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Rising Stars: Meet Sandy Duarte of Los Angeles

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandy Duarte.

Hi Sandy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Where do I even begin to tell my story, right now, today? In reflection, it feels like so many lives lived. Well, I will start with: I am alive. I am a stage 4 cancer survivor. Now one year into remission. I never thought I would ever utter that word: Cancer. At the end of 2023 after many months of a cough that wouldn’t go away, and my health rapidly declining, I decided to get my lungs checked out with a scan. I thought I must’ve had really bad pneumonia or bronchitis.
After two concerning scans, and my doctor’s urgent call to get to the hospital immediately, I discovered that the cough (and my left lung) were secondary to the cancer that had collapsed it under the weight of its huge size. I remember heading to the hospital thinking I would be in and out – but I never left. I endured two weeks of every scan, biopsy and procedure (all with eyes wide open), to finally find out that cancer was my new friend, and it’s name was Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. There was no way to even prepare for that kind of news, you just dive in head first into the pool of your new reality. All I knew deep inside of me, was that I wasn’t done with life, and I knew life wasn’t done with me. I gave myself about 24 hours to wonder, ponder and ask why? Why me? And then I knew I had to stop asking why, and instead ask more empowering questions like, why not? Why not me? I can do this. I can do hard things. I was ready. As ready as I could be for a journey I never planned on, and for so much I couldn’t have ever even imagined that was ahead of me in 2024.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Life is never quite smooth, but in its roughness, you become the smooth zen warrior, better able to navigate all of the things, with a better view, a view that comes from perspective. Cancer was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. There was cancer of the body, and then equally, if not even more challenging, cancer of the mind. The incredible work it took to keep a positive outlook, a balanced mind, to fight through chemo brain, to fight for the faith that love and light would carry you though the vein of existence, into more borrowed time into life’s heartbeat. And yet, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I actually thank god for my cancer. It was the ultimate teacher, crusher, demander, task master, bending me into parts of myself that both scared me and loved me. I don’t know if I have the words enough to express this, but I managed to write a book that I never intended to write. Cancer Ramblings was born at the height of my chemo, and written in real-time. Through my writing, and what I call ‘writing to the light’, I was able to get through the deep pain and struggle that came with my friend Cancer. I was able to make sense of the nonsense that is cancer. And in the process of writing, I was healing and helping myself, but also knowing that I could help someone coming up behind me with the same diagnosis too. I had to find the meaning, the point, the purpose of this pain. And in the end, roughness was the sweetest hand showing me what I am made of, and driving me deeper into the powerful simplicity, that is love. To love more than ever. To love as mantra. To love as breath. A choice. A way out of the cancer cave of darkness.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a creative and wellness artist. Starting out in the fashion industry and landing in love with acting and producing. My theater work garnered me a Dora Award, Canada’s Tony (many moons ago) for Outstanding Female Performance for a play I produced; Blood by Tom Walmsley. With a hunger for more expression and an appetite to keep learning and expressing my creative gifts deeper, I found myself following a nudge to take a yoga training intensive course. I started to teach yoga immediately soon after and never looked back. My joy of creative expression is limitless, and stages are truly all around us. How do you use your platform? For me, whether its theater, a film set, or a wellness studio, the stage is set for sharing your heart and helping people tap into theirs. Cancer, took my love and creativity even deeper propelling me to write a book in what felt like a minute, and to also take up sound healing, another nudge mid-way through chemo, where I followed the voice to order crystal singing bowls. I started to play for many studios and clients completely bald and fresh out of chemo, and even been brought on board to lead the program and curate sound for Sonic Unity, an incredible initiative to bring healing sound to the masses. I play from my heart, from that place of truly being given another chance at life. That life wasn’t done with me and I wasn’t done with it.

I am deeply proud of my human expansion in expression from Cancer Survivor to Wellness Advocate to Author to Sound Healer to Sound Curator for Sonic Unity to Wellness Yoga Retreat leader.
What sets me apart is my devotion to never being apart from my heart. I move beyond titles, beyond form, beyond what it simply means to be “creative.” I am Sandy — simply that. A being who loves… love. A being who loves life.

And it is through that love that I continue to express, to expand, to become.

Born through my lived experience, and quite literally through chemotherapy, my unique sound, what I call Love Wrapped in Sound, emerged. An expression that moved through me, shaped by surrender, resilience, and deep presence under pain.

What’s next is not a title, it is a deepening.

A deepening into my truth.
A deepening into my sound.
A deepening into service.

I see myself bringing this healing sound — and my book — to more hearts across the world. Creating spaces where others can remember their own essence, their own capacity to heal, to feel, to love.

Not becoming something new…
But becoming more fully, unapologetically, myself.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice is the best F-word: Faith. No matter what the challenge, keep the faith. Water your faith. We can do so much on our own, but on our own alone is not enough. Faith is the lock and key out of anything. I made it through cancer because I truly worked hard at keeping my faith. My faith in life, love, nature, universe, light, God. Lean into the high vibrations of love. Meditate. Pray. Lean on spiritual masters, mentors, to keep you strong. I am grateful for masterful people like Paramahansa Yogananda, Michael Beckwith, Lao Tzu, Elizabeth Gilbert, Oprah…
…the list goes on and on.
Faith is cultivated by what you do for it. Who you listen to for it. How you wake up for it. And it will help you get through anything, from cancer and beyond. To discover more of what sustained me, and practices that apply to life beyond cancer, I invite you to grab a copy of my book, Cancer Ramblings, available in kindle or paperback format worldwide.

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Image Credits
Jeffrey Sklan
Tobias Wienhold
Neil Napier Photo
The Clean Living Magazine

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