Our story of joy in spite of cancer
Brigitte and George Prince share their inspirational story of finding joy and happiness in the face of cancer.
A year ago, my husband was diagnosed with a lymphoma, found accidentally during an endoscopy. George had been having regular endoscopies since Barrett's Oesophagus had been diagnosed a couple of years earlier. Doctors worry that the change in cells is pre-cancerous. Now a definite cancer had been identified. Fortunately, it was not an aggressive type of cancer, being labelled 'indolent' or lazy and the specialist's advice was for regular monitoring, to check when it might 'fire' up.
At the next endoscopy six months later, things hadn't changed. It was still there, but hadn't progressed; whew! We thought ourselves lucky to have studied “Laughter Wellness Therapy” which kept us stress free, especially as I, Brigitte had also been diagnosed with cancer of the breast, three months after George.
We knew that two things were very important: keeping stress at bay to help healing, and also providing our bodies with peak nutrition to give ourselves the best chance possible.
The benefits of laughter are numerous but in the current situation, the most important benefits were the potential to annihilate stress as well as being able to still feel happy and relaxed. It's not possible to feel stressed at the same time as having fun, and stress must be eradicated so the body can use its resources for healing rather than coping with stress. Laughter can activate your 'feel good' inner chemicals within about 45 seconds, so you can feel better almost instantly, if you so choose.
It is entirely within your power to choose to be happy (even if you don't feel like it) and one of the easiest ways to do this is to laugh deliberately or intentionally. Although your mind can tell the difference from spontaneous laughter, the body reacts to the deliberate laughter as if were 'real' and you can feel better in no time. Repeat at regular intervals and include singing, humming, dancing and playfulness. Find ways to have fun, including with food. It worked wonders for us.
We had developed extra healthy food habits a few years earlier, but now determined to really concentrate on providing our bodies with as many nutrients from wholefoods as possible. This became easy when I found a wholefood website with easy and very yummy recipes. Eating became great fun, even when we decided to 'go the extra mile' and cut out animal protein.
We'd read 'The China Study' which demonstrated how cancerous tumours in rats, shrank when animal protein was withdrawn from their diets (and re-emerged if it was introduced) and we considered it worth a try. Fortunately it hasn't 'hurt' a bit and we've been thrilled with the results.
At the last check-up with George's specialist, he astounded us by saying that if George continued with his very healthy lifestyle, then there was a chance (as the lymphoma hadn't yet progressed), that his own immune system had a chance of beating the cancer on its own, without any radical treatment. That was enormously encouraging and our diligence paid off as, at the next endoscopy, (last week), it was no longer visible except for 'a minor distortion of the villi.' The report went on to say that 'This is the site of the previous lymphoma'. The biopsy from the site did show signs 'consistent with follicular lymphoma' so we were not entirely out of the woods yet but to quote the report again, 'Certainly this has improved'. Yipee!
Could this be coincidence?
Perhaps not as the other aspect of this good news was that there was no longer any sign of changed cells at the end of the oesophagus; no sign of Barrett's Oesophagus! Yay! We had worked out what foods caused reflux for George and had cut these out so that the oesophagus was no longer irritated.
Everyone's case and body are different so we wouldn't dream of recommending anything specific but we would encourage everyone to do their own research and then give themselves the best chance possible of a long, healthy, joy-filled life, full of love and laughter and good food.
To assist with this mission, we have set up Facebook page Laughter4wellbeing and Facebook group Laughing4wellbeing (anyone can join). You'll find lots of tips for fun with food and laughter to help you rise above any circumstances.
Let’s drink a toast to a life of joy! (with a green smoothie perhaps!)