The grafts, I still, my arm had just been grafted. And so I kind of looked at my life and said, I'm a liability. I'm not contributing.
The only thing that I was worth in society was what I look like. And now that's going to be gone.
Now I'm scarred up on my arm.
Now, who knows what's gonna happen to my chest? I'm gonna lose my hair to chemotherapy. Nobody will love me. and I have no value in society. And so I literally Decided not only am I going to quit, but I'm going to take some control in the quitting.
Because I didn't know if I was going to survive. And so I thought, well, I'll just quit before I start. Because my self-esteem was so crushed, because I didn't believe in myself, and because I was so heavily dependent on the external. And And so I said to myself in my own head, I'm just gonna take myself out of this equation. I'm gonna plan my suicide.
And so each day, my friends and some of my family would come over and they would, you know, try to help me emotionally. And I would start to say to them, you know what? I quit. I feel like I feel like I'm just stealing joy from you, from my children. My children should be getting the attention, not their sickly mom.
I'm gonna take my life. And they would say to me, You're stealing this opportunity for us to serve you. We're not going to forsake you. God never forsakes us. We're not going to forsake you.
We will stand by your side. And I thought, yeah, right. Once I lose my looks, once I lose what I thought was my value, you guys are going to. hit the road, right? Over the next course of the next two or three weeks, I was waiting for my son to get home from boarding school.
So I was, at least I could see him before I took my own life. And so my son got in trouble at school and couldn't come home for three weeks. And by the time he got home, from boarding school. My friends had convinced me. that not only was my life worth fighting for, My life was worth saving, and my value had nothing to do with what I look like.
And that was so new, that was such a different concept than the 41 years that I'd lived. But I believed them and I trusted them because they continued to show up for me.
Sometimes we can't always rely on our own voice. Of course, for me, I couldn't rely on my voice at all. I was so insecure. And I would say to myself, you're not worthy, right? They were telling me I was worthy, and they were backing it up by faith-based scriptures.
And it was each and every day when they showed up. It wasn't like they came once a week and taught me this. I wouldn't have believed them. or it wouldn't have been enough for me. but it was day in and day out and there were multiple women that showed up.
And so I had all of those voices for three weeks hammering into me. This story has meaning. There is purpose in all of this. We don't know exactly what it is. But there is purpose in it.
You just have to have to give us the privilege of walking through this with you. And I thought they were crazy. There's no way. This isn't a privilege for them. I'm this burden that they have to take care of, or that they feel responsible to take care of.
So, right, I was twisting it in my head. They were saying to me, You're a privilege for us to help. And I was saying, Not only am I not a privilege, but I'm a burden, right? That was my own self-talk. which was tripping me up again.
But after a while, I started to believe them because that thought and that action was reinforced by their behavior. You know, when I was going through chemotherapy, one day I came back from chemotherapy and I literally, my parents literally had to hold me up.
So my father's on one side of me, my mother's on the other side of me, and they're walking me into my house because I'm so sick. and so weak. And I walk into my house and I see these post-it notes. I see them in my front hall. And we go into the kitchen and I see them in the kitchen.
And I walk over, I say to my parents, I'm like, bring me over to one of those post-it notes. And they were all scriptures. One of my friends had come into my house when I was at chemotherapy and posted 250 scriptures around my house. And so, wherever I looked, I could look at a scripture. Wherever my kids looked, they could look at a scripture.
They were on. Picture frames, they were on mantels, they were on, you know, my kids' bathrooms, they were in the laundry room. And so I was learning from these courageous women.
Now, None of them had had cancer. I didn't have any friends or any contemporaries that had cancer, and so. This was all new to all of us. But what they were showing me... was that they weren't gonna quit on me.
And so I credit those voices, those women, those strong, faithful women. But I also credit God. You know, there was some intervention, right? My son got in trouble three weekends in a row.
So God was. God was stopping him from coming home. If he had come home the first weekend, I wouldn't be here talking to you. And what a shame that would have been. And so, by the very fact that my son was delayed for three weeks.
That ultimately gave me a shot.
Now, once I was rooted more in, okay, If these people are gonna show up for me, then I better show up for myself. And when I started to show up for myself, I started to pour into more faith-based things. I started to listen to podcasts. from Pete Preachers. I turned off Bravo TV, I turned off e-entertainment TV, I turned off the news.
And the only things that I would listen to. Were life-giving things. There was a shift that was going on, and after 15 months of shutting out the world that I knew, I was able to make a grand shift in my perspective. And what I did after. I've completed my chemotherapy.
I said to my friends, okay, you gave me life, so to speak. You taught me that it is a privilege to serve, and that's what I do now.
So for the past six, seven years, every day that I wake up, it's an opportunity to serve, whether it's telling my story or whether it's modeling in New York Fashion Runway at 51 years old, flat chested. and helping to be a voice for those people. Or if it's just encouraging my friends and showing up for people, total strangers, they taught me how to live a life of service, and that's what I do. And a special thanks to Monty on the storytelling, and a special thanks to Christine Handy for sharing her story. And my goodness, those words at the end, I turned off all the things that didn't matter-the Bravo channel and all the TV, and I poured only life-giving things.
into my mind, into my heart, into my soul. And that created a grand shift. In perspective, and a special thanks to all of her friends, those people who poured so much love into her life. The story of Christine Handy. Here on our American stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S.
and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY.
Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of 1 cent required to earn advertised APY.
Early pay not guaranteed. APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. For a limited time, get 20% off in NFL Plus Annual Plan.
With NFL Plus, stream live out-of-market preseason games, live local and primetime regular season games on mobile and NFL Network, including seven exclusive live games this season. With NFL Plus Premium, watch every touchdown every Sunday afternoon during the regular season with NFL Red Zone. Catch game replays and access NFL Pro. Limited time offer ends September 21st. Sign up today at plus.nfl.com slash radio.
Terms and conditions apply.
