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Hi, my name is Dave & I have Stage IV (metastatic) colorectal cancer. I had been teaching in Japan (though my passion is music - playing it and making it!) when I was diagnosed (February 2010) with a large malignant tumour at the last bend of my colon, 1 month later 3 tumours in the liver, plus 5 months ago 30 or so small but growing tumours in the lungs. According to stats from the NHS that diagnosis of Stage IV colorectal cancer gives me just a 5% chance of survival beyond 5 years. Well, not me! As far as I am concerned I am going to be one to buck the trend completely & live a long and full life, watching my children if I am so blessed, then hopefully some grandchildren too! But I need your help for this next stage of my recovery; obviously I haven't been able to earn since I quit my job last year.

Basically I believe holistic treatment with significant (but non-UK) research evidence, plus chemo only as a last resort is the best for me. I have already had chemotherapy twice (yes, it is hell!) & several operations (leaving some impressive scarring on my torso) and have been working hard on holistic self-treatment at the same time. I gave up sugar, meat, alcohol, anything containing refined flour, processed food & a whole bunch of other things. I also regularly meditate, do tai chi, chi gung (chinese 'energy works'), acupuncture, yoga plus do plenty of exercise including running around every other day. So actually right now I feel pretty good, but of course the fear of the lung tumours continuing to grow is always there in the back of my mind. The other areas of cancer in the colon & lungs were clear as of June this year so I am now really just working on the systemic problem; if you don't already know stage IV means the cancer reached my lymph nodes & could technically re-appear anywhere in my body, at any time. According to the medical profession in the UK 'incurable' - or TERMINAL for anyone who doesn't fully grasp the seriousness of my disease.

Looking at eastern medicine (my tai chi, acupuncture, etc) however gives me hope. Looking at that allows that if I redress issues of a body out of balance (ongoing, but so much better than before!) my body can learn to recognise the cancer cells (one of the clever and deadly skills cancer has is that it hides itself from the immune system) and attack them. As part of that I want to give my body all the help I can: a crazy strict diet (mine is bad enough now!) & meditation only may well be possible in theory but short of running away to live in a cave I don't know how to achieve that in reality! So, I have taken advice from various doctors (albeit all but one non-NHS), a former oncology nurse now well-respected specialist in cancer treatment via the kind folks at Yes to Life, plus of course read a huge number of articles and research about the subject. The next step for me is treatment at the highly recommended Vision of Hope clinic in Brighton, which I start on August 16th.

They divide treatment into 3 categories

1. Head:
To add to what I have been personally working on in my private 'practices' I will be seeing a Life Coach to try to iron out some personal issues. Under instruction from my doctor at the Vision of Hope clinic I have also set myself some goals for the next couple of years to give me some things to aim for.

2. Nutrition:
a) with the help of the nutritionist here adding to my already comprehensive list of no-good food & adding to the list of helpful (yet almost always expensive) ones. Fighting down the daily green drinks (wheatgrass, kale, cabbage, broccoli, courgette, spirulina, spinach, cucumber, etc, plus a pinch of cayenne, turmeric &/or black pepper and some lemon to supposedly to improve this challenging raw-fest!)
b) Supplements (accounting for approx. 25% of the cost):
I take approximately 20 different powerful supplements (some only available on order from the US which is far ahead of us in regard to cancer treatment) every day including oral high absorption vitamin c (up to 8000mg a day!), milk thistle, selenium, salvestrol, zinc citrate, vitamin D3 (basically either antioxidant or for immune support) plus some clever but expensive ones like IP6 which helps to switch on the P53 gene which is key in allowing the immune system to 'see' the cancer cells and start to fight them (usually they are invisible, that's why cancer is so hard to fight)
I also eat up to 30 apricot kernels per day (they contain tiny amounts of cyanide which attack the cancer cells)

3. Treatment (approx. 70% of the cost):
6 days a week for 3 weeks [intensive, followed by weekly treatments]
So, I will outline the treatment I will be having over the 3 weeks and beyond

a. Ozone therapy / hyperthermia: 30 mins at 55 degrees centigrade
Details: basically sitting in a tank sweating away at 55 degrees, in order to move heat around (acting like a second detoxifying liver), make the cancer cell more sensitive to attack from the immune system and other treatments & open up the pores for the ozone to enter (the hyperthermia part). The ozone a special oxygen molecule pumped into the tank where it can be absorbed by the body & give the cancer cells something to cough about. Somewhat bizarrely cancer cells are anaerobic (ie do NOT thrive in oxygen), hence why this & the Hyperbaric Oxygen I have been doing at my local MS Therapy Centre plus any moderate exercise is very beneficial.

b. Vitamin C infusions: a 1 hour intravenous infusion of between 30 and 75g vitamin c.
Details: pre-treatment we starve the cancer of its fuel, that is glucose, with a strict diet avoiding ALL sugar or equivalents, refined or natural; i.e. including fruits and even large quantities of high-sugar vegetables like carrots & beetroot). This also includes all acid-forming food (meat, starches, gluten, etc). Cancer is a greedy thing and it will grab at any glucose molecules ravenously. This is where the vitamin C comes in, looking exactly like glucose to the cancer cells which are covered in glucose receptors which then absorb the molecule & consume it as quickly as they can, and affecting no normal cells (unlike chemo which is a 'kill all' treatment). The intravenous vitamin C reacts with water to become hydrogen peroxide & hydroxyl which then dissolve the cell from the inside. Anti-oxidants like the green vegetable juice, green tea, & other supplements then mop up the free-radicals released once the cell breaks down.

Funds raised will also help with any future chemotherapy I may do (last resort) as simultaneous vitamin c infusions can increase the efficacy of the chemo with far less chemo. Chemo is still an option though I realise from my extensive research that ultimately if I rely only on chemo only I have little hope of surviving long-term, and with poor quality of life. I really hope you can help me in any way at all: I will initially be hoping to raise 6000GBP to cover the initial 3 weeks treatment. EVEN JUST A SMALL AMOUNT IS A BIG HELP & most importantly PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS & RELATIVES if you don't mind. I BELIEVE 150% IN THE PATH I HAVE CHOSEN SO PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT IF YOU CAN!

Thanks so much!!!
Dave



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