Nate

TL: DR – I was diagnosed at 26 with stage 3 Oesophageal Cancer, after multiple chemo-radiotherapy treatments and a life changing operation, 1 year later I was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I found my way into prolonging my life long enough to achieve a complete remission.

I think if the vast majority of people who get diagnosed with cancer were offered ways to help themselves live for longer and in more comfort with any disease for the rest of their days, potentially even curing themselves in the long run, most should snatch at the chance. However, most who get diagnosed don’t realise how much changing your lifestyle and getting involved in your care can truly save your life, and I am the proof. I also realize as the likely hood of any one of us getting cancer in our lifetime’s tips past 1 in 2 (over 50%!), I think everybody can say if they haven’t had it they know someone who has been affected by it and could potentially benefit from the information I’ve gathered over the years.

Along my journey, I’ve been closer to death more times than I’d like to have been at my age. Not everything I’ve found has worked for me but above all else, I’ve learned copious amounts about how one can take care of themselves whilst going through such an experience and applying some of it has allowed me enough time to further research my way into my own remission story.

There is so much information out there nowadays surrounding cancer, most of it confusing and a lot of what can be useful you end up having to find for yourself over many hours of research, which luckily for me with a historical love for technology, learning and profession in software applications came easier to me than most. I feel like much of the mainstream approach to cancer provided to us leaves you feeling out of your depth as you pass control over to your oncologist and the MDT whose job it is to care for you. But as I found out there is so much more you can be doing to help which isn’t supported by the clinical approach in the UK and other countries. So if you do venture out into the mad world of modern cancer care (and I advise you do), I hope the information here acts as a shortcut for finding and interpreting some of it faster.

I’ve learned so much along the way incorporating both mainstream and holistic methods using them to support each other in supporting me. However back in the beginning I wasn’t aware the vast majority of the topics I’ve researched even existed until well after I felt the standard form of treatment for cancer felt outdated, and I am so glad I went searching for more because if I didn’t I wouldn’t be alive writing this now.

Just because something did or didn’t help me, does not mean it will or won’t help you. After all, we are all different so why wouldn’t all of our cancers be? Therefore so would each of our treatments. So I urge anybody to research and read up about their illnesses, educate yourself so you can take better care of yourself.

I do not feel like I am writing this from the “other side” so to speak, I am by no means out of the woods myself and I am all too aware of what remission means (even if it was something I was aiming to see on my scan report), although I remain ever positive I know it doesn’t always last but know now that lifestyle is a huge determining factor of progression free survival. I am writing this alongside everybody else living with this disease, hoping that what I’ve been through can help inform others’ decisions in their own treatments.

Please head over to my resources page for more info, or check out my gofundmepage to read more about my story.