Inspiring Comedian and Pancreatic Cancer Survivor

Wendy Hammers is one of those rare speakers who can make a room full of cancer survivors laugh out loud — and mean it. She’s a comedian and actress who has toured nationally as a stand-up for three decades, and then, at 54, was handed the role she never auditioned for: pancreatic cancer patient. Nine-plus years later, she’s not just surviving — she’s thriving, dancing, and sharing everything she learned with audiences who need to hear it. I’ve seen her work a room firsthand, and I can tell you: she left that room different than she found it. She’s one of my first recommendations for cancer survivor events, women’s conferences, and any gathering where you want your audience to walk out feeling more alive than when they walked in.

About Wendy

For forty years, Wendy Hammers built a career as an actress and comedian — playing rattled flight attendants opposite Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm, being featured on Oprah as a comic, and touring the country as a stand-up. She’s played nuns, nudists, psychics, therapists, and everything in between. Then, at 54, life handed her the most challenging part yet: pancreatic cancer patient.

She didn’t just survive it. She broke up with it.

Nine-plus years later, Wendy brings everything she learned — about self-love, about humor as medicine, about what it means to really live — to audiences across the country. Her talks are funny, frank, and deeply human. Whether she’s speaking to cancer survivors and their families or to a room full of women celebrating the next chapter, Wendy connects in a way that is genuinely rare. Come for the laughs. Leave changed.

Signature Keynotes

I Broke Up With Cancer

The go-to keynote for cancer survivor events, cancer conferences, and hospital wellness gatherings

Wendy’s signature talk takes audiences from diagnosis to “break up” — with humor, insight, and hard-won optimism. Drawing on 8 principles for surviving and thriving, she reminds us that cancer is a master class in self-love. Warning: there will be dancing.

Wendy puts it simply: “In the end, I had to end it with cancer. We weren’t a good fit. We wanted different things. Like, for example, I wanted to live. Really live.”

Audiences will leave with:

• A fresh, life-affirming perspective on survivorship
• Practical principles for moving from surviving to truly thriving
• Permission to laugh — and the reminder that humor is part of healing
• A felt sense of community with everyone else in the room

Ideal for: Cancer Survivor Events, Cancer Conferences, Hospital Wellness Events, Foundation Fundraisers, Breast Cancer Events

Fifty Shades of Gray Hair

A spirited keynote for women’s conferences, Women’s Night Out, and women’s leadership events

With sassy, silver-haired wisdom, Wendy makes the case that getting older is a gift — and the rest of our lives can be the best of our lives. This talk is funny, celebratory, and genuinely empowering, with a brief writing exercise the audience does together as a community.

“Half the time I no longer care what people think, and the other half of the time, I can’t remember.”

Audiences will leave with:

• A new lens on aging — possibility instead of dread
• Confidence, laughter, and a sense of shared celebration
• A completed personal writing exercise to take home

Ideal for: Women’s Night Out, Women’s Conferences, Girls’ Night Out, Mom’s Night Out, Women’s Leadership Events, Association Keynotes

Giggling with The Girls: Laughter for Women of All Ages

Pure joy for women’s events of every kind

Forty years of entertaining audiences have taught Wendy exactly how to make women feel good about themselves and the women around them. This high-energy, crowd-pleasing keynote is perfect when your goal is connection, laughter, and leaving the room on a high note.

Ideal for: Women’s Night Out, Girls’ Night Out, Women’s Conferences, Employee Appreciation Events, Nurses Appreciation Events

Booking Information

Speaker fee: Available upon request Based in: Los Angeles, CA — travels internationally Format: Keynote (30 or 45 minutes + Q&A) | Available in person and virtually

If Wendy sounds like the right fit for your event — or if you’d like to talk through whether she is — I’d love to hear from you. Reach out and let’s find the right match together.

Check Wendy’s Availability — barbara@speakwellbeing.com | 503-699-5031, or fill out the “Request Speaker Info” form on this page.

Working with a new bureau can feel like a leap of faith. Here’s what one client had to say about the experience:

“If you are ever looking for the perfect speaker for your next event, do yourself a favor and connect with Barbara Christenson. She has helped us secure speakers for our community cancer survivor celebrations on multiple occasions, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Barbara completely understood our mission, met the request perfectly, and was an absolute dream to work with from start to finish. Her professionalism and insight made all the difference, and we look forward to reaching out to her for our next big event.”

— Cobie Whitten, PhD, Psycho-Oncology Consultant, Providence Swedish Cancer Institute, Olympia, WA

Read Barbara’s Field Report:

From Diagnosis to Dancing — Wendy Hammers at Providence Swedish Cancer Institute’s Cancer Survivor Day.