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THE FRENCH RIVIERA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS MAGAZINE
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The French Riviera's English Language Magazine

Cancer: finding the middle road

Just after her 50th birthday Alison Prideaux received the unwelcome gift of cancer diagnosis. She talked to Nancy Heslin about Insulin Potentiation Chemotherapy and her road to remission

AlisonAlison Prideaux (pictured) grew up in Surrey but worked in Boston as an environmental planner and was a scuba guide in the Galapagos. She arrived in France in 1990 with an International Therapy Examination Council (ITEC) certification and now, in addition to her massage, Shiatsu and Hot Stone treatments, she runs Mindfulness-Based Meditation courses, one of the world’s best-known stress reduction programmes. A poster child for Well-being who embraces holistic therapies, Alison is the last person you’d expect to have the Big C.

“I remember standing by a railing wondering what to do next. I had just been told I had a 5cm vascularised tumour in my right breast with lymph node involvement. Aware that the reality of the diagnosis would hit me soon, that moment divided my life into before and after cancer diagnosis.”

Bashing my immune system

Alison chose a rather non-traditional path to treat her cancer. “I felt that if I was to bash my immune system with chemo my body would never be able to fight the cancer. So I took the middle road – some low-dose chemo that doesn’t suppress the immune system along with other treatments to boost me up, while cleaning out the toxins straining my defences.

“My first challenge had been to avoid pre-surgery biopsy. We all knew it was cancer and while orthodox medicine says that a needle into a tumour poses no threat, there are others that say leave well alone and lift it out as undisturbed as possible. So I made a few waves and my wish was granted. I then spent two weeks doing PDT – Photodynamic Therapy – at the Dove clinic near Winchester in England. My family were pushing for surgery as soon as possible but PDT started breaking down the cancer cells and gave me time to prepare mentally for a mastectomy. At the clinic I found an advertisement for Cancer Options Service and spoke to Patricia Peat, an ex-oncology nurse with a wide knowledge of allopathic and complementary medicine. She filled me in on things I hadn’t even thought to ask and gave me some background on how breast cancer works and what approaches are being adopted in other countries. After surgery and in possession of the surgeon’s report she was able to explain what cancer cells do, how they behave and what was the significance of clean margins and undifferentiated cells. Thanks to her I was able to make a plan.

“During my mastectomy I was very well looked after at the nearly-new Clinique du Palais in Grasse. At my request the surgeon had frozen two pieces of tumour, of which one sample I sent to Duderstadt, Germany for a lab to prepare a vaccine and the other I took to the US for a cow’s colostrum to be tailor-made for me. I had heard that a psychologist was available and I definitely felt the need. It had been a very stressful time and I wanted to unload in a way that wouldn’t upset someone close to me.”

Opening cancer cells

“After a month of post-op recovery staying with the best friend you could ever imagine, I spent three weeks in the Klinik St Georg in Bad Aibling, near Munich. There I received low-dose Insulin Potentiation Chemotherapy (IPCT). Essentially, insulin is injected and taken up preferentially by cancer cells because they have many more insulin receptors than healthy cells. Once the cancer cells are ‘opened’, low-dose chemo is given. Only 10% of a normal dose is needed and it’s more effective. There is less damage to normal cells and, most importantly, less damage to the immune system.

“I met a woman there with breast and bone cancer, who’d been unable to walk due to weak bones. After several weeks on mineralising treatment and IPCT her cancer markers were in decline and she was able to get up and move around.

“At St Georg, IPCT is backed up by full body hyperthermia. Cancer cells do not like heat nor low blood sugar so the patient is anesthetised for 6 hours, put into a carefully monitored hypoglycaemic state (with insulin) and heated up to 41.6C. Low-dose chemotherapeutic drugs are administered over a 24-hour period. The cancer cells are not happy – and unfortunately neither was I when I woke up. Not everyone feels nauseous with this protocol but I did, however. Thankfully the side effects wore off after a few days and I was ready for session number two. I also had ozone treatment, chelation to remove heavy metals from my body, magnetic field therapy and high doses of vitamin C ... and I kept my hair.

“The minimum charge for a 3-week stay is €21,000 and there are often additional treatments. There are about 100 doctors doing IPCT in the US but it’s no longer available in France.”

Times you can’t think straight

“I then went to the US for my cow’s colostrum. Cow’s colostrum, or first milk, contains antibodies to immunise the calf against local pathogens. By introducing the cow to human cancer cells she then produces antibodies in response. In this way a cancer patient can drink colostrum, which contains tailor-made antibodies against her particular cancer cells without any harm to the cow or the calf.”

Does she have any advice? “It’s a huge shock to get a cancer diagnosis so understand that there will be moments when you can think straight and times when you can’t. That is why you need others, you need information and you need time to make decisions, so don’t be rushed.

“There’s no one reason for cells to get out of control and create tumours, there are several reasons: heavy metals from dental fillings, poor intestinal flora – the intestines are responsible for 80% of our immune function – stress, low thyroid, acidity and many other factors all play their part. Who knows really? Today I have an all-clear PET – Positron Emission Tomography – scan neatly filed in my medical folder and I can look back over the last two years and feel very grateful for the expert care I received in France, England, Germany and America.”


Useful cancer links:
Cancer vaccines Dudderstadt, Germany - www.immuntherapie.org
Cancer Options Service, UK - www.canceroptions.co.uk
Colostrum therapy & lifestyle consultation, US - www.drfitt.com
IPCT Clinic near Munich, Germany - www.klinik-st-georg.de/en
Mougins-based Cancer Support Group 06  - www.csg06.therivierawoman.com
Naturopathy & IPCT, New York, US - www.manhattanadvancedmedicine.com
Photodynamic light therapy, Winchester UK - www.doveclinic.com
Raw food detox & spiritual growth, Texas, US - www.optimumhealth.org
The Haven charity, London, UK - www.breastcancerhaven.org.uk