UPDATE

Dear friends and supportersIt is with great sadness that I have to report to you that Arlene passed away in the early hours of Tuesday 24th January. As you are aware she put up a great fight, but her cancer was so aggressive and condition so severe. Many thanks to you a for you your help and support, your love certainly gave Arlene more quality of life and happiness. Peace and much love. Nat.

A message from Nat, Arlene's husband

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our website on behalf of my wife Arlene. Throughout her life, Arlene has given many people help and support, especially in her roles as a professional teacher, mentor, friend, aunt and mother. She has worked all her adult life and has brought up our three intelligent and well-rounded children, balancing the usual demands of work and family. Over the past ten years, she has sadly lost four of her siblings, three to illness and most recently her elder brother who was run down by a reckless driver.  However, her faith in God has helped her endue these great loses. In March of this year whilst happily teaching at an elementary school in China, Arlene felt ill, went to the hospital for a check-up and was, to our great surprise, diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, which had also spread rapidly to her liver and lungs.  I cannot begin to tell you how we and the children felt on receiving this dreadful news.

Arlene certainly is a fighter and refuses to give up, trying her utmost to control this aggressive disease with an array of natural and complementary therapies; we now have the possibility of treatment that will offer a cure, but need your donations and ideas to help fund the treatment.

Arlene’s Story

I am 52 years old, and having gone through a major battle some years ago to conquer acute asthma, I never again questioned that I wouldn’t see my old age. Unfortunately, I fear that might not be the case, as I have been diagnosed with advanced colon cancer with bowel obstruction, peritoneal carcinosis and major liver metastases. I am a Mother of three wonderful children; Khari 23, Indigo 16 and Saffron 11.  I want to be there to go through all the normal things with my children as they grow up. When I found out about my cancer, we moved in with my mother as I also needed to be close to her, I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have to bury four children.

How it started

Having previously become vegetarian and adopted a healthier lifestyle,
with lots of exercise it came as a great shock, when suddenly whilst teaching out in China, I found I was in great pain whenever my food was digesting. At first I thought it was a ‘stomach flu' and initially sort advice and medication from a Chinese herbalist. This gave some relief but after four days I visited the local hospital in Dandong China, where I had an abdominal ultra sound. I could not believe it when the results came back and the doctor informed me he suspected I had advanced liver cancer. I went home frightened, in somewhat disbelief. The next day, Nat and I went to another hospital for a CT scan and it revealed not only did I have advanced liver cancer and potential a cancerous lesion in my lower lung, moreover had a major cancerous obstruction in my upper colon.The doctors said this was a life threatening situation and recommended immediate surgery to remove the cancer tumour in my colon.

A few days later I was admitted to hospital for the surgery. However on
the morning of the admission, a senior oncologist at the hospital said given the complexity of my condition covering several areas it would be best to fly home to the UK for this treatment as he thought there was no immediate danger to life. This was agreed a few hours later by another senior hospital oncologist.     

We arrived back home in the UK on Sunday 3^rd April the next day went immediately to see my local doctor. We were astounded when he informed us that although the situation was serious, there was no immediate threat to life as I could still drink liquids and that he would arrange an appointment with an oncologist which could take up to two weeks.

Part of changing to a healthier lifestyle to overcome chronic asthma had included several trips to the renowned Hippocrates Health institute in West Palm Beach Florida, which offers a range of health treatments. Over the years we had witnessed some remarkable situations at Hippocrates of people helping themselves overcome cancer and other degenerative diseases. So we decided to fly there for a short time before the appointment date in the UK to build up my energy and immune system.

Diagnosis

However five days into the trip I was having severe pain and bouts of
vomiting. I went to the local hospital and had a scan, which confirmed colon and lung cancer and they said I needed to have a life threatening operation to remove the tumour immediately as it was now completely blocking my colon passage. The operation was successful and after spending two weeks recovering in hospital, I went back to Hippocrates for ten days giving me an opportunity to eat some really good nutritious food, have a number of alternative therapies and take part in series of positive lectures.

Back in the UK I had my first appointment with the oncologist who looking at the scans informed me the only treatment available was conventional chemotherapy, which I turned down knowing my compromised immune system would be unable to tolerate it. Whilst at Hippocrates I learnt about their new cancer programme, which had great results so I decided to attend their next three-week programme in June. Nat escorted me to Hippocrates where I had an amazing time meeting other people with cancer from all over the world,

On returning to the UK I felt so confident and went to see my oncologist
and have a scan at the hospital. I felt sure the scan would show improving results. We received the results and were devastated to see the scan showing the cancer had now spread throughout the liver. Hippocrates had given me a lot, but what I really needed at this stage was some sort of intensive medical treatments. The oncologist informed me the situation was grave, that the only thing they could really offer was again conventional chemotherapy.

With no further treatment available from the NHS, Nat and I were left on
our own to investigate as many alternative approaches as we could find. I tried to limit the progression of the disease by continuing a strict vegan diet; no sugar, fresh water, vegetable juices and having wheatgrass enemas twice a day. I took a wide range of natural supplements and worked hard to try and keep my body as healthy as possible by regularly attending the local gym and cycling daily. However things got worse, my liver started to swell and I looked as if I were eight months pregnant; it was pressing against my bowl and colon preventing me once again from being able to eat, and the pain was excruciating.

I was so desperate now and relied on the district nurses to visit me at
home every four hours to administer pain relief injections. I was losing even more weight, but for the sake of my family, I could not give up, I fought through the immense pain and continued my search for some sort of hope. 

Hope of A Cure

I found Dr Herzog who has a clinic in Frankfurt and having sent my scans and diagnosis, he thought he could help as he had treated similar advanced cases.

At this time my pain worsened, I was admitted into the hospital who could only offer me pain relief and a bed in their palliative care ward.  By this time we had received a reply from Dr. Herzog who informed us he had a space for us and we should come straight away.

We used the rest of our financial resources and accompanied by my
husband Nat, spent the next five weeks in Germany undergoing a range of unique cancer treatments. I arrived in Germany in a critical condition, but am presently stable. During my time there I was fed intravenously, but am now able to eat small amounts of food, the swelling in my abdomen has reduced, but there is still a long way to go in terms of recovery. However we feel we have found the solution in Germany. 

As a Mother of three children I want to be there to help and guide them
through all of life’s challenges and obstacles and hopefully see my
grandchildren born and grow up too. The prospect of getting better, being able to get back to ‘normal life’ really spurs me on to not only stabilise the cancer, but  cure me of it. The treatment I can receive in Germany is much more powerful, than conventional systemic chemo that is available in the UK, with no side effects or permanent damage to the immune system.

I am presently unable to work, neither is Nat as he is my full time carer
and we have exhausted all our financial resources on our trips to the US and our initial trip to Germany so we are now unable to fund the further needed treatment at Dr. Herzog’s clinic.

I am not exactly sure how long and how many more treatments I am going to need in Germany, but I do know the minimum would be between 6 to 8 weeks, hence a £40,000 target. This kind of money is now beyond our resources and I believe Germany is my only chance of survival. If you are able to help me via a donation to this charity website, or organise a fundraising event, I would be so very grateful to you, any donation will make a difference. Even if you do not feel able to donate yourself, I would really appreciate it, if you could share my page with as many people as you can. The more people that know, hopefully, the nearer I can get to my goal of being cured of this cancer.

Making a donation

Donating through Just Giving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your
details are safe with Just Giving, they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate, saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

The page you are reading will transfer any contributions to Yes To Life
linked to myself helping me to claim the cost of treatment and flights to and from Germany.

Yes To Life have vetted me and will only release monies upon me
providing them with receipts for strictly limited bounds of permitted
expenditure types.  If you are able to contribute to my fund please advise Just Giving as you proceed if you are a tax payer so that Yes to Life and I will benefit from gift aid. You should be able to claim tax relief on your contribution from HMRC via your annual tax return.

Any contributions made will be greatly appreciated and will help start
my journey of survival.

 I urgently need your help now. Please share this story

 Thank you for your very kind support, Arlene xx