NiCole's Notes
NiCole's Notes: The study guide for adulting. Witty, rigorous analysis of everything that matters: politics, love, illness, friendship, technology, aging, and the contradictions we live with. Sarcastic scholarship for the thinking Gen-X mind. Smart when it matters and Witty always.
A graduate of the University of Calgary, B.A. Political Science '95, B.A.Spanish '08, born with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease that has been trying to kill me since birth. Hanging on to life by the horns with only 26% lung function. I have 20+ years of experience building organizations and understanding how systems actually work.
Founder of the Summit Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, raising 3.5+ million dollars for local research; Philanthropist of the Year for Alberta in 2014; honoured with the naming of a research lab at the Cumming School of Medicine, Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, at the University of Calgary in 2013. Featured in a documentary about my journey with CF and being a CrossFit athlete, while owning my own gym in 2018. I was part of a $ 350 million fundraising campaign and had a 50' banner of my mug hanging off Foothills Hospital for 4 years (2003-2007). I am deep into my journey to finding my true self. I am attempting to integrate my conscious and unconscious to allow my authentic self to emerge. See Carl Jung's theory about individuation. I write about how I am doing it on my website: www.cokeontherocks.ca, so go see me there for some tips.
Just graduated with a professional certification in Graphic Design (June 15, 2026) and am working on another in Integrated Digital Media (graduating May 2027); my friends would consider me the Sassy Smurf of the group.
I may have been given a cactus, but I don't have to sit on it.
NiCole's Notes
Latest Episodes
Marriage & Divorce: The Duality of Reality
When you're living your most public life—keynoting in front of CEOs, your face on 50-foot hospital banners, raising millions for your foundation—who sees you disappearing at home?This is the story of the duality. Of building a public per...
The Redemption Arc
Episode 6: I weighed 74 pounds at my wedding. Ten years later, the University of Calgary named a research lab after me. This is how I went from surviving on a feeding tube to raising millions for CF research and discovering that my surviv...
The Feeding Tube
46 pounds lost in 7 years. 74 lbs at wedding. Surgery 6 weeks before marriage. "You'll die without this tube." Walking down the aisle as a skeleton.
When I Closed My Eyes
Trigger Warning: Medical trauma, childhood fear, anxiety, hypervigilanceWhat happens to a child's mind when doctors and nurses repeatedly invade their body and sleep without consent?This bonus episode bridges The Exacerbati...
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The Exacerbation: When the Glass Cracks
This is the story of a 22-year-old who thought she was invincible. Who had survived 10 years of hiding CF. Who had proven to the world that her disease didn't define her.And then her lungs decided to call her bluff.The hamster whe...
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