Free Me From Cancer

Free Me From Cancer

Live with Knowledge

Yes

I am a former Royal Marine Commando and have been competing in ultra marathons since 2006. In the 2006 and 2008 I completed the Marathon des Sable across the Saharan Desert, and since then I have completed other ultras in the Amazon Jungle, the Namib Desert and the Arctic. My first real understanding of the importance of diet and nutrition in relation to endurance events was when I read a quote from a book called ‘Survival of the Fittest’, by Dr Mike Stroud who was an endurance expert, doctor and exploration partner of Ranulph Fiennes. Mike recalled how they had got their calculations for food wrong when they were crossing the Antarctic and stated that ‘nutrition is the key to endurance’.

As I am not a great runner – I am more of a marcher then a runner – I thought I may be able to use nutrition to help me finish ultra marathons. So over the years I began reading and educating myself on most aspects of food, diet, nutrition and their positive impacts on humans. Following that research/advice I noted that I never got ill and never had a day’s sickness from work. No matter how hard I thrashed my body and feet on these extreme ultras I never got any infections, came down with illness and despite some very bad blisters/open wounds to my feet, they were infection free even in the swamps of the Amazonian Jungle. (Link to the clip of video you have of me in the swamps of the jungle?)

As I read old and new research I also became crucially aware of the negative impact a lack of vitamins, nutrients and diet could have on human health. At work whenever anyone complained of this health problem or that I offered them some suggestions on how they might overcome their problem and improve their health – generally noting an improvement in a short space of time - so much so that one of my old friends from the Royal Marines who had been having severe problems with his joints, told me “I am now running around like a young nod (marine recruit), since when did you become a witch doctor?” All I had done was to give him advice to overcome vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, but every time I had a success I got a real buzz out of it and went around smiling to myself happy in the knowledge that old Hippocrates was right all along.

I began to notice in the literature I was reading that many, many research articles linked chronic human diseases to potential shortfalls in nutrition and high consumption of meat, milk and animal as opposed to plant protein – vegetables and fruit. I advised one elderly 73 year old man who had advanced prostrate cancer and who refused to have any more medical intervention to follow my advice. In a matter of weeks we saw a rapid transformation of his health, from a man who struggled to walk more than one hundred yards, to a man who walked all around London whilst visiting places of interest. He was also pronounced clear of prostrate cancer as his cancer had gone into full remission.

Then in the summer of 2010 I got the devastating news that my mum had been diagnosed with cancer and was in hospital in Dublin. My mum had never smoked, always looked after herself and ate well. She was in a very poor state with cancer being detected in her lungs, stomach, leg and blood. She had a large tumour in her fallopian tube and the linings of her lungs were separating. When I got to her I nearly didn’t recognise her. She had gone downhill very quickly, doctors had a drain into her lungs to clear to clear them and she was losing about 500 millilitres of fluid a day from her lungs. She was on oxygen and doctors wanted to perform an operation to ‘talc’ her lungs. An operation in which they cut her open and introduce talcum powder into the lining of the lungs to glue them back together. I didn’t like the sound of that and frankly I didn’t think she would survive the operation.

So I immediately went to work and began a process of building up her immune system and body to fight the cancer, hopefully quickly enough to prevent the operation. I wasn’t optimistic that we could beat the clock but I told her ‘the Marines have arrived mum we’ll sort it out’. Within 24 hours the haemorrhaging from her lungs decreased by 100 mls, within 48 hours she was off the oxygen and by day five the bag from the drain was empty and doctors removed the drain from her lungs. She never had the operation on her lungs! Approximately, 30 weeks later my mum was given the all clear by doctors who could no longer find any trace of cancer in her blood, leg or stomach and the large tumour had shrunk and gone soft. Her lungs were described as ‘perfect’. The tumour was removed in an operation and subsequent tests reveal she is free from cancer.

She implored me to tell others how they too can overcome and be free from cancer. I also wanted to help other people by informing them of what I had learned from the battle. This is our true story of how we beat the clock, you can do it too!

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