Leah’s story (in her own words):
I have always considered myself a healthy person, but did not understand how much food and what I put in my mouth can influence my health.
I am an avid runner and was training for a marathon last September when I went to see an Allergy Doctor for itching on my arms that I have had for years. My doctor sent me for a chest x-ray to rule out Hodgkins Disease and Lymphoma, as itching can be a sign of a blood disorder.
The x-ray was negative for that, but showed a mass in my thoracic region. I had surgery in November to remove it and the surgeon could not get it all because it was attached to my spine.
The biopsy was sent to Mayo clinic and came back that it was a chondrosarcome, which is a rare form of primary bone cancer. I am about 1 of 50 people in the world with one on my spine!
This past February I had major surgery at UVA medical center where they had to remove pieces of two vertebrae and replace with cadaver bone and use rods and screws to hold it in place. I also had pieces of 2 ribs removed and a piece of my lung. The tumor was attached to these places as well.
I never thought I would hear the words cancer and undergo such an intense ordeal, but after discussing with my allergist how I can take control of my health, my husband and I are embarking on changing to an anti-cancer diet.
We are reading the book “Anti-Cancer” and moving to organic, whole foods and trying to remove refined sugars, which cancer cells feed on. I also want my children to begin to eat like this and learn that we can help our bodies fight cancer and other illnesses.
I am still recovering from surgery, but my margins came back clean and am currently cancer free and plan to stay that way!
The last chapter of my story will be when I am able to run again and finally complete my marathon!
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What an inspirational story! Thank you for sharing it and hopefully others will get the message about better health through better nutrition.
God is so good to bring you through all this. What a hard path you’ve been on. I so agree with you about how critical our diets are in preventing, and even treating, cancer and other related diseases. The traditional Western diet is NOT a diet for longevity and good health. Keep the faith! You WILL complete that marathon!!
I too am recovering from cancer:NH lymphoma. Science and government know what causes cancer — don’t let the corporate media lie to you: most cancers are definitely caused by chemicals in our environment and/or bad lifestyle choices. Any toxicologist will tell you that every single day, we are exposed to literally thousands of man-made poison chemicals that nature never intended us to be exposed to.
Thanks be to medical science, I too, like Leah, am on the mend for the time being. But if only other science, performed for profit, was as ethical as much of medical science, cancer rates wouldn’t be so high in the first place. We haven’t confronted the issue that makes us sick: The for-profit medical system that has built in incentives to make us sick and keep us sick. Pharmaceurical corporations and hospitals and doctors all profit from cancer treatments. And then we haven’t confronted the other moral outrage: The abundant economic incentives for the insurance corporations to deny us care when it becomes too expensive to keep us alive! Nor do we confront the third leg of this sick system: the economic incentives built in to our campaign finance laws for congressmen and senators and presidents to keep this horrible system intact! All in all,Americans are swimming in a toxic pond, struggling to keep our heads above water in a sick and deeply cruel and immoral system!
Our children will lead horrible short lives when they hit middle age, unless good people start taking serious action now to stop corporations from fouling our planet!
Take home message here: Move to a civilized nation that does not spend all its surplus capital on wars, and that has a not-for-profit health care system, (which is what I am planning to do) — or do your best to make healthy lifestyle choices, including not living in a city, and growing your own organic food!
Leah, your determination is inspirational. I wish you and your family all of the health and happines this world has to offer.
Laura, your answer profoundly covers most of the issues
my husband and I grapple with on an almost daily basis.
We wish more Americans could see what corruption
and greed is doing to our health and our quality of life.
Congratulations on your good health Leah. You have conquered a serious foe.
You are right on about eating Organic. Organic has been my only Health Insurance for most of my adult life. Organic is a piece of the solution but mine has included consideration of the mental, emotional and spiritual bodies as well. I imagine you did too.
Be Green All.
Hi ,thanks for the inspirational story.