In 2015, my adored father Colin Smith - known to his beloved grandchildren as ‘Wudzy’ - was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer. The prognosis was not good - we were told that with surgery and chemotherapy he would probably survive 12 - 18 months, but nothing would save him.
Obviously this was devastating news to all of us who knew and loved him. I felt in this day and age with all the advancements in medicine, that surely there must be something, somewhere that would be able to help save my precious father. Thus, began my journey to work with and help cancer patients the world over.
Now after years of research and working in this field, I have found that there are indeed many wonderful treatments and therapies around the world, that are helping cancer patients live long, happy, healthy and fulfilled lives. Treatments that are giving them precious time with their loved ones, that some doctors told them they would never have. I have seen first hand people that were given only days to live, who had been given no hope or help elsewhere, walk out of hospital and return to their families to meet grandchildren that doctors said they would never meet. I felt compelled to tell people about these amazing treatments - so those who desperately needed help, would know that such places exist.
There was however one major problem, unfortunately these treatments can cost a lot of money - money that most people do not have. I felt this was grossly unfair and wanted to do something about that. Luckily I had a pretty good idea for an app that I had been sitting on, so I thought if I could build this app and if it was a huge success, then I may be able to make a lot of money that I could then donate to people who have cancer and need help paying for their treatment - and the living expenses that continue to mount up when a patient undergoes treatment. And so that’s what I have done. I have created the Wudzy App - named in honour of my amazing father.
My purpose in life is now to help cancer patients everywhere gain access to the best possible treatment for their particular cancer - wherever that may be in the world - and to help them pay for it.
Sadly, Wudzy passed away in November 2015 - from complications - but the journey we went on together from his diagnosis to his death was extraordinary and life changing in a way I could never have imagined. It’s time I will treasure for the rest of my life. It gave me the purpose that I was missing and set me on a path that I am only now starting to understand.
In May 2018, I went to an event where Carren Smith was the keynote speaker. I had heard of this amazing lady, but never met her or heard her speak. Carren has an extraordinary message and I encourage everyone to google her, read her book and attend any event where she is involved. In a nutshell, Carren was in the Sari Club in Bali with 2 of her friends when the bombings occurred in 2002. She survived, but her 2 friends did not. The only reason these 3 girls were in Bali was because Carren had decided to travel to Bali to kill herself, after her boyfriend of 8 years had committed su***de a short time previously. Carren had booked her flight to travel alone, but her friends insisted they would join her and wouldn't take no for an answer. Carren who had been in a deep depression for quite a long time, finally felt at peace knowing she was close to achieving her goal. So she went with her friends to the Sari Club for one final night out together. Then the bomb went off and her life changed forever. She wondered why she had survived and her friends had not. She now felt responsible for the deaths of 3 people - her boyfriend and her 2 girl friends who died in Bali.
It took a long time, but Carren has not only survived but flourished. Carren is now a dynamic leader, a motivator, and a survivor. She is an author, a trainer, a keynote speaker, with one hell of a story to tell.
Coincidently - or perhaps not - Carren chose to sit next to me for dinner the night of our event and we started chatting. She has an amazing energy and is so obviously just a beautiful, wonderful soul. During her presentation earlier in the day, one thing that struck me, was she said that she wouldn't change anything about her life, because what she had been through has brought her to where she is today - and so she can't regret it. That really was hard for me to comprehend. Because essentially I felt she was saying, given the chance to change things, so she could have her boyfriend and friends back - she wouldn't. Wow!!!!
We spoke about my Dad and - as Carren does - she made me cry and for the first time since my Dad died I was talking about my true feelings and bawling my eyes out. We had to leave the room. I was literally hyperventilating. I told Carren that I really struggled with her stance on not changing anything, because for me if I could do anything to bring my Dad back I would do it in a heart beat. Then she brought out the big guns and said something to me that changed everything.
She said, “your Dad's death whilst tragic and sad was ‘necessary and significant’.” What the? Necessary? I couldn't believe it. I didn't want my Dad to die and fought long and hard to try and stop that from happening and now she was telling me it was necessary?
I knew this was one highly evolved lady, that had been through more tragedy than any one person should ever have to experience in their lifetime and now she had come out the other side and was this ethereal being moving amongst us. So I just listened to her talk. By the end of it, I thought to myself, ‘well if my Dad's passing was indeed necessary and significant, then I was going to make sure it was as significant as hell!’ I would spend my life making sure that something hugely significant is done in my father's name. Otherwise what was it all for?
So only a few weeks later I had found my developers and signed the contract for them to start building my app - called Wudzy. Obviously!
And now here we are - 3 years after Wudzy passed away and the Wudzy App is almost ready to be released.
This is an extremely exciting time for us and we cannot wait for the Wudzy App to launch. We hope that you will download the Wudzy App and tell all of your family and friends about Wudzy and encourage them to download it too. The more people that download and use the Wudzy App, the more successful it will be - and most importantly the more money we can donate to cancer patients who desperately need help.
So please be sure to like this Wudzy page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram, to get important information and updates about Wudzy’s release date and our exciting launch event which is set to take place in January 2109.
To learn more about the Wudzy App and what it actually does - be sure to follow us on the socials. You can also learn more about Wudzy Inc. and all we do at www.wudzy.com
I sincerely thank you for support and hope that together we can help a lot of people - in Wudzy’s name.
Sincerely,
Jodie Hooper
CEO - Wudzy Inc.
