By: Agatha Jackson
At 78, Barbara Bray is not slowing down.
She is living with cancer, continuing a five-year clinical trial, growing her coaching work, and celebrating new recognition for her book, Grow Your Why: One Story at a Time.
The book was recently named a Best Book finalist and received a positive Book Shelfie review. Its audiobook also carries a deeply personal element: the 23 contributing authors narrated their own chapters, telling their stories in their own voices.
For Barbara, that detail mattered.
Her work has always been rooted in listening to the story behind the story. As an Empowerment Coach, author, and founder of Grow Your WHY, she helps people make meaning from lived experiences and reconnect with purpose during times of transition.
Known as a “Story Weaver,” Barbara helps people who feel stuck uncover the stories that shape who they are so they can step into what comes next with more clarity and confidence.
But her message about purpose is not theoretical. In recent years, it became deeply personal.
Learning to Trust What Her Body Was Telling Her
For four years, Barbara knew something was wrong with her body. Walking up stairs left her winded, hills became difficult, and her breathing no longer felt the way it used to. She went to doctors, asked questions, and took the tests: a CT scan, a battery of heart tests, and lung capacity testing.
Again and again, the results came back normal. Again and again, she was told not to worry.
But Barbara kept paying attention.
“I know my body,” she would insist.
In 2023, her instinct was confirmed. Barbara was diagnosed with lung cancer, despite never having smoked. The diagnosis came only after she made a direct request to her doctor: “Humor me. Order another CT scan.”
This time, the scan revealed a mass on her airway.
The diagnosis was a turning point, but so was the experience of feeling unheard.
“I wasn’t just struggling to breathe,” Barbara reflects. “I was struggling to be believed.”
Continuing to Advocate for Her Health
After her diagnosis, Barbara underwent a lower right lung lobectomy. Genetic testing later revealed an atypical gene mutation, making the next steps less straightforward. A targeted therapy existed, but it was not covered by her health insurance.
So she kept advocating.
With help from her family, Barbara searched for alternatives. Her sisters found a clinical trial tailored to her mutation. Her sister, Sandy, contacted the trial and learned that recruitment was closing within a week. Barbara and her husband rushed to the site, about an hour and a half away, and she was accepted.
In July 2023, Barbara began the five-year clinical trial at Provident Oncology in Santa Rosa, California. Today, she continues monitoring every three months, including lab work, heart tests, scans, and a daily targeted treatment. The side effects are real, but so is her commitment to keep living, creating, and contributing.
That commitment now shapes how she talks about purpose.
Barbara does not present discovering your WHY as a neat exercise or a single moment of inspiration. For her, purpose is often revealed through experience: the moments that interrupt your plans, test your assumptions, and ask you to listen more closely to yourself.
The Story Behind Grow Your Why
That is the heart of Grow Your Why: One Story at a Time, which Barbara self-published under her label, Why Press Publishing. The book brings together 23 contributing authors, each sharing an experience that made a meaningful impact on their life.
By curating those stories, Barbara created more than a collection of essays. She created a space where lived experience becomes a bridge between people.
That belief in the power of stories has also shaped relationships that span decades. One of those relationships is with George Foreman, whom she first met when he was 19 at Job Corps in Pleasanton, California, where her father served as comptroller and helped mentor the wrestling and boxing teams.
Her father saw promise in Foreman and invited him to the family’s home for Thanksgiving. Over the years, Barbara’s family followed Foreman’s journey through the Olympics, heavyweight championships, and his work as a pastor, while Foreman stayed connected to her journey.
Years later, when Barbara wrote Define Your Why: Own Your Story So You Can Live and Learn on Purpose, Foreman contributed a vignette about growing up outside Houston, getting into trouble, and finding his way. He also helped promote the book by offering signed boxing gloves to early readers.
During one difficult season for Barbara, he sent her a wrap he had worn under his glove during a major fight with a note that read, “I was at my Most Powerful when I used this one. It’s for You ‘Super Woman!’”
For Barbara, moments like these reflect the same idea behind her work: stories of resilience can become a source of strength for someone else.
Listening to the Voice Behind the Story
The audiobook takes that idea further. Because each contributor narrated their own chapter, listeners hear not only the words, but the voice behind each story. For Barbara, that reflects what she has spent decades practicing: listening deeply enough to understand what someone’s story is really carrying.
Her coaching work through Grow Your WHY follows the same thread. Through the Purpose Shift™ VALUES Framework, Barbara helps clients value who they are, advocate for what they believe, listen deeply to their heart, understand the story behind their story, embody their purpose as they grow, and step into agency and impact.
It is a process designed for people in transition: women navigating illness, caregiving, loss, or reinvention; educators questioning what comes next; leaders and professionals facing career disruption; and retirees wondering what purpose looks like in a new season of life.
Barbara understands that question personally. At 78, with cancer as part of her reality, she is still creating new work, expanding her message, and inviting others to see that purpose does not expire.
Purpose in Unexpected Chapters
That may be one of the meaningful parts of her story.
Retirement can leave some people feeling unmoored after years of building an identity around a title, schedule, or role. A diagnosis can make the future suddenly seem smaller. Caregiving can blur a person’s sense of what they want for themselves. And for those who feel stuck, the issue is not always a lack of ability. Sometimes, it is a lost connection to voice, direction, and possibility.
Barbara’s work speaks to those moments.
Her delayed diagnosis taught her the cost of not feeling heard, but it also reinforced the importance of self-trust. Her cancer journey did not erase her purpose; it sharpened it.
Her book did not emerge from a life untouched by difficulty. It grew from a belief that stories, especially difficult ones, can help people find their way back to themselves.
For Barbara, never giving up does not mean ignoring fear, pretending everything is fine, or pushing past the body’s limits. Persistence does not have to be loud. It can show up in staying attentive to your own life, asking the next question, and listening when something inside you says there is more to understand.
Whether the question begins with healing, work, caregiving, identity, or a new season of life, it often leads back to something deeply personal: What still matters to me now?
Through Grow Your WHY, Barbara is helping people answer that question one story at a time.
Her message is especially meaningful for anyone who believes they are too old, too late, too tired, too uncertain, or too far removed from the life they once imagined. Barbara Bray’s life and work offer a different reminder: purpose can keep growing, even in the chapters people never expected.
Learn more at barbarabray.net.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational and editorial purposes only. It does not provide medical, diagnostic, treatment, mental health, coaching, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as a substitute for guidance from a qualified professional. Any discussion of cancer, clinical trials, genetic testing, targeted therapy, symptoms, surgery, treatment monitoring, personal advocacy, or purpose-based coaching is provided for general context only. Medical conditions, treatment options, clinical trial eligibility, outcomes, side effects, and personal experiences can vary based on individual circumstances and professional evaluation. Readers should consult a licensed healthcare provider, oncologist, mental health professional, or other qualified expert before making decisions related to health, treatment, clinical trials, or personal development.
