Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced the formation of a “Dream Team” of top researchers to take on one of the toughest challenges in cancer research and treatment: colorectal cancer, which is expected to claim the lives of more than 50,000 Americans this year.
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My dad used to always say, “If God can keep getting it through you, He will keep giving it to you”. I’ve lived my life like that. Let this be a motivation to you tonight that you can be an inspiration to someone and that God will continue to bless you. – Daniel Bennett (36 years old)
Click here or on the video to hear Daniel’s story of hope.
Thank you for coming alongside of us this year!
We are so grateful for the generosity of our friends, family, and advocates. We wanted to thank all of you who helped to contribute to our end of year campaign. In total, we were able to raise $75,000 of our $150,000 goal. Even though we didn’t reach our goal, we know that God in His time will raise the remaining funds needed for the trial to begin and to meet the needs of the patients we serve. THANK YOU to so many of you that have supported us with your time, by sharing our mission, or through prayer. We have been able to achieve so much this year and it’s only because you helped to make it possible.
Because of you we were able to give nearly $35,000 in Wellness Grants to help patients afford Mistletoe therapy and nutrition therapy, which are not covered by typical health insurance policies.
With the help of dozens of schools, pottery stores, volunteers, and church groups we have expanded our Believe Mugs program and distributed nearly 1100+ mugs all over the country to patients in need of spiritual and emotional support.
This past year we were able to provide materials for children at The Johns Hopkins pediatric oncology unit to paint Believe Mugs during their treatments.
Our patient advocates were also able to connect and provide patients from all over the country free resources, direction, and hope. Additionally, we were able to host a support group that offered much needed respite to caregivers of loved ones with cancer. It provided a safe place to be listened to and encouraged all while participating in a variety of experiences that supported them in a more practical way.
All of this may leave you wondering, “What’s the update on the Mistletoe Clinical Trial?!” On December 24, 2015 we heard from the FDA that they approved the start of the trial. In September of 2016, The Johns Hopkins Internal Review Board approved the trial commencement. We are now just waiting on the finalization of the needed documents for the international shipment of the mistletoe extract that is produced by a German company, Helixor. The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Helixor are working tirelessly to iron out the final details so that patients can be enrolled and start as soon as possible!
Again, We cannot express our gratitude and appreciation of the blessing of each member of the Believe Big community! We eagerly anticipate and are excited for what is in store for 2017!
Sincerely,
Ivelisse & The Believe Big Team
by Willie Lieberman, Believe Big Merchandise and Apparel Coordinator
Grief. Grueling. Recurring. Incessant. Encompassing. Fierce.
Does it ever end? Is the part of me that ‘is no more’ gone forever? Has that part of me been replaced by this grueling, recurring, incessant, all encompassing, fierce feeling of GRIEF?
It’s the holiday season. The world is aglow with brightness, and laughter, and family, and promise of one happy moment followed by another. That’s so true for some, but for those of us who have been left behind by the death of a loved one, not so much.
We who have loved desperately and were then forced to release that love are the only ones who can possibly ‘get it’ when it comes to the mixed emotions of the season. The songs. The smells. The traditions. SO good. But, they each bring back a moment in time that we long to experience just one more time.
I lost my precious husband, Mark, a year and a half ago, following a very long battle with a multitude of health issues. His death came as a blessing in one sense — the fight and struggle was finally over. Because of our faith, he knew, and I know, that we’ll see each other again. But, physically, he’s very much gone. I can’t see him or touch him or hear his voice or laugh with him until it was nearly impossible to breathe! I miss him desperately.
When I opened up the ornament box and set out the nutcrackers he bought me for every Christmas, my heart broke. I placed the final one he gave me beside the first one he gave me.
The final one was a tribute to the outgoing German Coin — appropriately named with a double meaning for us. ‘The Last Mark’. Oooooh, that did it. So, there he stands… my German nutcracker, my final nutcracker, the end of a Christmas tradition from the man I loved more than life itself. The man who is no longer on this Earth. The man I’m grieving for.
So, how can I cope? How can WE cope?
For me, I start my day with a quiet time. I’ve been doing this for over twenty years. I grab my coffee, my Bible, my journal and I meet with God every single morning. I pray out loud. My prayers are not typical or rote. My prayers are from my heart and are literally conversations with God. I am just ‘me’. I laugh with Him, I cry, I plead, I get sooooo angry. I question His will for my life. I ask forgiveness. I forgive. There is no topic that is off limits between God and me.
After the conversation with God, I say ‘good morning’ to Mark and converse with him (don’t judge!) – it gives me peace. By the time I get to the kitchen for my second cup of coffee, I’m sometimes already depleted. But, most days, I’m able to move forward and attack the day filled with hope and strength.
I also survive by focusing on what I DO have and not what I don’t. I have my two beautiful daughters (my angels and lifeline to the world) and my eight grandchildren (the loves of my life). I have my good health, my lovely home, my Country, and my freedom. I have my church, my friends, and my family. If we count them every day, we will always find that our blessings way outnumber our burdens.
I am also surviving by giving back, both financially and by serving others. There is such joy in giving. Try it. It’s free. Let someone go ahead of you in a long line or in traffic. Smile and say ‘thank you’ to even the grouchiest person you come into contact with. Bake treats and deliver to someone who is suffering or alone. The ideas come when you have a servant’s heart.
And so here I am. Alone. It’s now ‘dinner time’ as I write this and… I miss my husband. I could sink into a funk and be miserable. Or, I could make the most of this gift of a few more waking hours and count my blessings. Think I’ll do the latter. I’ve got some awesome leftover ziti with shrimp in puttanesca sauce in the fridge calling my name, a crisp salad, a glass of red wine, some hot bread, TV… what could be bad?!
Merry Christmas. I pray that each of us can find happiness in this Christmas season while suffering in our own season of grief. Let’s focus on the good and all we have to be thankful for. Let’s love on those special people in our lives. Let’s help others. Most of all, remember to ‘believe with all your heart’.
This post originally appeared on www.SheKCLifestyle.com
Most ECU Pirate fans know that Jeff Charles, the longtime announcer for the ECU Pirates battled cancer. What you may not know is that it almost killed him.
“I’m very fortunate I got through that period when I was deathly sick,” Charles said. “I was at deaths’s door. There is no question about that.”
In December 2012, Charles was diagnosed with colon cancer and had three surgeries in nine days. Then he developed a near deadly infection. He survived, but the recovery was grueling. He had to sleep in a chair for four months; the three incisions in his stomach meant he could not lay flat. He also had to wear an uncomfortable wound vac for four months. Charles underwent 612 hours of chemotherapy in a six-month period.
“The Voice” got back to work and was in remission. He didn’t know his battle was not over.
“I was naive enough to think that I had beaten cancer,” Charles said.
Then tumors appeared again, this time, in his lung. In March of 2015, a man who’s made his living as “The Voice” ended up losing part of that lung on the operating table. Charles said he was surprised to wake from surgery and be told part of his lung had to be removed. He was not expecting that to happen.
Soon after, a conversation with his doctor changed everything.
“I’ve already been through six surgeries, all the chemo, everthing that I’ve been through, and now here the cancer comes back again, where do you think I am? He says, ‘Well, you’ll probably just continue to get more tumors.’ And a lightbulb went on in my head. And I said, ‘You know, there’s got to be a different way to attack this animal. I’m not just going to sit here and be a statistic like I’ve seen so many poor people over the years.’ “
Charles’s search for that different way led to mistletoe. The plant known for Christmas kisses has been used in Europe to treat cancer for about a century. He traveled to Durango, Colorado to the Namaste Health Center, one of a few dozens of places in the entire country where they treat cancer patients with mistletoe extract, shipped in from Germany, by way of Canada.
Mistletoe is administered in the same way chemotherapy is–intravenously.
“Mistletoe is mianly designed to boost the body’s own immune function,” explains Dr. Stacy Mulkey, one of the doctors at the Namaste Health Center who treated Charles. “There are several proposed mechanisms for this, but one of the most studied is the boost in natural killer cell function. These are a specific type of white blood cells that will basically kill off anything that looks weird, whether it’s a bacteria, whether it’s a virus, whether it’s a cancer cell.”
Charles spent three weeks in Colorado and continues his mistletoe therapy through injections three times a week at home.
“I feel absolutely terrific,” Charles says. “I’ve really never felt better in my life than I do right now.”
Charles says he frequently asks oncologists if they know about mistletoe, and many he’s come across do not. That’s something Believe Big, a non-profit group, is trying to change. Co-founder Ivelisse Page is working to get the first-ever clincial trial of mistletoe for cancer patients in the U.S. off the ground. The mother of four survived stage four colon cancer and has been cancer-free for eight years.
“Right now, patients are having to go in deep research mode to find mistletoe, and we would just love for it to be at the beginning stages of their cancer, instead of towards the end, or have difficulty finding it,” Page says.
Believe Big has raised nearly $500,000 through a grass roots effort in order to begin a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins, a world-renown research facility. Mistletoe therapy is FDA-approved in the Homeopathic Pharmacopia, but it’s not in mainstream medicine. It’s also not covered by insurance.
“Even though its so much less expensive, it’s still out of reach for some people when it’s an out of pocket expense,” says Dr. Mulkey.
It’s about $200 a month for mistletoe injections at home. The goal for Charles and other patients is to keep cancer from coming back.
“We all have cancer cells in our bodies that our immune system is fighting off, and it doesn’t really develop into a tumor until to many of them escape the immune system and happen to be in one area localized, and then a tumor can grow,” Dr. Mulkey explains.
Charles’s latest scans for new tumors have come back clear. He’s also cleared his diet of red meat, processed foods and sugar.
“Sugar is just so bad for you. It’s horrible for you,” Charles says. “And if you have cancer, and you’re continuing to eat sugar, it just fuels cancer cells in your body. It’s like pouring gas on a fire.”
Charles’s diet consists of a shake full of nutrients daily for breakfast, a salad for lunch, fish for dinner most nights, and broccoli pretty much every day.
“It’s not a whole lot of fun, but what happens is you get used to it, and what really happens is that your stomach shrinks and you realize that you don’t need all the food that you were eating,” Charles said.
He also works out at a level comparable to the college athletes he does play-by-play for. Charles also says it’s important to keep a good attitude and to believe in your ability to get better.
“Because this therapy worked so well, and is working so well, I feel a responsibility and just an obligation to get the word out to as many people as I can about mistletoe therapy and a natural approach to killing cancer,” Charles said.
The man who will always be known as “Voice of the Pirates” now hopes his lasting legacy is helping change the way we fight cancer.
original story source: https://www.witn.com/content/news/The-Voyage-of-the-Voice-Jeff-Charless-Battle-Against-Cancer-407833095.html
Radiation and chemotherapy, which are used to fight mesothelioma and other cancers, can alter the patient’s sense of taste and appetite, making some foods unappetizing. Other patients experience difficulty swallowing and must only eat pureed foods.
Also, those treatments can be draining on a persons body and energy level. Making sure a cancer patient eats the right kind of foods before and after undergoing treatment is extremely important to their overall health.
While it may seem like a daunting task, reworking tasty, cancer-fighting superfoods like mushrooms, pumpkins and cranberries into your Thanksgiving menu is easier than it sounds. By adding a few key items, you’ll make your feast patient-approved, while preserving Thanksgiving tradition.
Mushrooms and pomegranates contain substances that help block the hormones that make breast cancer grow and spread. According to the American Cancer Society, shiitake mushrooms fight the development and progression of cancer by boosting the body’s immune system.
They contain a compound called lentinan, which some studies show can stop or reduce tumor growth. Other studies show activated hexose-containing compound, also found in mushrooms, can reduce tumor activity and lessen the side effects of cancer treatment.
Food for Thought: Try marinating some shiitake mushrooms and including them as a Thanksgiving side dish or prepare them into savory mushroom gravy. Gravy by itself does not provide much nutritional value, but adding mushrooms boosts health benefits. Plus, it makes a delicious topping on biscuits or brown rice.
Antioxidant-rich pomegranates also can help those battling cancer. A study published in Cancer Prevention Research shows doctors discovered six compounds in pomegranates that may prevent breast cancer growth by blocking aromatase, an enzyme that plays a key role in most breast cancers.
Researchers show compounds in pomegranate juice may slow the growth of prostate and breast cancer cells.
Food for Thought: Did you know that one serving of cranberries provides at least 10 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C and fiber, both of which are linked to reducing the risk of esophageal and colon cancer? Consider adding pomegranates to your homemade cranberry sauce or as a topping on a spinach salad. If youre looking for a unique healthy beverage to add to your menu, try pomegranate juice.
While this fall squash is most commonly associated with Halloween, delicious-tasting lattes and seasonal beer, research shows pumpkins have many health benefits for cancer patients.
Beta-carotene, the pigment responsible for pumpkins bright-orange color, is a powerful antioxidant praised for its possible cancer-fighting power. Research shows people who eat a diet rich in beta-carotene may have a lower risk of colon, prostate and lung cancer.
Pumpkin also contains high amounts of vitamins A and C, antioxidants that help boost your immune system, and it’s rich in fiber, which slows down digestion and keeps you feeling fuller longer. Additionally, pumpkin seeds contain phytoestrogens, a plant compound that mimics estrogen and can help prevent breast cancer.
Food for Thought: Instead of serving traditional pumpkin pie, try incorporating creamy pumpkin and curry cashew or a simple fresh pumpkin puree.
Sweet potatoes contain powerful antioxidants known as carotenoids, which boost your immune system and provide vitamin A. Experts say eating one cup of sweet potatoes a week could help reduce your risk of skin, prostate and lung cancers.
Food for Thought: Why not try making a sweet potato casserole with cinnamon and nutmeg? Cinnamon gives your dish added flavor. It’s also used to treat Type 2 diabetes and reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Blueberries are among the best disease-fighters out there. Researchers have shown that pterostilbene, found in high quantities in blueberries, has cancer-fighting properties.
They have the ability to control tumor growth, prevent the spread of cancer and kill off triple-negative breast cancer cells. Blueberries, cranberries and raspberries are good sources of vitamin C and fiber. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, foods high in vitamin C probably protect against cancer of the esophagus, while foods containing dietary fiber probably decrease colorectal cancer risk.
Food for thought: With its disease-fighting components, an apple blueberry crisp would be the perfect dessert to complete your cancer-fighting menu.
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In September we had the opportunity to travel to Stuttgart, Germany to attend the Integrated Medicine Meeting. The Integrated Medicine Meeting was a gathering of over 250 professionals hosted at the headquarters of Helixor, a producer of Mistletoe. Our team met with experts in the fields of integrated medicine from all over the world to learn of new research and case studies in oncology. We toured the Helixor mistletoe extract production facility and learned how the plant is harvested, stored, and how the extract obtained from the plant. Our team toured the Helixor arboretum and learned about each specific species of mistletoe and the growth and maturation process. We also participated in a poster session and presented on the upcoming Mistletoe Clinical Trial at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
