Welcome to "Choosing to Smile" - We are the 'Choosing to Smile' authors -  Julie Houlker, Glenda Standeven and Michelle Rickaby. Our three life stories are presented in our book which has been described as "encompassing the wholeness of life."      

CHOOSING TO SMILE CO-AUTHORS
MICHELLE RICKABY AND GLENDA STANDEVEN
ACCEPT THE "WOMAN OF COURAGE AWARD"
IN WASHINGTON DC, October 2011. 

Welcome to "Choosing to Smile" - We are the 'Choosing to Smile' authors -  Julie Houlker, Glenda Standeven and Michelle Rickaby. Our three life stories are presented in our book which has been described as "encompassing the wholeness of life."

Although all three of us have had our lives touched by cancer our stories are most definitely not just about this disease. The book follows our lives as three ordinary women who encounter extraordinary life circumstances. We decided to share our message of hope with others by writing this book in 2009 and before we knew it we had started a world-wide movement called 'Choosing to Smile'. 

The Choosing to Smile movement evolved from our desire to make a difference and our book is for men and women of all ages who are facing ANY type of adversity. Our goal is to help people find strength by choosing to smile through whatever challenges life brings. The movement continues to grow and we now have over 4000 members in our Facebook group as well as visitors to our website from 50+ countries. (View our world map below on the left hand side of this page.) Through our experiences we have discovered that choosing to smile can help everyone no matter what journey they are on in life and we want to share our message with the world. Choosing to smile sounds simple but it's not always easy.

We hope you enjoy reading our book. You can order your autographed copy or Kindle book here. 

Julie Houlker was a 15 year cancer survivor who had faced breast cancer three times. (Yes, she actually was one of the few women who have had a mastectomy twice on the same side - a natural breast and a reconstructed breast removed). She lived with metastatic breast cancer for five years after being told she only had 18 months to two years to live. She believed her mission was to inspire others to get through the tough times by choosing to smile. Follow her journey through metastatic cancer treatments on her blog.