Author wife of Uno CEO to hold book signing in Nahant Sunday

NAHANT – For the three years that Uno Chicago Grill CEO Frank Guidara suffered with pancreatic cancer, he and wife Juliette Guidara managed to keep his impending mortality a secret.Though he has only been cancer free a few weeks, Juliette Guidara is ready to share the story of how her husband beat the odds in her new book, “5.4%.” This Sunday, fellow Nahant residents Linda and Carl Jenkins will be hosting the author for a book signing to introduce the book, out since September, at their home at 339 Nahant Road from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.Juliette Guidara said the “core” of the book is made up of notes that she and Frank Guidara took during doctor’s appointments, along with email updates and photos sent to close friends and family with his progress. “This book is an invitation to the most intimate part of our lives,” said Juliette Guidara. “I promised God that if Frank lived, I would write this book.”Juliette Guidara said the only people who knew of her husband’s cancer were close friends, family and his executive team, so Frank Guidara could leave work early on Friday afternoons for treatment. “When people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, typically they die six weeks to three months after,” said Juliette Guidara. “The hope I was looking to get wasn’t out there. I couldn’t talk to anybody who had survived it.”When Frank Guidara was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2008, 11 days shy of his first wedding anniversary with Juliette, he was given a 27 percent chance of survival. By 2012, that number was down to 5.4 percent. “Our whole world just crashed,” said Juliette Guidara. “I was on the fetal position, and then I decided that the love of my life wasn’t going to die.”Juliette Guidara said she believes the reason her husband survived is because they were open to every kind of treatment. Frank Guidara had a surgical Whipple procedure and underwent two weeks of oral chemotherapy, five weeks of proton beam radiation, and six rounds of intravenous chemotherapy.Juliette Guidara said she did everything she could to offset the toxicity of the chemo, including hypnotherapy, herself a practitioner since 2004, and steam baths. Next, she and Frank Guidara worked on boosting his immune system with a raw vegan diet and Tonguren, a Chinese healing modality.”I think it was our willingness to be open to anything,” she said. “The fact the we constantly tried things and listened and were open ? all the answers came to us, we just had to be willing to do it. We poured our heart and soul into learning and exploring. I want to help other people realize there’s hope.”Frank Guidara’s last scan at the beginning of October showed he was cancer free, and what his wife called “the picture of health” at 65.Juliette Guidara said she believes faith was a big factor in her husband’s survival. “Faith to me is number one,” she said. “If God wants you, he’s going to take you no matter what dance you dance. I look at this book and I think how the hell did this happen? I really feel like it was inspired by the divine ? If the right people get to read this thing and know they are not just a victim of circumstance and disease, it’s all worth it.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].