Nastasja Nedimović, cancer influencer - How I overcame an incurable disease and became an entrepreneur

She has been in sports since the age of five. first one year in karate, and then swimming from the age of six and then water polo from the age of ten. At the age of 14, she was a member of the Serbian and Montenegrin national team in water polo. By the age of 20, she had traveled all over the world playing that sport, but without even realizing it, she prepared herself for life as well, for what followed was the hardest blow of any in sports. And before that blow, everything in her life resembled a movie

- she chose her longtime friend, also an athlete, as her marriage partner, they got one child, immediately wanted another one and then... In the 7th month of pregnancy, which had been in pain all the time before, with severe anemia, she is delivered urgently by caesarean section. The premature son is taken to the children`s hospital, so that she doesn`t even meet him right away, and to her in the shock room, on December 16, 2016, her brother and husband, more tenderly than anyone else would have done, announce the diagnosis – multiple myeloma or chronic bone marrow cancer. A diagnosis for which they usually predict another five years of life.

Today, eight years later, contrary to the pessimistic predictions of doctors for these diagnoses, she is healthy, and her fight for health, a healthy diet and a healthy attitude towards life has fueled her to share all her experiences that have helped her with everyone who needs something like that. And that`s how her Cancer Influencer Instagram page first came into being, and then an electronic book, then another, then a third printed book of recipes that have helped her on her journey to health. And then came entrepreneurship and the founding of Suplemania. And about everything that preceded this, Nastasja Nedimović (35), a cancer influencer, and since a year ago, a young entrepreneur from Novi Sad, a native of Becej, spoke for eKapija.

- Of course I was in shock when I found out about the diagnosis and that I cried and that it was all scary, but my husband Nemanja helped me not to dwell on such emotions for long. But we have to move on, let`s see how we`re going to deal with it. Anything else - like dying was not an option at all. We were just thinking about how we would proceed and making a plan. We have complied with everything that is up to the doctor, but after that, Nemanja threw himself into research how I as an individual can help myself. In terms of a diet plan, an optimistic worldview. Family support and love are indescribably important for this recovery, but I also knew personally that I had to fight. With two kids waiting for me and a husband, dying was by no means an option for me. That I won`t be with them when they grow up, that was unimaginable to me – Nastasja mentions only some details of her first encounter with a vicious disease.

And no one attributed the symptoms she had before the diagnosis to anything other than pregnancy.

Anemia and back pain are certainly typical for it. However, in the background of Nastasja`s pain, there were bone fractures that she did not even know about.

- As the pregnancy progressed, the anemia got so bad that I didn`t even know if I was asleep or awake anymore. Everything was all a blur to me. I had constant back spasms and was bedridden. In fact, I had fractures all the time that I didn`t even know I had, and what is the symptom of this disease – hollow bones. First they said it was hemolytic anemia, but we also sought a second opinion

and then they told me that I should be taken to hospital. When they learned it was bone marrow cancer, they literally waited for the first day for me to enter the eighth month and delivered me immediately. I was not told the diagnosis before the birth, but the day after the birth - these are just some of the memories that our interlocutor brings to eKapija.

- A physiotherapist was involved all the time, but I also tried to practice on my own. In addition, I wore a midi all the time who kept my spine from snapping. After that I started to sit, so walking with a walker was the next level. And all the time with immense pain and chemotherapy. Then I had a bone marrow transplant, where I was my own donor, and it all went well. But the most difficult part for me mentally was when I came from the hospital because my children were waiting there. At the same time, I only met my son Vuk during a short visit when I was released from the hospital, when he was already two, three months old - says Nastasja.

And Vuk, although born prematurely, quickly left the hospital after birth and recovered quickly, while his mother struggled all the time in the hospital bed after giving birth.

- In the meantime, Vuk lived with my mother and as a family we all started living together when Vuk was nine months old. I could barely walk before that, with weak immunity, but together we started to work on strengthening my immunity. They didn`t even go to kindergarten back then so they wouldn`t bring viruses and bacteria to me - adds our interlocutor.

As she admits, at no time did she look for strength in anything other than her family, her husband and her two children - whom she could not allow to grow up without her.

- I have motivated myself because I have an enormous will to live. At that time, no one in the Balkans talked about the fact that it is not a shame to have cancer, to be hairless. And then I wanted to be the first one which will post a picture without hair and normalize it all and so, three years after receiving the diagnosis, my Instagram page was born. I wanted to share with others everything that had helped me, and I have tried a thousand and one diets until I realized which one gives results for me - says Nastasja.

After countless attempts and regime changes she understood that her diet should be balanced, non-industrial, from which all highly processed products, additives, artificial sweeteners have been excluded. And it`s actually a diet with lots of food in its natural form - fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, seeds, fish, eggs, dairy products. It is, as she would put it, an ordinary diet which, unfortunately, is said to be exceptional, special, while it should be taken for granted.

- We have read various studies, what is good, what is recommended, but you don`t know until you try it yourself. And then I started posting everything I tried on Instagram, in the desire to share all those recipes, sweets without sugar and sweeteners. People started to be more and more interested in those recipes, and not just sick people, but also those who want to start leading a healthy life. They see that even with the children, and with all those obligations, I also manage to train and then they want to know how I eat, what do I take when I have so much energy - says Nastasja.

And then, out of the need to gather all those recipes in one place, an electronic book was born – Immunomania eBook. This book caused a lot of interest so that soon also its version in printed form was created.

And at the same time, discovering healthy recipes Nastasja searched for supplements as well and realized that there is no vitamin C with pure, natural sources on our market, rather, only ascorbic acid, which is ultra-cheap and just passes through the body.

It is in the plan of their Suplemania company, founded a year ago that in 2025, two more products are launched, and what our interlocutor has a special focus on now is the establishment of a new, as she calls it, social networks.

- Now they will be able to contact each other, to form groups, to connect people with very rare diagnoses more easily. They thus save each other`s lives because sometimes they have no information about the disease, treatment methods, here or abroad, so the support is much easier with this - Nastasja explains.

And it would be said based on this conversation we had with Nastasja, this is only a part of future plans, and the sky is the limit, as she says, when it comes to her wishes and will.

- I think that I can achieve anything that I want enough and work hard for. And with good organization because it is half the job - she adds, noting that their children Nia (10) and Vuk (8) are starting to follow her example - from a healthy lifestyle, training, to participation in the creation of recipes and recordings for mom.

- I was taught through that sport that when it`s hard for you, you push on. And there is no great philosophy here. You simply must. You don`t have another choice. I have not given myself any other choice and what choice could I give myself except to proceed? First, for the sake of my children, and also for myself. I`m not a quitter. And I would be ashamed if my children remembered me as a mom who didn`t make an effort to stay with them a little longer. And when you set it to yourself like that, you have no choice. How can you miss meeting your own child... - says our interlocutor.

Even with the last regular report, she has to check her health every three months for the rest of her life, and as for the advice she would give to people after such an experience, she left those tips for last on this occasion:

- You don`t need to get upset over little things and everything and you should be grateful for everything you have. I now really appreciate what I have, where I don`t mean finances, but the fact that I have health, healthy children. And my children know how often I say during the day: If only we are healthy. And nothing else in life is worth it if you don`t have health - that`s the most important thing.