Posted on 03/24/2021 10:38:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sarah Hughes, 40, is using diet and exercise to prolong her time with her three kids
A mum diagnosed with cancer just months after giving birth to identical twins is attempting to "starve" the disease out of her body.
Last month, breast cancer sufferer Sarah Hughes found out she had months to live, after doctors found the rare cancer had spread to her liver.
However, the mum-of-three is determined to prolong her time with her children, taking on natural therapies and a special diet designed to help her body "starve" out the cancer.
Sarah, 40, was first diagnosed with the disease back in March 2019 when her twins were just five months old.
Her latest prognosis means she is facing the prospect of leaving behind twins William and Thomas, two, as well as six-year-old daughter Holly.
Speaking to Hertfordshire Live, she said: "I couldn't comprehend it,"
"I got them to ring my husband. I couldn't believe it and I don't think he could believe it, he was at work at the time.
"It was a shock. No one expected it. I'm a young, healthy, fit person, just had twins, living life and not realising the enormity of this. I couldn't take any of it in."
Doctors warned Sarah that she'd be in for a tough year with all the chemotherapy, but was told it could be managed.
The severity soon unfolded though and it was later confirmed she had a rare form of cancer - triple negative breast cancer. It develops in 10-15 per cent of all breast cancers and is more common in women under 40.
Sarah was then told she'd have to undergo a lumpectomy to remove the lump of breast tissue, followed by a year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
"I realised that my life would change from that point on," she added.
After three surgeries, 26 chemotherapy infusions and 14 radiotherapy sessions over the last two years, her metastatic stage four triple negative breast cancer is continuing to spread through her body.
The cancer returned aggressively earlier this year and the diagnosis is bleak. In other words, there's no medical cure for it.
Sarah's recently had a biopsy in order to try and ascertain the genetic profile of her cancer and there are currently two drugs available to her - but if they don't work, those with metastatic triple negative cancer usually have an average lifespan of between six and 22 months and an average of 13.
Scots teen determined to walk again after Leukaemia leaves him without feeling in legs That prognosis was a month ago, and Sarah says she's fully aware the clock is ticking.
She begins her third round of chemotherapy this week, and it's one of the last lines available to her.
"On paper, that's what I'm facing and that is something that I'm struggling to accept," she said.
"I'm seeing other patients living with cancer all over the world. So why can't I do it? Or can I give it a try?"
She added: "I got a phone call from Isabel Hospice to talk to them about what to put in place from when I die.
"That is not an easy conversation to have but that is a conversation I have to keep open.
"I have to keep my head screwed on, I have to understand what I'm facing is extremely likely to end one way at some point, but I refuse to accept that people know when that will be.
"For me, I feel good, I feel healthy. My protocol is giving me energy."
Sarah isn't taking her diagnosis lying down.
She met Amy Talbot online - an inspiring mother of twins, also from Hertfordshire, who spoke about her experience with bowel cancer - shortly after finishing her first lot of chemotherapy.
"After my first round of chemotherapy, I sensed that people thought I was on a road with quite a certain ending," she said.
"I just needed to know that I could be doing absolutely everything possible to be here for my family. I needed to know everything in my power. No stone left unturned. Is there any other way I could help myself?"
Amy came along at that point and pointed her to the book How to Starve Cancer by Jane McLelland.
It followed the story of Jane who has been educating and helping cancer patients since 2003. From 1994 until 2004, Jane battled two aggressive cancers with metastatic spread, both of which were classed as terminal.
Using her medical knowledge and research methods, Jane put together a cancer-starving formula using natural therapies, exercise and diet.
And when she developed a second cancer, leukaemia, the result of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for her first cancer, she knew she only had weeks to live.
Fast forward the clock to now and, almost 20 years later, Jane is still inspiring people across the globe.
Sarah "devoured" her book in just 48 hours, leading her to ask the following question - if chemotherapy is killing off the active cancer cells, then what is feeding the cancer and making it grow in the first place?
It's encouraged Sarah, who enjoyed a successful career in visual arts in London, to look at other cancer patients, many of whom are defying the odds and leading normal lives, to also think 'why not me?'
She's hoping that a combination of off-label, widely accessible drugs will work for her, although admits she's running purely on a gut instinct, driven by the determination to try to bring all the various strands of her research together to keep her living alongside traditional treatments.
She's even taking part in a Care Oncology Clinic study using five key drugs that will hopefully open doors to further therapies.
Balancing her research with time spent in hospital recovering from treatment and invaluable time with her kids is a near-impossible balance to reach.
In a post online, Sarah said: "In doing this research into the integrative treatment of breast cancer I have connected with other cancer patients across the globe and have found an underground network of ordinary people who are simply trying to find ways to stay alive.
"There are stories of miraculous recoveries, there are stories of stable disease, there are stories of protocols that have worked and haven’t worked. There is some sadness but there is an overwhelming sense of hope for the future and I am holding onto the future with both hands.
"My ambition is to continue my research and to help other cancer patients to understand that cancer may well be a chronic disease that can be lived with rather than a death sentence. With cancer affecting so many people’s lives, this feels more important than ever."
Just a few weeks ago, Marie Graham, who met Sarah on the school run before the Christmas break in 2019, set-up a GoFundMe page that has so far received over a staggering £41,000.
The pair have become close friends ever since they met and even celebrated a New Year's Eve party together.
Sarah is attempting to starve her cancer of growth by taking alternative medications, drastically changing her diet and using alternative therapies alongside, all of which take up a large sum of money.
And for Sarah, who had to quit work to look after her health, that financial burden has increased by some degree.
The money raised so far will help both with her treatments and her family in the future, with Sarah saying the support has been nothing short of overwhelming.
"It's an extraordinary amount of money," she said.
"We never, ever, ever expected to get that response from people. What Marie has done for us, that's going to help pay for supplements, that is going to help pay for everyday things. We've got £9 in our food shop account. I don't mean we're in poverty because we're not but I'm just saying we're to the wire like most families are in lockdown.
"We're very privileged and lucky to have family nearby and privileged in a lot of ways, but this is going to open doors that we never ever dreamed would be possible."
She added: “I want to thank the whole local community and say how much support we have felt from everyone, and that means the absolute world to us.
“And a huge thank you to my husband who is literally the most supportive and brilliant person you could ever meet.”
And Sarah is keen on dispelling the taboo around death and encouraging others to speak up to know they're not alone.
"Cancer is such a taboo subject, people just don't want to talk about dying," she said.
"The person I'm talking to the hospice said we use the word dying and death at the hospice, but people will say they passed away or went to sleep.
"She said it's so taboo and is just not something we talk about, it's swept under the carpet.
"What happens then is that people suffer. If I could help just one person it would be worth it."
You can donate to Sarah's GoFundMe page here.
Ping
What is this diet that’s supposed to help starve out cancer? Am asking for a family member with stage 3 stomach cancer.
First hand observance with my mother
Severe juicing with a badass juicer like a Norwalk cold presser which will set you back over 2500
But if you’re Nazi regimented and don’t cheat it’ll buy you six months on most bad assed cancers and is far easier to tolerate than chemo and avastin etc
Seen it with my own eyes daily....
It confuses how cancer feeds which is usually taking all the nutrition from healthy cells
But it takes discipline and will
It can on occasion create miracle results but at least buys some quality time
Chemo does not
Unless I’m 50/50 three years extra life after surviving chemo and radiation I’m gonna pass in favor of opioids and cocortisteroids
Who cares about Cushings at that point.
I don’t know if it works or not, though I have heard claims of both yes and no. It’s in the book mentioned in the OP, How to Starve Cancer by Jane McLelland. It’s more than just diet, but I believe it centers on a ketogenic diet and fasting, claiming some cancers require glucose to grow. Again I have no expertise here, and most western oncologists would probably consider it quackery and put her on chemo and radiation...
The article never got to the “cure” did it?
I would guess its a no carb or sugar diet since cancer can only feed off glucose and not protein.
But I haven’t read the book so that is only an educated guess.
My understanding is that Neurontin is an effective drug against the symptoms of Cushing’s.
I have that book. :(
My wife died four months ago from cancer. We went very low carb, as cancer feeds primarily on glucose. But your body always makes enough to keep the cancer alive.
Most cells in the body can run on an alternate fuel called ketones, which are produced by the liver when fat is broken down. Cancer cells cannot use ketones. In the late ‘60’s, Dr. George Cahill fasted a group of volunteers for forty days. He showed in starvation, the brain runs on two thirds ketones, one third glucose. He then infused insulin, forcing glucose to a very low level. Normally, this would be fatal, but the subject had no ill effects, as the brain actually prefers ketones to glucose.
Adam Kapelner, a math professor, has proposed a cancer treatment based on Dr. Cahill’s research. He was a guest on the Keto Savage podcast. I think it’s about an hour long. Very interesting:
https://ketosavage.com/adam-kapelner-killing-cancer-via-ketogenesis-extreme-hypoglycemia/
His paper is here:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.7622.pdf
So sorry to hear that. God be with you sir.
Thank you, Laz.
Jane’s book covers her strategy of cutting off the energy supply to abnormal cells, killing both the fast dividers as well as the stem cells. She has devised a plan that uses cheap off-label Rx drugs, natural supplements, a low GI diet, and exercise to cut off glucose metabolism, glutamine metabolism, and fat metabolism, giving cancer cells no quarter to survive. It is a very difficult book to read, but it is all hard science.
The Care Oncology Clinic in London is sponsoring a massive clinical study involving thousands of patients using 5 cheap off-label drugs to defeat almost every type of cancer.
This is all happening right now and chances are your local oncologist knows nothing about it.
Thank you for posting that. I now have to deal with this so will report back. It lists the drugs and says they work with US Providers
Bkmk
Condolences on your loss. It’s hard, I know.
Very sorry for your loss. Prayers for you.
#4. Don’t know what a Norwalk cold presser is but at that cost, wouldn’t it be a good idea to get a group of cancer patients/insurance to chip in and buy one or two for all of them to use on an alternating basis, or to put one in a common place (i.e. hospital) where they could come in and use the machine.
I had the end of Stage 1 pancreatic Cancer (Whipple Procedure to do a vegematic chop job inside to remove part of the Pancreas, some of the liver, bile duct, fats, etc), followed by Chemo pills (Capecetabine), Infusions and then Cape and radiation therapy.
Given an 85% chance of the cancer not coming back. If it does, more infusions, pills and radiation without any guaranteed results.
Have found that there are foundations which help pay for or help defray some of the costs for very expensive meds including Capecetabine and Eliquis.
Check with your doctors and pharmachists/pharmacy attacked to your insurance policies for further information about this badly needed financial aid program.
Hope everyone gets all the help they can. Fighting cancer is worth it, even if you lose in the end (both my parents died of resp., liver cancer and Leukemia - my father died shortly after his operation because his internal systems were too badly damaged. My mother got a year and a half to spent with her grandchildren).
Otherwise, you’ll surrender too early and lose precious time with your family and friends.
Neurontin is abused pretty heavy in conjunction with opiodsm
Some folks like it
Made me. Sleepy
bkmk
bttt
Seeing people talk about hydroxychloriquine for cancer....
I’ve been on 400 mg. x 4 daily for 15 years. No side-effects I can determine. I’m so damn sick and tired of these pillheads looking for a cheap buzz, and ruining it for the rest of us who need it.
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