Dez Gerald is a remarkably ambitious native of Boston, Massachusetts with lineage in Florida, as well as the beautiful isles of Montserrat.
Already having the best of both cultures, Gerald made the city of Charlotte, North Carolina a home in 2001 relocating from Boston with her sister, to start a new life in warmer climates.
Even while in Boston, Gerald wanted to own a business, and become a designer. She’s accomplished both desires, poured warmly into real estate.
Dez earned her real estate license in 2004 and became a certified stager in 2007. She is 2023 President Elect for the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.
The crafty negotiator learned the basics principles about property and equity from her father who was a landlord in Boston. Gerald earned her savoir-faire for design from her mother, whom, according to Gerald, might’ve had OCD... “We used to have to wake-up Saturday Mornings at six o’clock to clean, wipe the baseboards, rearrange furniture, clean the windows; and after all of that, we would go shopping, and we would buy like new curtains, rugs, and comforters—and we were always changing our rooms, our living rooms. So, she kind of prepared me for staging,” said Gerald.
Gerald shares a real estate business locally with her sister Louv Ford (DI Real Estate + Staging/ Sisters Selling Real Estate) where she works full-time. In her leisure moments, Gerald focuses on health, wellness, and living life purposefully, to the fullest.
Dez and Louv
It wasn’t until July 21, 2022, when Gerald received the news, that she had stage 3 Breast Cancer, that she became more intentional with that… living life, fully.
CDC states that there are one in three cases of new diagnosis of breast cancer in women each year with predictions that 297,790 women get diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and about 2,100 men-- furthering that by saying 42,000 women and 500 men will die in the U.S each year from breast cancer. There are about The National Cancer Foundation notes that 80% of women diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer, survives.
“I’m like the conscious eater in the family,” Gerald reflects to her earlier days of shopping at the “Bread and Circus” Whole Foods store. “I would probably eat seventy-five percent clean the rest is whatever; but now it’s like I’ve changed that because wait a minute… I was doing all of that, and I still ended up with breast cancer; but in my journey, I learned that it’s so much more than what we eat. It’s so much more.”
Gerald says that cancer is a mind, body, and soul type of thing that people just don’t get overnight, but it grows in negative spaces like toxins and mold, the energy that you have around you, the 5G cell towers that emits electromagnetic radiation, foods, skincare and etcetera.
"That’s why I decided to do the holistic journey before I even started anything,” she continued. “When I found out, I just did like the three days fast with just water. You know, I prayed.”
Shattered by the diagnosis, but not broken, Gerald understood that she needed to first declare and decree healing — she accepted the cancer as diagnosis, but it wasn’t a fatal blow although very harsh news. Gerald stood resolute in her faith knowing God makes no mistakes. Wrapping herself in that faith, spirituality, and her relationship with Him, Gerald asked for strength …
“God, I just want you to carry me through this. I don’t want to be afraid. Just carry me through it. Let me be a living, walking, testimony of your goodness, your grace, and your mercy.”
Gerald recalled that she had great days with no fear after diagnosis, until it was time to visit the specialists, where she prepared for news whether good or bad by bracing herself. The oncologist team made her fearful with their aggressive approach to treatments.
Instead of going with their guidance of getting MRI, bone density scans, and CT scans, within a couple of weeks of receiving the news, Gerald insisted on doing organic treatments based off the suggestions of her holistic coach, before getting the scans done. She drank water and ate raw fruits and vegetables for forty days and forty nights. Once Gerald agreed to an MRI after her purity fast, the scans showed the cancer shrunk, but the oncologist deemed it as inconclusive.
Gerald wanted unconventional therapy, so she found the Utopia Alternative Cancer Center based in Florida where she started a Go Fund Me, to help pay for treatment. She spent several weeks in holistic therapy.
The Providers from Utopia urged Gerald to eat natural grass-fed meats, fruits, and vegetables, before requesting a second opinion from providers locally, and by this time, Gerald agreed to doing Chemo as a shielding measure.
“Before I started doing chemo, I learned the cancer shrunk some more.”
Gerald jogged, and exercised even while doing chemo, but she believes that her healing came from eating natural fruits, vegetables wild cod, and grass-fed beef.
“One thing that I learned is that for us to maintain really good health, our body literally has to be in like a detox mode so whatever you eat, it always has to pass through you like in an instant. It should always pass right through you. When you eat meat, the meat sits in your body for about two to ten days, and it’s almost like rotten inside of your body which doesn’t help. It promotes illness."
Gerald elected to have surgery to remove the remainder cancer which left about ten percent of non-reactive cancer from the one hundred percent… “I have faith that will move mountains,” she said when talking about the outcome of her journey, her belief in God, pulling her through it.
“My sister was there. She went with me to almost every chemo treatment or appointments. If she wasn’t there, my daughters were there. I come from a very supportive family,” says Gerald when asked about the support system.
In the same breath of optimism, she talks about hosting a 5K walk for the people from all strides of life… “I’m calling it the Dez Gerald Inaugural 5 to 10k Cancer Healer Walk.”
Gerald aims to change the axioms survivor, survive, and survived, because words are powerful, and by changing the language to healer... “I feel like, if we start using that word, and we actually
walk out on faith and believe that we will be healed. We can heal ourselves…”
For more information about the walk follow @healinghomenation for TikTok and @DezGerald
Click below to watch full interview:
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