With her long blonde hair, glowing skin and broad smile, the 33-year-old mum and certified life coach radiates good health, positivity and contentment.

So it’s hard to believe that Menzies was once in such dark place that she considered ending her life.

She had been happily studying teaching at university when, at the age of 19, she was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer.

Menzies initially went to her GP because she was feeling run-down and thought she had the flu. But she was sent urgently to hospital for more tests.

Soon after, Menzies was told she had chronic myeloid leukaemia, a form of blood cancer which is rare among young people and usually affects elderly men.

“I didn’t think you could actually get cancer at 19,” says Menzies, who went from being an independent young adult to moving back in with her dad.

“That was a real eye-opener for me.

“Being diagnosed with a treatable but incurable condition was overwhelming and terrifying, as was being thrust into a gruelling world of medical appointments and treatment regimes.’’

It was difficult to face her own mortality at such a young age and Menzies struggled to cope.

“I almost ended my life at 21,’’ she says, looking back on that difficult time.

“I nearly ended my life because I wasn’t coping, because I wasn’t talking to anyone.

“I’d lost my hair, I’d gained 20kg. I didn’t even know if I would see my 30th birthday.’’

But she credits a journey of gratitude and self-discovery for saving her life.

And now she runs her own business, Shine Through You, working as a “joy and gratitude coach” to help others find happiness and work through challenging life circumstances.

Her clients include both men and women, who are often looking for something “more” but need help to discover what exactly that something “more” is. Many are mums with young children, others are newly divorced, some are searching for their soulmate, while others are wanting to switch careers or make other major life changes.

“They are on a self-development journey,’’ Menzies explains of her clients.

“They want to connect with themselves and make these heart-led decisions. To move away from societal expectations that keep us stuck and stagnant.’’

She helps clients one-on-one or in small groups, incorporating everything from goal setting and reassessing limiting beliefs to gratitude, mindfulness and meditation.

“Learning to be you is beauty in its purest form,’’ Menzies says, adding that people who come to her often feel “broken” and are searching for “inner peace”.

“We live in a world where we often take on others’ expectations, including those of society and of family and friends.

“Breaking free and learning who you are on a deeper level can free you of these chains and let you breathe easily.’’

Menzies started Shine Through You when her son Franklin was 13 months old.

She had previously worked as a teacher, at schools including St Michael’s Collegiate (where she was once a student) and at Cosgrove High School.

She then spent some time living in Melbourne before returning to Hobart in 2015 where she landed what she considered to be her “dream job” working as a division support officer for youth cancer support agency Canteen. Menzies also got married the same year to her “deep thinker, dreamer, creator, tattoo artist” partner Andy Menzies – who runs Envy Body Art in Hobart – who she met in 2012.

“I worked for Canteen in my dream role for three years,’’ Menzies explains.

She was involved with fundraising and events, administration, community presentations and “anything else that needed doing’’ and she loved it.

But then something that was seemingly impossible happened.

“I fell pregnant with my miracle son who I was told would never be,’’ Menzies says.

“I had every intention of returning to my corporate role after he was born.’’

She’d even negotiated to drop from full-time hours to a more part-time commitment that she felt would better suit her new life as a parent.

But Menzies says “there was a niggle” – a frisson at the back of her mind that she felt she needed to explore.

So when her “beautiful 2.6kg bundle of joy” – a boy called Franklin – arrived, Menzies decided to change direction and start her own life coaching business, after training at Beautiful You Coaching Academy.

“I launched my business and resigned from Canteen,’’ Menzies recalls, adding it was “much to my surprise and to the surprise of family and friends’’.

“I was in my dream role, I was giving back to the organisation that saved my life. But I wanted to be there with my son. And I wanted to follow that niggle.’’

And today she is pleased she didn’t ignore that “niggle” – which she now believes was a greater desire to help people.

Menzies says her background in teaching combined with her own cancer journey and her work in cancer support have come together perfectly for her coaching career.

Because while some might think it would be difficult to have a positive outlook and practise gratitude when faced with a lifelong cancer diagnosis, Menzies says the opposite is true.

Watch videos on the Shine Through You Facebook page and you’ll see an energetic yet calm Menzies offering tips on how to be more mindful, to focus on the present moment, to practise self care, to do more of what makes you happy, and to celebrate the special people and places in your life.

She says some people watch videos of her and wonder if she can be real.

“People say ‘She can’t be like this all the time, can she?’, Menzies laughs.

“But when people know me they know that my joy and gratitude is genuine.’’ Because, she says, when you’re faced with your own mortality and have to live with a lifelong illness, you soon learn to appreciate that the little things in life – like watching the sun rise or having a cuddle with your toddler – are actually the most important things.

“I was told I couldn’t have children,’’ says Menzies, who also investigated adoption but was not a suitable candidate due to her health prognosis.

“That was around 2015 or 2016, just after I got married.’’

Her type of cancer is most prominent in men over 60, so there were a lot of unknowns when it came to a young woman with the same condition.

But then she “fell pregnant without knowing’’.

She had been in a car accident and was attending a medical appointment where she was asked to fill out a health questionnaire.

“One of the questions was ‘Could you be pregnant, and when was your last period?’,” Menzies recalls.

She realised she didn’t know when her last period was and soon after discovered she was pregnant.

“I miscarried four days later,’’ Menzies says.

But despite the sadness, there was hope, as she realised, that despite what doctors had told her, it was actually possible for her to fall pregnant.

She was still on chemotherapy – she will take medication for the rest of her life – and her oncology team agreed to let her stop taking the medication for a short period to see if she could fall pregnant again.

“I came off the chemo and I conceived in the second month,’’ Menzies recalls, the delight of that moment still permanently etched in her mind.

“I was a pregnant unicorn – my body loved being pregnant and my health was great.’’

She expected to only have one child – as getting pregnant and delivering a healthy baby seemed like such a miracle given her health battles – but last year Franklin said something that made her reconsider.

“He put in an order for a baby sister,’’ Menzies laughs.

“I was given three months to conceive. And three months came and went.’’

But her oncologists agreed to give her one more month before she would have to resume her chemotherapy.

“I had an appointment at 11.30am,’’ Menzies recalls.

“I needed to be pregnant or start chemotherapy and I found out I was pregnant that morning.

“This was meant to be.’’

She felt even more certain things were meant to be when she discovered the healthy baby growing inside her was a girl – the baby sister Franklin had asked for.

“The first one was such a miracle,’’ Menzies says of having Franklin.

“And there was a lot of fear around me being pregnant.’’

“Andy and I always said that we would never risk my health for a sibling for Franklin.’’

But Menzies, who is currently 16 weeks pregnant, says her cancer levels remained low and she remained fit and healthy during her last pregnancy so she was confident for a similar outcome this time around.

“I’m grateful because I never thought I’d get married,’’ says Menzies

“I thought cancer had robbed me of marriage and children. I felt very robbed for a long time.’’

When she was first diagnosed with cancer, doctors predicted the medication she was taking would keep her alive for seven years. Fortunately a newer chemo treatment option was found, and it has now been almost 14 years since her cancer diagnosis.

“That’s why I dream big,’’ says Menzies, who has “I will survive” tattooed on her foot.

“I don’t want pity, I don’t want shame or tears.

“Friends say ‘gosh you’re brave’. But I have accepted that it’s a finite time that I’m here for, that we’re all here for.

“We all have 24 hours in a day so you have to think about how you’re spending those hours and those days.’’

She says people will argue they don’t have time for self care, yet they will easily waste two hours scrolling Facebook or watching Netflix.

She says setting aside 30 minutes a day to do something positive can make a huge difference to a person’s health and wellbeing.

“We’re taught to invest in houses and shares, a new car, a new phone, a laptop,’’ Menzies says.

“But have you ever invested in yourself?’’

“Self-care is not a luxury, it’s a commitment to self.’’

She says each of us has 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts each day. Of those, 95 per cent of those are repetitive.

And 80 per cent are negative.

So, challenging limiting beliefs and habits and developing a positive mindset is vital for people wanting to find true happiness and live an authentic life, she says.

“I’m not here to say I’m super human, but to say that I know you and I understand you,’’ Menzies says. “I know what it is to feel broken. To not want to get out of bed in the morning.’’

She also knows what it’s like to seemingly “have it all” but still not feel happy and content.

“I had the house, the husband, the dream job, the uni degree,’’ Menzies says.

“I thought I was happy.’’

She says it was only once she dived into her own spirituality and explored “who I am and what brings me joy’’ that she began to feel truly happy and at peace.

Part of that joy came from realising that her suburban home in Howrah was no longer the right fit for her family, and they instead moved to “five acres of bliss and freedom” at Orielton.

Menzies is now driven to help other people find a similar happiness within themselves and in their own lives.

She has also just started writing a book, called Conversations With Cancer, which will consist of a series of letters written to herself at different stages throughout her life.

Menzies says there’s something special about helping others find happiness.

“It gives me goosebumps,’’ she says.

“To watch somebody move from going to bed feeling like they’ve wasted another day to knowing they are worthy for the first time in their life – that’s why I do it. It’s not about me, it’s about them.

“And that’s what lights me up”.•

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