Pablo's journey through a brain tumour

Today’s post is from one of our younger beneficiaries who has kindly agreed to share his story. Pablo, 26, from Wrangaton in Devon is living with a brain tumour.

It started out in August 2014 with some migraines and nausea. I was working as a garden centre assistant in mid-summer and one day after work I had what I thought was a stroke. My GP said that it may well be a migrainous aura. I went back to work and carried on as normal thinking I was okay and just needed to hydrate more.

A week or so later I had another episode at the end of work, with continuous headaches and distorted vision occurrences throughout the week. Turns out they were seizures.

I returned again to my doctor and explained that I felt there was something very wrong with me and that I would like to go to the hospital for a scan. I had the CT scan and was told by the attending Neuro-Doctor that it was all clear. I went home feeling grateful. The next day though, I got a phone call from the doctor explaining that he had spoken with a neuro-surgeon and that there was an abnormality within my brain and that I would need to come back in for a MRI scan.

This shattered my whole world really. I felt as though I was dying. The fear I felt and anticipation of news that would change my life kept me in a state of despair for the whole day before the MRI. (What does abnormality mean?  Is it a tumour?)

Flax Seed Crackers

Today's post comes from Jenny Phillips who specialises in aiding cancer patients with diet and lifestyle interventions. She herself recovered from breast cancer 10 years ago and wishes to pass on her wisdom to others. 

If you sometimes crave the comfort of carbiness, these are a delicious low carb and wheat free alternative to regular crackers. They are full of protein, fibre and minerals, and are ideal with dips and spreads. Check out the previous recipe for raw beetroot dip (link here) or spread with lashings of hummus.

Wheatgrass Juice – Nature’s Finest Medicine?

Today’s blog post comes from Dr. Britt Cordi from Live Wheatgrass Limited, talking on Wheatgrass juice and its many, many benefits. 

Wheatgrass juice has become more and more popular over the past years with many juice bars and raw food cafes now serving it in smoothies and various juices.

But what is it that makes wheatgrass juice so popular? And why is it that nutritionists think so highly of it as an immune and energy booster, as a healer of digestive problems and as a blood cleanser?

Another One Bites the Dust: The Demise of the Off-Patent Drugs Bill

Today's article is from our chairman Robin Daly highlighting some important issues and his views surrounding the Off-Patents Drugs Bill.

 Last Friday, Tory Health Minister Alistair Burt used a blatantly unethical tactic - filibustering -  to deliberately block a bill with massive potential to help a wide range of chronic disease and to slash NHS costs. The human cost alone of the suffering that is the direct consequence of this action is sufficient to brand it as callous, inhumane and inexcusable. The description levelled at Alistair Burt was ‘disgraceful’. His ‘assurance’ that there is ‘another pathway’ surely is a way of saying that there is another pathway that won’t have any negative impact on the bottom line of the party’s influential friends - the pharmaceutical giants? For what other plausible explanation can be imagined for blocking such a common-sense, practical and direct path to relieving human suffering.

'Eat to Outsmart Cancer' by Jenny Phillips

Today’s blog post, from our intern Olivia Tilton, is a review of Jenny Phillips’ Book, ‘Eat to Outsmart Cancer: How to create optimal health for prevention and recovery’.

I have a confession to make. Scratch that... I have two confessions to make. Firstly, I have only recently come across the wonderful nutrition marvel that is Jenny Phillips. Bit late on the band wagon, wasn’t I? The second confession is, I found her by accident. Back in Leicester, before I started my internship at Yes To life, I dragged my Auntie to a nutrition talk one evening and Jenny Phillips was a speaker. Long story short, I am now fully onboard with the oracle that is Jenny. Her book was a great place for me to start to enter into her world of nutrition and fighting cancer.

Jenny’s journey started at 39 when diagnosed with grade 4 breast cancer. At the time, she was working part time in a management training company for which she would often work in the evenings and running training workshops and presentations away from home. Cheese and onion toasties were a firm favourite along with a few glasses of wine come dinner time.