A Decision That Saved My Life Seven Years Ago 

                                                        ~ Shannon Knight.

Wow. Seven years.  Seven years, or 2,557 days since February 7th, 2011 –         the day I stepped into CMN Hospital in San Luis Sonora Mexico to fight for my life in a very unconventional way.  I chose alternative cancer treatment and turned down chemotherapy. To this day, people reach out to me and tell me they looked me up online to see if I was still alive after seeing my story years ago of how I beat stage 4 breast cancer without chemotherapy.

 I was a different person seven years ago. I remember having to raise money to get to CMN Hospital to do holistic treatments.  When the money was raised  (learn how to raise money for your cancer treatment at Angels for Shannon) I dealt with a lot of fear. I kept putting off the travel to leave for Mexico.

Crossing that border to begin treatment was a huge leap of faith.  I didn’t want to go on  my birthday, February 4th, so I didn’t. Then I told my girlfriends who raised the money that I didn’t want to go on Valentine’s Day.  Because they were usually happy days for me and I didn’t want to connect those special days with battling for my life and being in the hospital.

My girlfriends,  my earth angels as I call them,  saw right through …. what I was doing        and called me out on it: I was in denial, delay was my way of treating my situation not so seriously. My family, friends, and I had raised enough money for treatment, but I just kept hesitating  and trying to change the date  because I was dealing with fear.  With a mental push, shove, and faith, I was finally out the door and about to step foot in the hospital that I personally chose to help save my life.

And here I am now, seven years later, alive. The death sentence completely gone.  I was given 3 months… to a year left to live back in 2010. This year feels a bit different – seven years. Here I am, much farther away from treatment in Mexico, and I’m looking back on when I first walked into CMN Hospital on February 7th.

The meaning of this date changes each year. I spent so many years waiting for that significant five-year mark when cancer survivors can take a deep breath and feel like      they are finally out of the woods.   That was a relief and a cause to celebrate for sure,          but this year, at year seven, I am really thinking about how I got here. It was changing perspectives and faith. The choices I made that were based on my God-given intuition.

   When I had a recurrence of stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2010, I was terrified.        The fear was overwhelming. What do you do when a UCLA doctor gives you a very short time span to live? I didn’t know which direction to turn.

    Hearing someone tell you that you are going to die,  and sooner rather than later, is          like having a terrible enemy running after you with all of his might, and you are standing there looking at an arsenal of different weapons to choose from. You have been told that nothing will work, but you see a new one in the mix and feel good about it.  There will be less collateral damage!  It feels right and even though there is no promise,  I have a really good feeling about it! I just have to make a decision and get going! I ended up choosing the weapon that many people have not even heard much about: alternative cancer treatment.

With my back against the wall with modern medicine in the United States, I also turned  around and ran across the border to Dr. Payan at CMN Hospital. I remember walking into that hospital like it was yesterday.  I felt compassion from the moment I arrived, but I still had that terminal diagnosis in the back of my mind.  I looked at Dr. Payan and asked him, “What are my chances of beating this?” He said, “Shannon, I will do my best but I cannot make you any promises. “I will do my best,” he said. “Only God knows for sure, however, let’s try!”   I saw his genuine heart and compassion and knew that he was going to try his absolute best.  That’s what I wanted most was hope,  a doctor with a healing treatment  and medical team with heart.

 Here’s the thing: I could have chosen any treatment; I was that sick. I decided to go to CMN Hospital because my body needed “healing”, not to get sicker. I had done radiation, and it failed. The burns were just too much and caused me to get fluid in my lungs, also a  burned esophagus and staph infection.  So, I decided to do something that would at least provide healing and this felt like common sense to me.  Spoiler alert, no one can promise you a cure. No one. But CMN offered me advanced treatments like dendritic cell therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and more

… and I knew that those things would at least help me heal, even if they might not cure  me. I let the hospital take care of me. Call me old school, but that’s what I was raised to  do.  Even with my knee replacements,  other surgeries, and having babies.  This was no different.  It was choosing a hospital that has been around  and treated many patients   with cancer that have a good reputation. I made that choice and trusted it faithfully.

Today, I recognize that my choices led me to realize that healing is what this journey          is really all about.  Physically, try to heal your body first.  Whether or not you       do chemotherapy, healing your body is important. Use alternative therapies to restore your body and strengthen it before or after the chemo. If you do it before doing chemo    you could possibly save your life and never need the chemotherapy.

  Furthermore,  heal your heart and your mind. Mental and emotional therapies are just       as important as physical therapies. I have identified my gifts and talents because of all the adversities in my life, and I am using them! So often, women can’t identify what they have to offer, even when they are sick. Every day is an opportunity  for us to help others. We all are an answer to someone’s prayer.

   We can make someone else smile or laugh.  Spread love,  there is an endless supply. Sometimes you won’t get to see the impact you make because you are just planting seeds and someone else will come into their life and nurture the seed.  Because here’s the thing: we were all born to make a difference. It’s not up to you, or to me, to decide how big that difference is. Does it really matter…  if we see the end result? Just give your best in every situation.

Seven years ago, I had my head down, scared, but I just wanted to keep moving forward  regardless of my pace. I put one foot in front of the other and kept making strides. I knew what my goal was, and I didn’t dare take my eyes off of it.   Just… let’s get through today. Ok, now let’s get through tomorrow.  Sad to say, but I was afraid to dream too big.  But here I am at year seven, and it is pretty amazing to lift my head up and see a bright future.

What I have learned through this journey is how significant our perspective of daily life challenges are. Think about it: have you ever had a bad day that just seemed to get worse and worse? Maybe it was because you kept thinking about every bad thing that happened rather than taking a moment to say, “God, I am so grateful. I’m breathing, and I can still smile. I have people who love me, and I have the ability to love others as well.”  It can feel ridiculous to stop in the middle of a rainstorm or a car crash to say, “Thank you God for all I have that I might take for granted because I’m focusing on other, more pressing matters.”

At year seven, I know how powerful my perspective is regarding the outcome of things       in my life.  Please don’t mistake my gratitude for living with my blinders on or looking through rose colored lenses. Living with love and gratitude in the forefront of my mind and leading with my heart changes how I see a situation, and how someone else sees it may be completely different, but one thing is for sure… we’re both right!

So maybe I have a habit to always see the sunny side of things when another sees it a      little more negatively. That’s okay. What matters is that I live my life with great intentions and know that we all have purpose; I lead with my heart when I make a decision, and then follow it all the way through.  Hesitation or doing something…. without giving my all is not acknowledging my soul purpose and can diminish my spirit. We deserve the best, each and every one of us. How can we reach our best if we aren’t giving situations our all? Perspective is everything.

As much as I advise on how emotional, mental, and physical impact our healing, there are times when I have lost sight of it; my perspective has gotten muddied …. because I allowed stress to take over. It happens to everyone, but just because we are knocked down does not mean we can’t get back up even stronger and with new insight.

Seven years later,  I fully understand  this whole life journey is about our soul’s purpose here.  Our soul is evolving in these bodies that we have for just a block of time.  We don’t know how much time we have, yet we live as we have forever.

Now I know for sure that my soul’s purpose is about love and learning how to love better each day.  It’s about letting go of ego,  which means not needing approval from everyone around me.  I cannot please everyone. I have learned how to be independent and yet still serve others.  If I make a choice and people frown on it,  I’m good with that… and go with my decision all the way.  I don’t give up.  I see it through to the end.  And then,  year after year, it just gets better. Also being authentic in who we are and being more transparent is valuable. I want my kids and grandkids to learn how to trust themselves.

Today, my faith is stronger, and I listen to my God-given intuition more than ever. I relied heavily on my faith,  and that is an integral part of my life journey.  CMN Hospital has a chapel where I spent time alone praying.  I would also kneel at the end of my hospital bed and pray for healing and courage to get me through each day.  How I handled my journey was important to me.  I prayed and talked to God daily,  and I have only strengthened my faith in these seven years since.

In the last eleven years, I have been helping women as a certified advocate for domestic violence in the past and present as a cancer advocate. It is because of so many women over the years opening up to me and sharing the stories of their journey that I was inspired to start life coaching years ago  and January I launched One Wildflower Life Coaching.  So many of us women battling and pushing through barriers to  come up  and out of  the dark still bloom with beauty.  We have experienced:  some of the most adverse conditions and made it through the roughest terrains. We are wildflowers growing in the most unexpected ways!

I know now more than ever that I could not have done any of this alone. Also My support   group of friends, family, and loved ones – are my earth angels! They were unconditionally supportive of me throughout the entire journey. It is so tempting to isolate and hide when the going gets tough. Want to know a little secret?

Letting people in when we are struggling allows us to see that we have angels with us     here on earth. The whole idea that we don’t want to be a burden is wrong. We need one another, and this means humbling ourselves to let them in; allowing them to love us. We can accept their help with a grateful heart.  When we have fear and self-pity, we miss out on letting more love and compassion in our lives at a time when we need it most.  Self-compassion means knowing we deserve love.   ღ   Love is what life is all about!   ღ

Shannon Knight FAQ’s

In honor of it being seven years since I first walked into CMN Hospital for their ACT protocol Alternative Cancer Treatment).  I put together a  list of the the  most frequently questions I am asked! I want to emphasize that choosing your cancer treatment is a very personal choice and there are many options.  I am sharing with you from my personal  journey of completely healing stage 4 metastatic breast cancer without chemo.

Q. What Hospital did I go to for Alternative Cancer treatment?

A. CMN Alternative Cancer Treatment.  An inpatient facility has a team of all specialties and an ICU should anything happen while you are out of your country you will be in very good hands right there at the hospital. This includes pulmonary, orthopedic gynecology etc. Cancer can have complications and they are included in your care.

Q.What kind and stage of cancer did I have?

A. I had stage 4 Breast Cancer ER and PR Positive with metastasis to bones and                  all lobes of my lungs

Q. Did I do chemotherapy ever?

A. No, Not ever.

Q. Are you sure you are cancer free?

A. YES! I get tested and evaluated regularly and am completely Free of Cancer.  Celebrating 7 years on February 7 … when I was treated at CMN.

Q. Did my twin sister who also had cancer go to CMN also?

A. Yes. My twin sister went to CMN hospital for Alternative cancer treatment as well.     She chose treatment in October 2015 and is cancer free. We do not have the BRCA gene. Here is our twin interview. http://onewildflower.com/wildflower-interviews/

Q. Where is CMN Alternative Cancer Treatment?

A. It is in San Luis, Rio Colorado Sonora Mexico. which is a very quiet little town.            The people are kind and receive foreigners warmly

Q. Why did I choose CMN Hospital?

A. It is a well-established hospital that has been around for about 35 years.                        The advanced treatments were what I sought after and my intuition guided me.

Q. What treatments did you do?

A. Here is a link to their treatment summary. https://www.cmnact.com/Treatment-Summary.aspx

Q.Why are there no patient testimonials on CMN Hospital’s  website?

A. CMN Doctors do not believe in exploiting cancer patients for marketing purposes. Patients are fighting for their lives and are scared. Most importantly they believe in the oath they swore. The Hippocratic Oath and every variation of it promises to keep patient information private. This means safe from the worldwide web.

Q. What is the success rate of CMN?

A. I urge you to read my article because To answer this question best for all hospitals because we are not clones and everyone’s immune system is different. Some people wait, some do chemo first this affects the success (including self-treatment before going to a hospital). The Truth about Success Rate –> https://shannonknight.com/1139/

Q. What was your diet like during your cancer treatment?

A. I am learning that while diet is important that sometimes diet change is not effective.  Often is is not about what we eat as much as it is about what’s eating at us. That being said, I worked on the emotional healing and I ate pretty healthily, to begin with. However, I also  made a few changes like cutting animal protein down to about 20%of my normal intake.    I cut out sugar by approximately 80%. That is it while I was healing my body. Today I have cut out gluten because  I was getting tummy aches  and horrible headaches and realized I have a sensitivity to it. I take digestive enzymes and other supplements like bone broth, collagen and I drink Ionized alkaline water.

Q. What is the cost of treatment where you went?

A. I cannot answer that myself.  Here is the CMN Hospital phone number 844-371-1117 CMN’s  warm, kind and they genuinely care. They will give you great information.

Q. Does your nonprofit organization Angels For Shannon give funds to individuals who are seeking financial assistance for cancer treatment?

A. Daily I receive mail worldwide from individuals asking for financial assistance. Unfortunately I am unable to provide funding to anyone. My website AFS is an excellent resource to teach you how to do successful fundraising and get enthusiastic community involvement. Please visit and read AFS Tips on Fundraising

Preview  7 Years Ago: Decision Day No Chemo

Preview  Beat cancer NATURALLY without CHEMO!

Shannon Knight did!

Preview YouTube video I’ve Been Broken

 

What Is Consciousness? Neuroscientist May Have Answer to the Big Question

If you’re like most people, your life is complex and sometimes challenging. It’s easy to feel the stresses that come with our busy days and diverse demands on our time and attention, mass distraction that pull us off our soul’s inner compass often bombard us.

Out of this complexity you may feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and distressed. These experiences can lead to dis-ease, moving you away from living into optimal health and well-being. Illness often represents a turning point for people, leading them to seek out new sources of comfort, strength, and purpose. Out of suffering can come profound transformation; It can deepen and strengthen our life purpose. But it is best to find a path to optimal health that can help us remain healthy and in right balance, even in the face of illness or disease.

The good news is that great strides have been made in whole person health care. The integration of body,  mind,  and spirit has become a key dimension of health education    and disease prevention and treatment. Despite many advances in a wide range of holistic approaches, however,  our health care system remains primarily disease-centered rather than addressing the well-being of our whole being.

To thrive as individuals and as members of healthy communities, we are called on to develop our inner wisdom, derived from direct personal experiences of illness and health, and transformative practices that promote our health and well-being—allowing us to move from surviving to thriving.

IONS has long been a leader in whole person health, researching the inner mechanisms    of the healing response.  In the landmark book,  Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine, many factors are identified and dimensions that  must be addressed to create optimal health. These include 7 key tenets.

Preview  Embracing Your Spiritual Healing Journey

 

7 Key Tenets of Consciousness and Healing

1. An integral approach to healing involves a whole-systems approach based in healing and the restoration of wholeness. We are part of an interconnected whole that includes biological, personal, cultural, and transpersonal dimensions.
2. Understanding consciousness and awareness helps us understand and experience health and well-being, including our will to live, grow, and die with grace.
3. Our interpersonal relationships are a vital part of our integral nature and they impact our health and well-being.
4. It is hard to be healthy in a sick society and we have different levels at which we are part of the social fabric in conscious and unconscious ways. Social healing offers a path to mend present and historical wounds that have been created by conflict, collective trauma, and large scale oppression.
5. Our connections to our and other’s culture and worldview opens us to our connection to tradition and diverse ways of knowing and being in the world and to a wide range of complementary healing systems.
6. Much of standard medicine, with its high tech and low-touch approaches, removes healing from its ground in nature. Moving from a view of separation from nature to one of fundamental interconnectedness and our ability to perceive the beauty and sacred language of nature.
7. Spiritual interconnectedness. Life is the great teacher. Our ability to see the way to a new approach to health and healing requires deep humility in the face of wonder and mystery. Gratitude, love, and compassion are essential tools to an inclusive and whole-hearted healing system.

By living into these tenets, we can move from surviving to thriving. Embracing healing becomes about the restoration of our wholeness, individually and collectively.

Preview  Consciousness and Healing: Dr. Deborah Diamond D.C. at TEDxWaldenPond

 

Consciousness and Healing: Dr. Deborah Diamond D.C. at TEDxWaldenPond

 Preview  Christina Perri – Arms [Official Music Video]

The desire to defy age is as ancient as human history, but in the past 10 years a multibillion-dollar industry has sprung up in America promising decades of extra life and good health beyond your 100th birthday.  However, a new book has revealed a disturbing lack of safety regulation,  outrageous unproved medical claims,  risky products that could cause serious health problems, and a celebrity – dominated marketing machine promising an extended youth – much of it with little science to back it up. To defy disease all one has to do is Youtube Query two words Cancer Cures.

Not only the chemotherapy but ALL the three known methods of the Predominant medicine, which N. Shevchenko justly calls “inquisitorial”, cannot cure the person –  simply because cancer is not a reductionistic phenomenon, it is a holistic phenomenon!
This is why It is impossible — even theoretically!
None of them can remove
– the genetic predisposition of the organism to generate cancer cells!
Download here:
www.cancercureclinic.info/0002_Wellness-Strategy/i-120314-003_Veneta-Koicheva_PubADD-0007-02_EN.pdf
clarification in detail – why this is impossible even theoretically!

Furthermore: Chemotherapy (and moreover all of the inquisitorial methods) DO NOT work selectively! – chemotherapy kills not only the sick but also the healthy cells. Often  the patient dies not from cancer but from … chemotherapy.

Surgery and radiotherapy also cannot act selectively! It is impossible even in theory – because: In both methods are hurt micro formations (in other words – selectivity is impossible!) and cancer cells die through necrosis (rather than apoptosis) — the result: Active malignancy and metastases!

The therapeutic methodology of Shevchenko works
a) at the cellular level and
b) strictly selectively and with a markedly opposite effect:
– it kills the diseased cells and
– renews and heals the healthy ones – increasing their resistance and the resilience             of the whole organism.

Even in 1997 this therapeutic Methodology is presented in Russia
before the State Commission, which
recognizes it an invention and issues patent, registered under No 2075213.

A real-life proof of how this therapy cures cancer FINALLY – you can see from the fact:
– How I cured from cancer, even my dog Dolly!
The one who wants to not hopefully or wishfully, but truly be alive — can easily do the same:
Share this
https://vimeo.com/52542534
https://vimeo.com/51901380
Save life!

——-

Moreover:
Not only the methods of the dominant medicine can not cure cancer even theoretically!

If you type only two (2) “magic” words in YouTube “cancer cure”

Why? – Because they all focus on killing cancer cells by necrosis! (this is a cell death by external intervention)

1) Any method that kills cancer cells by necrosis, can not cure cancer, even theoretically, but only accelerates the death of the organism – because it activates its defense system = causes the organism to begin to restore those killed cells and to multiply them – and so    the organism kills itself by cancer.

2) Only the method of Shevchenko does not kill cells by necrosis but activates the signal apoptosis. Thus it removes cancer cells by a way that is genetically programmed in the very organism – that is internal and natural for it and does not activate the defense system to restore the destroyed cancer cells — so the organism gets cured.
You can also email me for details – here is the contact form: http://www.cancercureclinic.info/Wellness-Strategy_ContactUS_EN.htm

Arlene Weintraub, who spent four years researching  Selling the Fountain     of Youth, says the anti-ageing industry has grown from virtually nothing to a staggering $88bn in 10 years, with few products and procedures regulated in the same way as normal pharmaceuticals and medical cures. Much of it is based on replacing the body’s hormones as people grow older.

But it also includes extensive use of products such as Botox, vitamin supplements and dietary fads. All have become hugely popular, but there is little proof that they work – or are 100% safe. Some female users of a popular hormone therapy called the Wiley Protocol have complained about their menstrual cycles starting again, with excessive bleeding and hair loss. The creator of the Wiley Protocol, a Californian called Susie Wiley, was found to have virtually no scientific or medical qualifications.

Such alarming reports have not slowed the huge expansion of the industry. The American Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine (known by the acronym A4M) holds annual conferences that attract thousands of businessmen,  chemists and physicians, all hawking their wares. Some critics of the organization have dubbed it “all for the money” and also say it has spearheaded the idea that getting old is basically a treatable condition. Across America chains of “rejuvenation centers” have sprung up touting the latest “cures” for getting old.

Weintraub argues that the current demographics of America have made the country especially susceptible to an anti-ageing message. The “baby boomer” generation – some  77 million strong – is just hitting the retirement age and millions are looking for ways to prolong their health and lifespan. “This generation, probably more than any before, wants to grow old in a different sort of way,” Weintraub said. “Boomers have seen how their parents’ generation aged and are trying to avoid that scenario.”

She traces the birth of the anti-ageing industry to the discovery that human growth hormones used to treat stunted growth problems in children could also be used in      adults, and in many cases appeared to have a rejuvenating impact.   http://abcnews.go.com/WN/selling-fountain-youth-author-arlene-weintraub-anti-aging/story?id=11533763  

The industry spread to include the use of Botox, derived from the deadly botulinum toxin and originally intended to treat muscle disorders. But anti-ageing doctors also frequently prescribe hormones such as testosterone and oestrogen, that are derived from plants such as yams and soy beans. Weintraub has documented cases where people are using such large amounts of these hormones, sometimes as skin creams, that their partners are absorbing them when they lie next to them in bed at night.

She says the main problem is that government regulation is too light and safety rules not as tight as for normal drugs, which require extensive medical trials before they get federal approval. She also points out that as ageing is not classified as a medical problem – and thus is not covered by insurance companies – the anti-ageing industry is largely founded on patients buying treatments from their doctors, which can easily lead to abuse and lax safety standards.

We turn our attention to man’s best friend for the answers…

This genetic diversity and sharing of similar DNA, physiology, microscopic structure and molecular features between dogs and humans has presented cancer researchers with a key opportunity. Dogs not only develop similar types of cancers as humans, but their cancer responds to treatments in similar ways.

This means that new cancer treatments first shown to be effective in canine cancers         can frequently be predicted to have a similar benefit in human cancer patients. As a    result, researchers now recognize that new drug trials in dogs with cancer will result          in therapeutic discoveries that are highly “translatable”; that is, more likely to predict “real-life” medical responses in human cancer patients.

By studying how cancer responds in dogs, scientists are gaining a better understanding     of how new cancer drugs not only treat the cancer but also influence the patient’s overall quality of life during treatment.

This benefits dog owners, by providing access to promising new cancer treatments for their pets with cancer, and benefits human cancer patients by providing a rapid way to collect crucial data needed for FDA approval. https://source.colostate.edu/mans-best-friend-helping-cancer-treatment/

https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/january-2018/dogs-cure-cancer-penn-vet-symposium

Arlene Weintraub’s book explores a topic in cancer not often discussed: the drug development process and its effects on both people and dogs.

PUBLISHED March 31, 2016

What do dogs have to do with cancer research? “Heal,” which chronicles one woman’s research journey across the United States, explains that dogs get some of the same cancers as people, and, in veterinary clinical trials, have been among the first to try new types of medications that were eventually approved for both dogs and humans. Author Arlene Weintraub — a frequent contributor to CURE magazine and a lifelong dog owner — does more than share facts. She tells the stories of special dogs, their owners, the researchers who entered their lives — and her own loss of a loved one to cancer.

With the FDA now willing to consider data from clinical trials in pet dogs as it reviews cancer drugs for human use, these pets and the owners who speak for them provide vital information about efficacy, side effects and dosing.

In fact, some of today’s most promising cancer treatment techniques are being developed with help from man’s best friend, including T cell immunotherapies and engineered viruses, Weintraub explains.  Dogs are also contributing to cancer research through their uncanny ability to sniff out human cancers, and also scientists are working on diagnostic devices that can mimic this ability.

Writing the book brought Weintraub hope as she grieved the loss of her sister to gastric cancer. “I had been writing about science for a long time, however when my sister got sick   and died, I lost all hope that anything that did well in trials was going to make much of a difference,” she says. “But as I started

Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures (ECW 2015).

Drawn from extensive research, on-the-ground reporting, and personal experience, this book explores the fascinating role dogs are playing in the search for a cure for cancer. Learn how veterinarians and oncologists are working together to discover new treatments — cutting-edge therapies designed to help both dogs and people suffering from cancer.

Heal introduces readers to the field of comparative oncology by describing several research projects aimed at finding new therapies for cancers that are similar in dogs and people, including lymphoma, osteosarcoma, breast cancer, melanoma, and gastric cancer.

Weintraub, who lost her sister to gastric cancer, also writes about the emerging science behind the remarkable ability of dogs to sniff out early-stage cancer, and the efforts underway to translate that talent into diagnostic devices for early detection of the disease. In the course of bringing these dogs and their human companions to life, Weintraub takes her own personal journey from grief to healing, as she shows her readers how man’s best friend might be the key to unlocking the mysteries of cancer.

Praise for Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures

“A new book stems from a truth many a dog owner knows: Man’s best friend is deeply susceptible to cancer.” —Newsweek “Best Books About Cancer.” Read more here.

“Science writer Weintraub (Selling the Fountain of Youth) introduces readers to the field of comparative oncology in this analysis of research into treatments for cancers that are similar in dogs and people.  These ailments include lymphoma,  osteosarcoma,  breast cancer,  melanoma,  and gastric cancer.  Driven by her professional curiosity,  lifelong love of dogs, and grief after losing her sister to gastric cancer in 2010, Weintraub visits eight universities over two years.

The book chronicles her interviews with researchers, whose fields include the quest for cancer-killing viruses  (virotherapy), and also testing potential treatments on pet dogs   with cancer; trials with metformin, a glucose-lowering pill that’s used to treat diabetes; and the use of sniffing dogs for early detection of some kinds of cancer.

Anyone interested in translational science, innovative developments in cancer research,    or treating pets with cancer will find this book a valuable resource. It includes lists of institutions doing comparative oncology research, related books, clinical trials, and funding sources. Readers will share Weintraub’s growing appreciation for the canine      and feline subjects (and their owners) who are helping to advance cancer research.” —Publishers Weekly (Copyright © 2015 PWxyz, LLC)

“…chock-full of thought-provoking data-backed stories, in which experts in canine and human cancer weigh in….Ms. Weintraub has produced a fine book about the hope and possibilities that abound in today’s era of cancer research and treatment. This book is highly recommended….” American Society of Clinical Oncology’s ASCO Post.                 Read more here.

“[A]n incredibly important report….This book is science, emotion and love of dogs             all mixed together.” —Steve Dale, “My Pet World,” Tribune Media Services.                         Read more here.

“Author Arlene Weintraub— is a frequent contributor to CURE magazine and a lifelong      dog owner—does more than share facts. She tells the stories of special dogs, their owners, the researchers who entered their lives—and her own loss of a loved one to cancer.” —CURE. Read more here.

“The author did a wonderful job researching the topics and presenting them in such a    way that even the most difficult medical terminology could be understood by the common lay person. If you love dogs and want to learn how our faithful companions are helping us extend our lives, this is definitely a book to look into. I highly recommend it!”—Night Owl Reviews “Top Pick.” Read more here.

“In a new book, Heal, dog lover and science journalist Arlene Weintraub conducts a brisk and often-moving tour of the frontier of comparative oncology. She describes cutting-edge research aimed at treatments for such ailments as lymphoma,  breast cancer,  and gastric cancer, the last of which took the life of Weintraub’s older sister, Beth, at the age of 47—a loss that animates the author’s account.” —BloombergBusiness.com. Read more here.

“Beautifully written and superbly researched, Heal makes a compelling case for increased collaboration between the human and veterinary medical fields. Engaging and emotional, Heal is an important book for scientists, animal lovers and anyone interested in the vulnerabilities  we humans share with animals.” —Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, co-authors of Zoobiquity

“Heal is a fantastic read for anyone that loves dogs (and cats) and has wondered what    role animals should play in cancer research. Heal chronicles translational research in a way that is informative, understandable and heartwarming, making us cheer for cancer patients and the veterinarians that care for them.  An Emperor of All Maladies  for  dog lovers, this book distills the science of cancer research down to the compassion and love for animals that drive us to find better cancer treatments for animals and their humans. Heal explores our symbiotic relationship with the pets that we share our homes, our beds, our cancers and, hopefully, our cures with.” —Dr. Sarah Boston, author of Lucky Dog: How Being a Veterinarian Saved my Life

“Heal is a very easy read of a complex problem: cancer, and how pet animal cancer can help solve cancer in all species. It contains an interwoven mix of stories from pet owners, veterinary scientists and the author’s own personal reflections of her sister’s gastric malignancy. The recurring theme is under recognition of the value of spontaneous cancer in pets as models for human disease. In a time when cancer research dollars are in decline and with historic dependency of cell culture and rodent modeling, it seems timely to consider a real life cancer model in pet animals to test new agents, devices and techniques. Pet owners and the veterinary community stand ready to engage in thoughtful, creative and humanely performed research to benefit all species.” —Stephen Withrow, Founder and Associate Director of the Colorado State University Flint Animal Cancer Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVLH8YNkQ7E

Dr. Nicole Ehrhart is a professor of surgical oncology at CSU’s Flint Animal Cancer Center.

Her research in canine bone cancer has revolutionized therapies for child patients, doubling survival rates for childhood osteosarcoma.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBUY6z3thtU

Dr. Andrew Jones shows you the top 5 most important Natural Remedies for treating Cancer in your dog.

Preview  Cancer In Dogs: 5 Natural Remedies

 

Watch Daisy Rosario’s mission to find tomorrow… and one man’s plan to print cancer-killing viruses could change cancer treatment forever.

Preview  These dogs could be the new face of cancer treatment

I knew I was getting the best medical care, and I was going to be defiant and survive.

-Heather Knies, Glioblastoma Survivor

Knies was originally treated for a lower grade brain tumor in 2005 at age 24. Even though   with treatment,  her brain tumor was one that usually returns and transforms into a more aggressive type of tumor. One year later, her brain cancer returned,  and this time,  it was the deadliest of brain tumors – a grade 4 glioblastoma. Knies was facing a death sentence.

She underwent a very aggressive surgery by Dr. Spetzler at Barrow to remove as much      of the tumor as possible. She then underwent radiation followed by three years of chemo therapy to treat the remainder of the tumor. Barrow is one of the world’s top brain tumor treatment centers.

More than 10 years later, Knies’ cancer has miraculously not returned. She believes       that the advanced medical treatment she received along with her unbelievable positivity    is what made her overcome her brain tumor. Her young daughter is also a miracle since chemotherapy can lead to infertility.

“I knew all along I would beat this cancer,” says Knies. “When a doctor tells you that you only have a few months to live, most people believe it. I never did, and I think that’s partly why I’m alive today. I knew I was getting the best medical care, and I was going to be defiant and survive.”

Hear Heather talk about the amazing care she received at Barrow Neurological Institute after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. You can support programs like these by donating at www.SupportBarrow.org

Preview YouTube video Grateful Patient – Heather Knies

 

Knies’s doctors say that in rare instances, a patient can break the “biological rules.” But most often in those cases, the initial pathology of the tumor was suspect.

In her case, the pathology was “not controversial,” according to her surgeon, Dr. Robert Spetzler, director of the Barrow Neurological Institute at Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

In his 35 years as a neurosurgeon in the United States, Spetzler said he has never seen such a triumph against a stage 4 glioblastoma.

“It’s one of the most malignant tumors there is,” he said. “Invariably it will come back   and pop up somewhere else in the brain and it’s uniformly fatal.”

“It’s not unheard of that that a few survive — it’s a bell curve and there are outliers,”          he said. “But in her case, not only has she survived, but she is perfectly normal and      there is absolutely no evidence of a tumor on her MRI scan.”

Knies has a few of her own theories for why she is still alive today.

“One, being God had a plan for me,” said Knies. “I also had a great team of doctors         and wonderful family and friends with a positive attitude.”

“The mind is so much more powerful than anyone can imagine,” she said. “People     believe that when they get cancer, it will kill them. But I never once thought that.”

Spetzler said Knies was “on the young side” for a glioblastoma, but it can occur at             any age, “even in infants.”

It all began in 2005, when Knies had the first symptom that something was wrong.         She had just started a new job as a receptionist at a doctor’s office and was driving       home from work.

“Suddenly, I didn’t understand what the dashed white line meant in the road,” said Knies. “I had been driving since I was 15, so I started panicking and called my Mom. She asked, ‘Did you take something?'”

Knies could see, but couldn’t understand what she was seeing.

“I was only 24 and I was having visual problems,” she said. “I can’t even describe them.”

Her boss, a dermatologist, insisted she see a specialist, and an MRI showed a low-grade tumor that was pressing on the visual reception cord in her brain.

“I had just moved to Phoenix from Missouri. I was just out of college and felt like I had    the whole world waiting there for me,” said Knies, ever the optimist. “Looking back, it probably grounded me a bit.”

She underwent surgery at another institution, and she enrolled in a drug trial for an       oral chemotherapy at Duke University, repeating MRIs every three months.

She says doctors told her to, “Go live your life.”

But in less than a year one of the scans showed the white flairs of tumor growth.

It turned out the new tumor was aggressive — a stage 4 glioblastoma and it was sitting on the right side, touching three parts of her brain: the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes.

The lower-grade tumor had turned into a more aggressive one, which is not unusual           in a glioblastoma, according to Spetzler, who took over her treatment in 2007.

“I opted not to have the entire tumor removed or my left side would have been paralyzed — so I asked Dr. Spetzler to debulk it. I didn’t want quantity, I wanted quality,” she said.

When her mother was brave enough to ask how long she would have to live, one of the doctors said about six months.

“For whatever reason, because of being an athlete or just being mad, I wanted to defy him and the medical world and show that no one is a statistic,” Knies said. “I was immediately defiant. I never once thought it would be the death of me.”

The tumor caused massive headaches and vomiting from the pain, and on Friday, April 13, 2007, she went into surgery. “Friday the 13th will never scare me again,” she said.

Surgery was followed by heavy doses of chemotherapy and radiation. Knies will be monitored with MRIs for the rest of her life, but for now, her brain shows no sign of residual cancer.

“I would not feel comfortable calling it a cure,” said Spetzler. “But there is no evidence       of a tumor as you would expect with someone who has lived much longer than expected. There is a hole where the tumor was. Her survival is remarkable.”

At her cancer diagnosis, her boyfriend at the time had “freaked out,” according to Knies. “It makes you very insecure when someone tells you up front they can’t handle it — bye-bye.”

But in 2010, she met Joe Knies, now 54, an engineer who was 22 years her senior.

“It didn’t even faze him, and it blew me away,” she said. “He made a good point —              we can all die in a car crash tomorrow.”

They married in October while Knies was still undergoing chemotherapy one week         each month. She always wanted children and was warned the aggressive treatments     could have damaged her eggs.

“It was almost as scary for me as hearing about the cancer,” she said.

On her oncologist’s advice, Knies decided to undergo in vitro fertilization with a     surrogate because of the unknowns associated with cancer and pregnancy.

“I prayed hard,” she said. “After egg retrieval there were only two follicles and                   the rest were empty.”

In the three days they took to mature, only one was viable. “We had that one,                    and she is my daughter,” said Knies.

“My husband had never been married before or had kids and his parents thought            they would never see the day, so it was a miracle to his mother that he now has a child,” she said.

“Every morning I wake up and thank God that I can feel my 10 fingers and toes and       have a loving daughter and husband,” said Knies. “There have been so many miracles.   One after another, as my dad said, so many angels must be sitting on my shoulders.”

Preview  Brain cancer survivor beat odds, supports McCain

 

Published on Aug 22, 2017

Dr. Robert Spetzler’s Retirement Gala on May 19, 2017 at the Camelback Inn                       in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

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Also,  Four months after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor, Maria Menounos      is opening up about why it has been one of the best things for her.

The main reason: It forced her to take more time for herself and make more memories with her family and friends.

“This whole thing has been such a gift,”  Menounos told Women’s Health. “This     happened for a reason. I’m a communicator.” The former E! News host intends to spread the message that she learned from it — that everyone should give themselves “as much TLC as you give other people in your life.”

Prior to her diagnosis, the TV personality was always on the go — and always working. “Before the brain tumor, I was super type A,” she continued. “I was on top of everything…   I was everything to everyone, but nothing to myself. I didn’t know it at the time, but there was no self-compassion, no self-love. I didn’t think I deserved it. I was too busy being, like, ‘Sh*t!  I’ve got to get to my five o’clock appointment,  then my seven o’clock,  then feed the dogs, and, oh my god, I’ve got to wake up and do this and this… ‘ I had become a machine.”

RELATED: Maria Menounos Says Workplace Toxicity Affected Her Health

After her mom was diagnosed with brain cancer just a few months before she received   her own brain tumor diagnosis, Menounos said she started setting boundaries. “One day    I found myself telling her, ‘Hold on, I can’t talk right now. I’ve got to… ‘ Then I realized: I’m telling my mom, who has stage IV brain cancer, to hold on?! That’s not okay. That’s when I said, ‘Things have to change. I’m going to spend time with her.’ And I did.’”

“I no longer scheduled anything after 4 p.m.,”  she continued.  “I would say,  ‘Mom, I’m going home,  and we’ll watch Dancing with the Stars, eat dinner, and have fun.’  I felt so happy,  like,  ‘I’m not a machine—I’m a human!’  But I’m also not perfect, so things would creep up and people would creep in. They want things and you feel guilty, so you do them. The universe took notice:   ‘I’m going to throw a bigger rock at your head now and really   put a stop to this.'”

RELATED: Maria Menounos Posts Emotional Video from Day After Brain Surgery

Menounos said getting diagnosed with her brain tumor taught her just how much            she needs her friends. “Last month, my best friend and I were sitting on my living room floor playing gin rummy,” she said. “I was about to have my first beer since the surgery, and I started to weep. It hit me: I’d lived in the house for 15 years, and I’d never spent  time there with a girlfriend and just had a beer—not once. But that’s changing.

For instance, when friends call and ask, ‘You want to have lunch?’ I say, ‘I’d love to!’ They’re like, ‘Wait, who are you?”’

She continued on, calling her tumor “the best thing that ever happened to me.” She added, “It’s freed me from all of that anxiety of having to be perfect. You can’t control everything; leave it to God and just say, ‘Okay, this is my journey.'”

Preview Maria Menounos  Why Her Brain Tumor Was a Gift

 Preview  New treatment shows promise against glioblastoma

 

‘Wild,’ a Hiking Memoir by Cheryl Strayed

By DANI SHAPIRO  MARCH 30, 2012

 In the summer of 1995, a 26-year-old woman who had never been backpacking before. . . set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. She had already separated  from her husband,  quit her waitressing job  and also sold most of her belongings.

Preview YouTube video Cheryl Strayed: “Wild”

    Now she went to the outdoors store REI to purchase almost everything        she could possibly think of for her three-month journey: fleece pants and an anorak,  a thermal shirt,  two pairs of wool socks and underwear, a sleeping bag, a camp chair, head lamp, also five bungee cords, a water purifier, a tiny collapsible stove, a canister of gas and a small pink lighter, two cooking pots, utensils, a thermometer, a tarp, a snakebite kit, and also a Swiss Army knife,  binoculars,  a compass,  a book called  “Staying Found”  to teach herself how to use the compass,  a first-aid kit,  toiletries and a menstrual sponge,  lantern, water bottles,  iodine pills,  a foldable saw (“for what, I did not know”), two pens and three books in addition to “Staying Found”: 1. “The Pacific Crest Trail, Vol. 1: California,” 2. William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and  3. Adrienne Rich’s “Dream of a Common Language.” She also bought a 200-page sketchbook to use as a journal.

People with any hiking experience (I am not one) will know that this is the backpack of      a rank amateur,  setting out on a 1,100-mile trek from the Mojave Desert to the Cascades outfitted in brand-new hiking boots — a size too small, it turned out — and with only 24.5 pounds of water in a dromedary bag is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately for the reader, it’s also a recipe for a spectacular book. “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” is at once a breathtaking adventure tale and a profound meditation on the nature of grief and survival.

To begin to understand something about Cheryl Strayed, know that Strayed is not           her given name. We never find out the name she was born with, but we are made to understand with absolute clarity why she chose to change it,  and just how well her        new name suits her.

Contemplating divorce, she realized that she couldn’t continue to use the hyphenated married name she’d shared with her husband, “nor could I go back to having the name       I had had in high school and be the girl I used to be. . . . I pondered the question of my      last name, mentally scanning words that sounded good with Cheryl. . .Nothing fit until     ne day when the word strayed came into my mind. Immediately I looked it up in the dictionary and knew it was mine.

Its layered definitions spoke directly to my life and also struck a poetic chord: to wander from the proper path, to deviate from the direct course, to be lost, to become wild, to be without a mother or father,  to be without a home,  to move about aimlessly in search of something, to diverge or digress.  I had diverged, digressed, wandered and become wild,     I saw the power of the darkness.  Saw that,  in fact,  I had strayed and that I was a stray  and that from the wild ­places my straying had brought me, I knew things I couldn’t have known before.”

Preview CHERYL STRAYED ON WILD | TIFF 2016

 

 Cheryl Strayed’s load is both literal and metaphorical — so heavy that she staggers beneath its weight. Her mother has died (lung cancer, age 45); her father is long gone (“a liar and a charmer, a heartbreak and a brute”). In what is for her a stunning act of filial betrayal. . . her brother and sister find it too painful. . . . to come to the hospital as Strayed’s mother is fading,  leaving her,  then 22,  to prop up the pillows so that her mother could die, as had been her wish, sitting up.

Strayed’s stepfather, whom she had loved, disengaged himself from the family and quickly found new love, unwilling even to take care of his late wife’s beloved mare, who became so enfeebled that — in one of the book’s most harrowing scenes. Strayed and her brother are forced to put her down. They do this the old-fashioned way, by shooting her between the eyes.

Beside herself with grief, Strayed abandons her kind and loving husband, gets involved with a heroin addict and becomes an addict herself. Just before leaving for the Pacific trail,  even after six months off drugs,  she shoots up once more, “the little bruise on my ankle. . . .that I’d gotten from shooting heroin in Portland”  now  “faded to a faint morose yellow.”  Beneath her wool socks and too-small hiking boots, that bruise was a continuing reminder of her “own ludicrousness.”

But in “Wild,” the two tales Strayed tells, of her difficult past and challenging present, are delivered in perfect balance.  Yet I was riveted step by precarious step. . .  . through Strayed’s encounter with bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lion scat,  ice,  record snow and predatory men. She also lost six toenails, suffered countless bruises and scabs, improvised bootees made of socks wrapped in duct tape, woke up one time covered in frogs and met strangers who were extraordinarily kind to her.

What allows us to survive? To lose and then find ourselves? How do we learn to accept grief instead of permitting it to obliterate us?  How can a young woman who describes herself as having a “hole in her heart”  (a mother-shaped hole,  I thought to myself) transform herself through solitude and high-octane risk and the comforts of literature, (along the way she picked up books like “The Complete Stories” of Flannery O’Connor   and J. M. Coetzee’s “Waiting for the Barbarians”)  into a clearheaded, scarred, human, powerful and enormously talented writer who is secure enough to confess she does not have all the answers?

“It was enough,” she tells us as she reaches the poetically named Bridge of the Gods, which connects Oregon to Washington, “to trust what I’d done was true.”

Perhaps a clue can be found in the words of Strayed’s mother, and the legacy she left       her daughter. “‘The first thing I did when each of you was born was kiss every part of you,’ my mother used to say to my siblings and me. ‘I’d count every finger and toe and eyelash,’ she’d say. ‘I’d trace the lines in your hands.’” Strayed writes that “I didn’t remember it, and yet I’d never forgotten it. It was as much a part of me as my father saying he’d throw me out the window. More.”

As Strayed’s mother grew sicker, she would repeat the sentence “I’m with you always” again and again. And, in a way, she was her daughter’s constant companion through it all. In the end, it was this: not the loss, not the abandonment, not the rebellion, but the love itself. The love won out.

Facing Fear in the WILD!!!!

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/7-things-that-didnt-make-it-into-wild-by-cheryl-strayed/all

Preview  Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern,

& Cheryl Strayed: Wild Interview

 

Academy Award Winner ReeseWitherspoon stars in this inspirational true story about a fierce path taken.  After years being haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern), as Cheryl Strayed (Witherspoon) makes a rash decision to embark on a challenging trek across the Pacific Crest Trail.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything.

In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone.

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all    odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

“Arresting . . .  Wild [is] Strayed’s account of her 1,100-mile solo hike along the    Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mojave Desert to Washington State. Shattered at 26 by her mother’s death,  her family’s fragmenting,  and the end of her marriage, Strayed upped and decided to do something way out of the realm of her experience; here she confronts snowstorms and rattlesnakes even as she confronts her personal pain.

Wish I had her guts!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X50NxSCPNw