Within our Solitarius.org Facebook group I always get the opportunity to converse with amazing members and Fiona Shakeela Burns has twice defied the odds so-called ‘terminal cancer’ without conventional treatment. Aged 11, Fiona was diagnosed with leukaemia and sarcoma. Her parents elected to give her the Gerson therapy which led to her complete recovery.
FIONA’S STORY:
I first developed cancer after starting secondary school. I’d been feeling pretty low in energy for a few months with a persistent sore throat and a strange lump in my thigh muscle. After repeated visits to the GP, tests eventually revealed that I had Plasma Cell Leukaemia and Sarcoma of my thigh muscle. I remember feeling ~ jealous of other kids who were running around and having fun. I spent most of my time lying on the couch, feeling nauseous, light-headed and downcast. I was even too tired to visit my rabbits at the bottom of the garden.
‘At Alder Hey Children’s hospital in Liverpool, I had the thigh tumour removed, tests showed that the cancer had penetrated my bone marrow, so only palliative chemotherapy was offered. Thankfully, my parents would not accept the doctors’ prognosis and took me to Naturopath Norman Eddie, in Manchester. He put me on Gerson detoxification system including huge amounts of freshly pressed juices, coffee enemas, herbs and supplements.
I remembered Mum and Dad telling me that I would get better if I followed the regime. To further motivate me, they paid me for each juice and enema, as well the supplements that I had to swallow! ‘Within six weeks of starting the therapy, my energy returned and before long, I was doing handstands in the back garden! My Dad recalls what a joy it was to see his daughter literally coming back to life, he specifically noticed that my hair and my eyes began to shine again. I continued on the Gerson Therapy for some time, whilst also being monitored by the hospital.
Within a year, all my blood tests were back to normal, surprised doctors pronounced that I had gone into remission. When my parents admitted to the doctors they had not actually been giving me the prescribed chemotherapy tablets “Spontaneous remission” was written on my notes! Inspired by her own recovery, Fiona also trained as a Medical Herbalist and practised for 20 years before developing cancer for the second time – this time metastasised cervical cancer which had spread to the ovaries and brain.
My first obvious symptoms were shortness of breath and chest- tightness, which occurred suddenly in April 2007. This turned out to be a pleural effusion (fluid around the lungs). I was referred to a chest consultant who investigated over period of months, during which time I became progressively weaker. Internet research led me back to my GP; I had also discovered that a pleural effusion could be caused by ovarian cancer.
I requested an ovarian scan and a CA125 test (the blood protein that often shows up in ovarian cancer). To my horror, the results came back positive and I was hastily referred to a gynaecologist in Bristol. He told me that I had ovarian cancer and that unless I had a hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, I would be dead within the year. “This was a shocking and lonely time. As a single adult, I had to absorb the full blow of the grim prognosis myself and make my own decisions regarding treatment.”
All my instincts were against this extreme surgery. According to my consultant, the treatment would give me a 20-30% chance of being alive in five years and a 10% chance being alive in 10 years. This statistic was based on the diagnosis being correct which, in fact, it was not: a second look at my blood tests suggested a further tumour somewhere perhaps in the stomach, appendix or pancreas. The hospital refused to scan me as I was not going along with their proposed treatments.
At this point, I stopped going to the hospital – I had noticed that visits there always left me feeling drained and depressed. I felt in my heart that if I was to put myself in the NHS’ hands that I would end up dead. Three months later, in November my GP agreed to my request for an MRI scan. That is when the cervical tumour was spotted and a subsequent tissue biopsy revealed this to be the primary tumor. Despite the fact he was now in his 80’s, my dad remained my rock always supportive. He just said that he believed I could heal and that I should follow my gut feeling as to what was the right way.
Since my childhood cancer, he and I had sadly witnessed up close devastating effects that conventional medicine can have. My beloved sister Caroline had been diagnosed with liver cancer nine years earlier and died soon after starting chemotherapy. My Mum also died of cancer, though she had refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy – her death came when she was 79, 15 years after her initial diagnosis. She had kept her disease at bay using diet, herbs and supplements.
Various doctors of natural medicine and healers helped in their own ways, As I couldn’t find one person whom I trusted to over-see my care. I kept records of all my tests and made it my business to become my own health expert. I never saw the cancer as my enemy, but rather as a sick part of me that needed my love and support in order to heal. ‘I have never believed that disease is a random thing. I began to dig deep in to myself regarding what it was about my life that had caused me to manifest this disease.
I needed to see what it was ~ my body was showing me on a soul level. I had to admit that I had not been prioritising my own health and well-being for quite some time. I have since come to realise it seems a common pattern for people who get cancer to take care of others’ needs before their own. I learned cancer can only grow when certain conditions in the body are present ie: high acidity, chronic inflammation, low oxygen…
I knew that unless I changed these conditions that the cancer would continue to grow. I learned to treat my energy as though it was the most precious thing on earth. After all, I needed all of it for my healing. ‘I recognized that I was carrying a lot of unresolved grief regarding the deaths of my sister and mum whom I desperately missed, and there were unresolved emotional issues still affecting me from past relationships.
My work was to release these emotions which included leftover life disappointments, resentments, anger, sadness and bitterness. To start with, I didn’t know how I was going to do this, but I trusted that I would find the answers. This was the pattern for my whole healing journey: I could not see the whole path to wellness, only where to put my foot down next. I held the image of myself as happy and well.
‘I began to consider the other options — getting well quickly. I knew that this was what I really wanted and maybe I had not allowed myself to heal yet, as I did not truly believe it was possible. With that clarity, life just seemed to open up in front of me: two close friends contacted me within days, both asking if I had heard about Bruce Lipton. He is a cellular biologist who made the discovery that DNA expression could change according to the thoughts that we think.
His ground-breaking research was beginning to rock medical thinking and he was also recommending a process called PSYCH-K which could actually change our sub-conscious beliefs. I began working with Mary Trenfield who was teaching and facilitating sessions in PK and felt as though I was being completely rewired for health! I started to get inspired about the herbs I should be taking. I read about and began working with a combination that I hadn’t tried before — Chapparal, Red Clover and Goldenseal. I also did a powerful breath workshop – at times I felt as though I could actually feel tumours popping!
Within only eight weeks of discovering PK, a scan revealed that my brain tumours had almost gone – by June 2008, just 10 months after my initial diagnosis, my brain, cervix and ovaries were free of cancer. My Bristol gynaecologist decided that I must have had a very powerful and delayed reaction to the IPT! I would not wish this disease on my worst enemy, I know that cancer has given me so much. It has been such a strong teacher for me and enabled me to know myself in a way I could never have done without it.
I have been shown what is important and what is not important in life. I understand that I do not have to prove that I am worthy, or justify my existence. I have been shown that I am the creator of my own reality and discovered for myself that the only thing that really matters at the end of the day is love. Both my cancer experiences has helped me to reconnect to the magic of life – I cannot take life for granted ever again. I call cancer the disease of transformation. Fiona Shakeela Burns 🙂