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Inspiring Stories
Scott's Story Wellness and living the dream
This is the story of a young mans determination and perseverance in the face of considerable medical odds against melanoma, a cancer whose prognosis is usually quite bleak, Scott’s courage and positive mindset show the enormous potential of the mind in the healing process. His story also serves to show the many variables that exist in each person’s journey of healing.
At 23 I was a beer drinking carnivore and the hardest decision I had to make at the time was what to do on the weekend. This was all about to change. In early 2000 I had a mole removed from my thigh. I have had several removed from my body and I believed that this, like those before it, would be nothing to worry about. I remember the skin specialist calling me to give me the news. He sounded devastated but I did not know what he was on about. He told me it was melanoma. I was only young. I could not have cancer. It was only after I hung up the phone and explained the conversation to my mother that it began to sink in.
I had a wider excision done to remove the tissue around the mole just in case it had spread, although scans showed no sign that it had. So I had a close call but I was alright and I went back to work and got on with my life. Six months down the track, the lymph nodes in my groin were enlarged. My specialist did not like the look of this and booked me in to have a biopsy done on the nodes. It was positive for melanoma. At this point the skin specialist advised me that this was beyond his experience and referred me to the Peter McCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne. Within a week I had already undergone a barrage of tests and the surgery to remove all the lymph nodes in my groin. The surgery went well and the scans showed no spread beyond the nodes, but they told me the chances of recurrence were quite high, around 60%, and I was encouraged to have a treatment called interferon. Interferon is a form of immunotherapy which is much like chemotherapy except the drugs that are used are substances that are naturally found in the body and are linked to our immune system. The interferon treatment lasted 12 months. Following this I was declared to be in remission, whereupon I returned to my normal life.
At the start of all this I had met a girl and started dating her. She was a wonderful girl who stuck with me through all that I had undergone. I fell in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her but couldn’t shake off the fear of cancer returning. I think that deep down I did not know whether I really believed I was in remission or not, I somehow believed I was in limbo. After nine months in remission I plucked up the courage to ask this girl to marry me. To my delight she said Yes! We had a short engagement and were married in March 2003 in a beautiful low-key ceremony at the beach. My life was moving forward. I now had a beautiful wife and together we started to build our dream home.
Shortly after returning from our honeymoon my regular tests revealed a large mass in my chest. The doctors were unsure exactly what it meant so it was decided to retest in three months. By then it had doubled in size. After having a biopsy performed, we knew that the melanoma was back. Surgery was thought to be the best option as chemotherapy is not very effective against melanoma. So I had chest surgery that was regarded as major surgery. Although the actual operation went well it was followed by complications that required further surgery. Walking out of the hospital with my wife and just breathing the fresh air was an extraordinary experience. My recovery was slow; I was told I would be out of action for six weeks. It was at this time that a friend mentioned The Gawler Foundation. I attended the 12 week program and its benefits blew me away. The idea that you can heal yourself, I found amazing. I also could relate to emotional problems depleting your immune system and attending these meetings marked my conversation. I emptied the beer and meat out of the fridge, instead filling it with organic vegetables. I began to meditate and I purchased a Champion juicer. I felt positive and happy. After three months I was feeling better. We were also due to move into our new house shortly. Life was good.
We went to the Peter McCallum Institute to get my three monthly post operative scan done. We were fully expecting good news. The shock that followed was rather nasty. 'I’ve got some bad news, the tumour has grown back in the chest and you have now also got tumours in the pelvis and bowel,' the doctor said. We were gutted. We were fully expecting good news, only to have this bomb dropped on us. We started crying. The news was just too much. The doctor advised us that the options were limited to chemotherapy but informed us that the success rate was low at 5-10%. That was all he could offer us. This was my lowest point and yet deep down I still believed that things would still be alright. However, this was the first time that I confronted my mortality.
I contacted Siegfried from The Gawler Foundation who was running the 12 week program and asked for his advice. He informed me that I had more options than I thought and he went on to suggest I enrol in the ten day residential program that was to take place in December 2004. He also recommended a homeopathic GP and that I commence the recommended chemo. ‘Do it all,’ Ziggy said.
I started Chemo the following Monday. It was horrible. I have never been so sick in all my life. Within a short while I had lost 14 kilos. I was still throwing up in a bucket when my wife took me to the Foundation. I was unsure if I should even be there. The location was beautiful, the people amazing and the kitchen staff prepared some nice bland meals that I could stomach. Slowly I started to feel better and to regain my strength. Although the program was very similar to the 12 week program I found it so much better - being in that healthy environment I felt that people empathised with you completely. The meditation was so powerful and I was really able to deepen my practice. The juices, the food.. I loved it all. Being able to live that lifestyle for those ten days changed my life. I embraced all the ideas. It was not a chore, rather it was a new way to live. Most of all I believed in it. After all Ian Gawler was still alive. It worked for him, it can work for me too.
A week later, which was Christmas Eve, I met the homeopathic GP whom Ziggy had recommended. He started me on some basic supplements such as Vitamin C, CoQ10, folic acid and pancreatic enzymes. He also suggested I start on Iscador which is a naturally derived from Mistletoe extract, designed to inhibit tumour growth. Christmas Day was a mixed bag that year. It was good to get together the family even though the future was uncertain. The support I received from my family was wonderful and Christmas was a great way to bond with them and let them all know my new way of life.
With the New Year came a new me. I found a local Qi Gong class and signed up with them. I also wholeheartedly practised all that I learned at The Gawler Foundation. In summary, I was practising Qi Gong each morning, meditating for two hours per day, juicing four times a day and walking half an hour each day as well as eating a wholefood plant based diet diet and generally looking after myself. I had stopped working prior to my chest operation, and I had no desire, for the present time, to return. Only after having ceased work had I realized how taxing and stressful it had been on me.
I declined the next round of chemotherapy as it made me so sick the last time. I focussed on doing whatever it took to get well again. Scans were showing no growth of tumours, which as far as my doctor was concerned, was the best news I could hope for. I coasted along in good health for about six months but I felt myself slipping into depression. I do not know exactly what caused it, maybe it was the fact that my wife was working and all my friends worked. Perhaps it was the fact that I was feeling so isolated. I vividly remember getting out of my car and feeling extreme abdominal pain. Off I went to hospital again. Scans showed that the bowel tumour had flared up. I returned to the Peter McCallum Institute for another operation to remove the tumour in my bowel. The operation went well and I returned from hospital with new energy and vigour. It turned out the tumour in my bowel had made me anaemic so, with the tumour removed, I instantly felt better and jumped straight back into the Gawler routine with renewed vigour.
Follow up scans showed the bowel was clear, it was just the chest and pelvis I had to worry about. Three months later at the next scan, the tumour in the pelvis had gone. Unbelievable! my doctor could not believe it. He looked at the past scans compared to the current ones and it was just gone! I was ecstatic. “This is working!” I thought.
This news gave me more motivation to persevere with my routine.
Six months later my doctor declared, 'you could be cancer free at this very moment.' The mass in the chest could just be scar tissue. The girls at the CT department of the hospital congratulated me and informed me that my last report was entitled ‘early premature remission’. I was sold on the idea. I felt well - I was doing well. It appears that I AM well!
I do not know what the future holds for me. I could die in a year or in fifty years. That does not bother me because it just makes me the same as everyone else. Life’s great. I recently celebrated my 30th birthday an event that not so long before, I did not believe I would make. My wife and I are celebrating the birth of our first child - a beautiful little girl. I’m living the dream.