Cancer Options: Ten Years in Partnership - by Robin Daly, founder of Yes to Life

This week's blog post has been written by the founder of Yes to Life, Robin Daly. As part of our celebration of 10 years in partnership with Cancer Options, he discusses the relationship, Patricia Peat, and how Integrative Medicine is slowly but surely becoming mainstream...

Ten years ago, Yes to Life teamed up with Cancer Options, a consultancy established more than 5 years earlier by Patricia Peat, a highly experienced oncology nurse. Patricia had decided that the scope of cancer treatment needed extending considerably beyond the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy that were, and still largely are, the exclusive methods of conventional medicine.

At that time, the term Integrative Medicine hadn’t been coined, and all the talk was of either conventional or alternative approaches. It was war. Happily, with the passage of time, hostilities are finally beginning to subside for all but a handful of retrograde quackbusters and conspiracy theorists, who are still slugging it out on the front lines of the internet. We are at last beginning to see the rise of what is now termed Integrative Medicine (IM), a rational synthesis of all the available ways to support people with cancer in regaining their health and wellbeing.

Patricia was very much a pioneer in promoting integration all those years ago. This was as a result of her direct experience of what does and doesn’t work in conventional medicine. Unlike most advocates for the inclusion of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) approaches, her roots were in orthodox practice.

One hallmark of IM is that it truly embraces patient choice, in its breadth and inclusivity, and in its recognition of the multiplicity of factors involved in treating cancer successfully. Yes to Life was created to increase and support patient choice, and so, although we never spoke about IM in the early years, it was implicitly the meeting ground for the two organisations. Through Cancer Options, Yes to Life was able to offer callers to our fledgling Helpline (I was the Helpline at the start) personalised information, shortlisting approaches that could be useful to them, given their diagnosis, stage of disease, budget etc, whether conventional or CAM.

This service was our core offering, and it remains so to this day. Having personally experienced what it is like to try to find this information unaided, I would say that it’s hard to understate the effect that quickly obtaining a concise ‘shopping list’ of expertly selected options can have on someone’s chances of living better and longer. Venturing out into the internet alone and unprepared can be wholly overwhelming and utterly confusing. Cancer is one of the most complex areas of medicine with a singularly opaque language of its own, and for every one of the vast number of approaches to be found, there are supporters and detractors who will pronounce it either miracle cure or certain death, respectively. Making any sense of it all without expert help is nigh on impossible.

I’m proud to say that by working together closely, Cancer Options and Yes to Life have been able to help thousands of people to make their own choices to help themselves; and in many cases, Yes to Life has gone on to support people, both financially and in other ways, to access those choices. This in turn has resulted in many, many stories of remarkable remissions and longevity in the face of dire prognoses. 

All of this would not have been possible without the expertise of Patricia Peat and Cancer Options, who are the UK’s top resource for information on the latest developments in IM for cancer. They make it their business to know about integrative clinics worldwide, the latest science and what is working for any given subset of people with cancer. They are often able to bring attention to methods on offer by the NHS that have not been presented as an option. They are fully aware of the ‘hotspots’ internationally, where clinics are achieving unusually good results and of the reasons this is the case. While there are many places you can get a more in-depth view of a particular branch of treatment or discipline, the overview of choices offered by Cancer Options is unparalleled.

I’m delighted by our achievements and the ongoing success of the partnership and I’m grateful to Patricia for her support of our charitable mission. I am looking forward to achieving even more together in the years to come.

If you would like to know more about Cancer Options, head to their website https://canceroptions.co.uk or call the Helpline on 0870 163 2990.

Pomegranate & Feta Quinoa

For a high protein, wheat-free meal quinoa is a versatile dish which blends beautifully with vegetables. It has a higher protein content than grains and is gluten free. Jenny Phillips specialises in supporting people with cancer through nutrition and has given us a delicious recipe this month!

The pomegranate adds a flash of colour and a boost of phytonutrients for immune health. If you are dairy-free simply do not add the feta.

1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic,
crushed
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 can chickpeas,
drained & rinsed
1 tsp cumin
Juice & zest of ½ lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
150g quinoa
380ml water
Seeds of half a
pomegranate
120g feta
Seasoning

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Add the vegetables to a baking dish, add the seeds, cumin, lemon and oil. Roast for 30 minutes and remove from the oven
3. Meanwhile make the quinoa: add the quinoa and water to a pan. Season. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes then remove from the heat.
4. Stir the quinoa into the chick peas and check the seasoning.
5. Top with the pomegranate seeds and crumbled feta.

Seeking alternatives in Mexico

Today’s post is from one of our beneficiaries who has kindly agreed to share his story. Kent, 56, from Devon has travelled annually to Mexico for the past seven years to seek alternative approaches.

After about six months of investigative tests and treatment for a non-existent ulcer, I was diagnosed in September 2007 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. My first response was to either go for a trial drug or chemotherapy and radiation. But after a little research I realized how naïve I was and choose to discount previous orthodox options that had not yet been offered to me. I was told that when I got worse those options would become available to me but for the time being my treatment would be 'watchful waiting'.

The only orthodox treatment I had was diagnostic, some surgery to biopsy two lymph nodes and determine if I indeed had cancer. The biopsies confirmed that I did.

Yes to Life Responds to the Latest Macmillan Report

Today's post is from our chairman, Robin Daly, in response to the recent Macmillan report which revealed that there are now a record 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK.

At Yes to Life, we welcome the ‘real world’ report put out by Macmillan this month. Amidst all the ‘good news’ stories that ‘more people are surviving cancer than ever’, this report hits the nail on the head when it comes to focussing on the grim reality behind the latest cancer statistics. The report talks about ‘a cancer crisis of unmanageable proportions’, and states that ‘progress is a double-edged sword’.

Yes it’s true that more people are surviving cancer, but far more importantly, many more people are getting cancer than ever. That means more people will have their lives totally uprooted by cancer, will have to face gruelling, increasingly unaffordable treatments, and then very possibly to live out their extended lives in pain, disabled, or with treatment side effects that severely erode their quality of life. Macmillan are a powerful voice of non-conformity amidst the stock hyped news of ‘progress’ that we have grown accustomed to. They clearly identify that ‘growing evidence shows that many cancer patients do not return to full health after gruelling treatments and many suffer from serious side effects of the disease.’ To this we would add ‘and of the treatment’.

Breast Cancer Seminar 2014 - The Power of Choice

Today’s post is about our annual major seminar which is being held on Saturday 5^th July 2014 from 9.30am to 4.30pm at Glazier’s Hall in London Bridge. This year we focus on the most common cancer for women in the UK today, Breast Cancer. To purchase tickets (lunch and refreshments included) please click here.

Most of us know someone who has had breast cancer. It is in fact the most common form of cancer in the UK today. Incidence rates have increased by a whopping 70% since the mid-1970’s and although orthodox

treatments have developed over the last few decades, thousands of people still die every year. Yes to Life’s seminar aims to bring to light alternative ways to support your body through breast cancer. With a stellar cast of speakers, from everyday women who have fought extraordinary battles, to professionals who have spent their careers finding the best ways to arm them, we hope to shed some light on the choices that can make all the difference.

Reflexology: Supporting people living with Cancer

Today's post is written by Tracey Smith,  who is Reflexology and Research Manager for the Association of Reflexologists. She discusses the potentials of reflexology to support cancer care and better health.

The theory behind reflexology is that it returns the various systems of the body back to homeostasis, or back to working at their natural level and in doing so that it helps all systems work properly with each other. Reflexology does not claim to cure. It aims to support you through the bad times and may claim only to help relaxation and stress, however as stress is involved in many illnesses the prevention or reduction of stress may well help you. With a reduction in stress many other ‘problems’ may benefit. Reflexology can also help with tension release, relaxation and improve well-being.