Cancer truly is the disease of the century : while many other conditions came and went, cancer stayed strong and affects the lives of millions of people around the world every day. It becomes even more stronger (and scarier) if the person goes up to stage 4 cancer.
Anyone who’s had a loved one go through cancer knows that half the battle is the chemotherapy and other treatments used for the disease. Often times, these drugs leave patients even worse than they were from cancer alone.
That’s why Candice Marie Fox and so many others are choosing to fight cancer on their own terms.
When Fox found a lump above her left collarbone five years ago, she was quickly diagnosed with 20 papillary thyroid carcinomas, a clear sign or thyroid cancer (1). She was given a year to live.
Her doctor then suggested to remove the lumps to extend her life and prevent the risk of losing her voice. The four and a half hour surgery was followed up with radioactive treatment.
Despite her extended hospital stays, Fox’s cancer had spread to the back of her neck and to her liver only two months later.
Taking a More Proactive Approach
Chemotherapy was not an option : she had lost both her best friend Jamie Brownsmead, 31, and cousin Frankie Gerathy, 13, to cancer in 2009. She blamed chemo, which severely weakens the body, for their deaths (2).
That’s when she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Fox quickly stopped drinking, smoking, using cosmetics and using toxic cleaning products. She even quit her job and divorced her unsupportive husband. She also took up yoga, meditation and positive thinking.
As for her diet, extensive research brought her towards a vegan lifestyle. Fox believed that by cutting out meat, her body would have more energy to fight cancer.
“There is a protein in animal products that feed the cancers and when I was eating big hefty meals my body couldn’t heal because all our energy is going into digesting the meal.” she explains.
The Superfruit Behind Her Recovery
Believe it or not, the most powerful tool in her cancer journey was pineapple.
The fruit contains bromelain, a compound that stimulates the immune system and reduces inflammation. It actually increases the cancer-killing abilities of macrophages 12-fold (3).
German studies show that bromelain therapy can improve cancer status and heal side-effects of cancer treatment, particularly in patients suffering from breast and bowel cancer. The enzyme results in less sickness, loss of appetite, bowel problems, less tiredness and better survival when combined with other cancer treatment methods (4).
However, Fox took advantage of bromelain’s anti-tumor properties without the use of drugs.
She juiced 3 pineapples a day, combining them with lemon, kiwi, grapefruit, bananas, apples and papaya. Six months into her new diet, her grade four cancer had almost disappeared.
In fact, her levels of thyroglobulin – a protein produced by cancerous cells – had been reduced from 13 to 0.7 nanograms per millilitre. Five years later, her levels are at 0.2 level – just 0.1 above the normal range for healthy people (5).
Mark Simon, director at the Nutritional Oncology Research Institute in California, explains that this proves that she beat cancer (6).
“Her tumor markers, which reflect the number of cancerous cells, has been well within the normal range for over two years, so we can confidently say that her stage four thyroid cancer is under effective management,” he says.
“I can tell you that most thyroid cancer patients with similar circumstances to Candice who follow the conventional path do not survive or experience a very poor quality of life.”
Dr Simon suggests that managing cancer has a lot more to do with diet, exercise and lifestyle than conventional drugs. Fox is a clear testimony to that.
Candice, who still maintains her healthy lifestyle and started a new career, says: “I’m living life on my terms now. I’m not upset, I’m not waking up sad, I’m waking up choosing what I want to do with my life.”
“I decided to live for me and love life for what it is. It sounds so away with the fairies, but it is the only way to live – and it worked (7).”
‘There are now no tumours left in me. I’m so grateful for the cancer now in hindsight because it turned me into the person that I was meant to be.”