Henry has not been him self since he had the chemo treatment four days ago. He still makes an effort because he is just like that.  Still smiles.

But he is not his usual and he seems very tired.  His nose bleeds, we do not know why.

Yesterday he started taking Aloe Arborescens after a 10 days break so we are hopping that this will pick him up again. 
We'll see.

I think it is also important to talk  about the struggle of not having much money, I am sure this is an issue for many people who are ill. For everybody really.   To look after your self costs a lot of money. We are not big spenders, we have always been ok with the basics but now more than ever we understand that happy days are those that Henry is free of pain from the illness and side effects from chemo.  So we do not really need to spend money in fancy things to be happy.

The money that needs to be raised is a lot and even though we do not want to think about not being able to raise it, we know that the possibility exists. So while the money is being raised he needs to help him self by other means.  We have decided to invest our little money to have good-for-you food. 

A friend of Henry's, Sharon, sent him an email with an article on "what cancer cells feed on".  So we have drastically decided to take all that food away from our daily diet.

It is complicated because Henry is underweight and according to the dietician he needs to eat cakes, milk, ice cream, chocolate and fatty foods in general to increase his weight.  But we do not understand why Henry is being recommended to do what this country is campaigning against; NO FATTY FOOD!!.   We do not understand why his weight needs to be increased at any cost.

Sooo, we have drawn our own little plan.  No ice cream, no milk, no cakes and no fatty food. All this is following the article we got from Sharon.

So yesterday we topped up the fridge with tones of fruit, vegetables, fish and almond milk. He is also having seed, pulses and dried fruits. We have bought a proper juicer so we can juice raw vegetables to make the most of its nutrients. Henry is now eating every 2.5 hours so he can stop having the "Insure" drinks and get his 2.400 daily Kcal just out of good food.
Yesterday was Henry's first day without the supplementary drink and that is another little step forward to be thankful for.

As long as we can we will invest in antioxidant food.  Surely nutrients play an important role in the body.

Apart from staying positive, that is all he can do at the moment; eat very well.

I have put the "What cancer cells feed on " article on the blog just in case somebody is interested in reading it.

In just one week we have managed to put together a nice little event.  There is plenty of food and prizes.  Some have been bought and some donated by a few shops in Richmond.  Soon I will add them all to the supporters page.  

Henry had a good time, many of his family members, friends and work colleagues have turned up.  Now Henry can say that a few of his work mates are also friends.  Some of them have been really caring and understanding and as well as paying the entrance and participating in the raffle, have also donated there and then discreetly by putting some cash in birthday's cards for Henry.

i will not spend much time on negative stuff but it must be said that some people that  turned up for the event tried (and accomplished)  to get away without paying the £10 for participating in the event. This needs to be mentioned because I consider it a lack of manners and respect.

The thing is that people are not forced to donate, not even to believe in Henry's cause but if you turn up to an event that involves Fundraising and you are told in advance that there is a fee, very small fee, of £10 to participate in the event then you should naturally understand.  This is just common sense, but because common sense can not be taught and we did not want to waste time, energy and principles in chasing people around for that fee, many of them stayed at the event without paying what they had to by giving inexcusable excuses 

Henry is having a difficult time, to be given 18 months to live is not an easy thing to go through so Henry needs "nice and easy" 
and that is one of the things that is going to contribute to maintaining him positive and as healthy as possible.  We do not want  needless difficult situations and for that reason we will not have again the people that has created these situations in our next event. We do not need to give out names, they know who they are.

Apart from those that brought tension to the event, everybody was excellent and Henry had a fantastic time.  Just what he needed.

Thanks to those who really care!

A big apology to Denis.  I was terribly rude to Denis thinking that he was one of those "awkward" ones when reality is that he has been one of the nicest ones.  So, still today, two days after, I feel bad for being so rude to him.
Purely because he did not deserve it at all!!.
I am sorry.


Thanks to Roger Greaves who won the first prize (and the second and the fourth...) and donated it to Henry.  That is another hundred that he has given to Henry's cause.
Thanks you.

It is 7.30 am and Henry is still in bed, that is unusual, he is always the first to be up.

I go to his bedroom to see if he is ok.  He says he feels very tired.

I tell him to come to get some to eat and his tablets.  When he comes to the kitchen I realize that his face is swollen; his eyes and lips specially.  He has had trouble breathing during the night but has not complaint about it.  Henry never complaints about nothing. 

It could be an allergic reaction to chemo, even though he is taking steroids for it,  so we phone to the chemo Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital and explain the situation. Henry is advised to go to any A&E.  We decide to go to Charing Cross, where he gets his chemo treatment.

Four minutes after arriving to A&E he is called in.  They are extremely diligent with Oncologist patients so he is taking to a private room where within an hour, maybe less, they carry out a full check up.  Blood test from vein and oxygen levels from his artery.  An X-Ray scan and a CTG scan.  

i explain the Oncologist what happened after chemo and the fluid overload so as all tests come up perfect they assume that Henry has been retaining fluids.  The gave him two diuretic tablets and that' s all he seemed to need.  Apparently steroids also make you keep fluids so it must be a combination of both. 

We head home in a cab so Henry can spend the rest of his birthday at home.  

Thanks God!

Henry went to Hospital for his second cycle of chemo.  

The time we where there all was OK, it was only when he finished the treatment that again, he put over four kilos weight in the 8 hours treatment.  

The nurses where too busy to realize that Henry went well over the weight.  Any weight over two kilos has to be treated with diuretics so Henry can release all the fluid. I mentioned before that over load of chemo can affect other body organs. So after chasing the nurses they realized that Henry needed diuretic tablets.  They gave him one.

We went home.
 

Cancer  Update from Johns Hopkins:  

Every person has cancer cells in the  body. These cancer cells do not show up  in the standard tests until they  have
multiplied to a few billion. When  doctors tell cancer patients that there are  no more cancer cells in their bodies after  
treatment, it just means the tests are  unable to detect the cancer cells because  they have not reached the  detectable
size.  

Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10  times in a person's lifetime.  

When the person's immune system is strong  the cancer cells will be destroyed and  prevented from multiplying and
forming  tumors.  

When a person has cancer it indicates the person  has nutritional deficiencies. These  could be due to genetic,
but also to  environmental, food and lifestyle  factors.  

To overcome the multiple nutritional  deficiencies, changing diet to eat  more adequately and healthy, 4-5  times/day  
and  by including supplements will strengthen the  immune system.  

Chemotherapy involves poisoning the  rapidly-growing cancer cells and also  destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells
in the  bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc., and  can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys,  heart, lungs etc.  

Radiation while destroying cancer cells  also burns, scars and damages healthy  cells, tissues and organs.  

Initial treatment with chemotherapy and  radiation will often reduce tumor  size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy  and radiation do not result in more tumor  destruction.  

When the body has too much toxic burden  from chemotherapy and radiation the immune  system is either compromised or destroyed,  hence the person can succumb to various kinds  of infections and complications.  

Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer  cells to mutate and become resistant and  difficult to destroy.
Surgery can also cause  cancer cells to spread to other  sites.

An effective way to battle  cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not  feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.  

*CANCER CELLS FEED ON":

Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet,  Equal, Spoonful, etc. are made with Aspartame  and it is harmful. A  better natural substitute would be Manuka  honey or molasses, but only in very  small amounts. Table  salt has a  chemical added to make it white in color  Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea  salt.  

Milk causes the body to produce mucus,  especially in the gastro-intestinal tract.  Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off  milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk  cancer cells are being starved.  

Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment.  A  meat-based diet is  acidic and it is  best to eat fish, and a little other  meat,  
like  chicken. Meat also contains livestock  antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites,  which are all harmful, especially to people with  cancer.  

A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and  juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little  fruits help put the body into
an alkaline  environment. About 20% can be from  cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable  juices provide live
enzymes that are easily  absorbed and reach down to cellular levels  within 15 minutes to nourish and  enhance
growth of healthy cells. To obtain  live enzymes for building healthy cells try  and drink fresh vegetable juice  (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and  eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day.  Enzymes are destroyed at
temperatures  of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C)..  

Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which  have high caffeine Green  tea is a  better alternative and has cancer fighting  properties. Water-best to drink purified water,  or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy  metals in tap water. Distilled water is  acidic, avoid it.

Meat  protein is difficult to digest and requires  a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat  remaining in the
intestines becomes putrefied  and leads to more toxic buildup.  

Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering.  By refraining from or eating less meat it  frees more enzymes
to attack the protein  walls of cancer cells and allows the body's  killer cells to destroy the cancer  cells.  

Some supplements build up the immune  system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac,  anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals,
EFAs etc.)  to enable the bodies own killer cells to  destroy cancer cells.. Other  supplements like vitamin E are known
to  cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the  body's normal method of disposing of damaged,  unwanted, or
unneeded cells.  

Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and  spirit.

A proactive and positive  spirit will help the cancer warrior be a  survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and  bitterness put
the body into a stressful  and acidic environment. Learn to have a  loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and  enjoy life.

Cancer cells cannot  thrive in an oxygenated environment.  Exercising daily, and deep breathing  help to
get more oxygen down to the  cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means  employed to destroy cancer cells.  

No  plastic containers in micro.

No  water bottles in freezer.

No  plastic wrap in microwave..

Johns  Hopkins has recently sent this out in its  newsletters. This information is being  circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as  well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially  breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous  to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze  your plastic bottles with water in them as this  releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr  Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at  Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain  this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and  how bad they are for us. He said that we should  not be heating our food in the microwave using  plastic containers. This especially applies to  foods that contain fat. He said that the  combination of fat, high heat, and plastics  releases dioxin into the food and ultimately  into the cells of the body. Instead, he  recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware,  Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food.  You get the same results, only without the  dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant  ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from  the container and heated in something else.  Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in  the paper. It's just safer to use tempered  glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a  while ago some of the fast food restaurants  moved away from the foam containers to paper The  dioxin problem is one of the  reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap,  such as Saran, is just as dangerous when  placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave.  As the food is nuked, the high heat causes  poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the  plastic wrap and drip into the food Cover food  with a paper towel instead.

Please  share this with your whole email  list.........................   
This is  an article that should be sent to anyone  important in your  life... 

Henry went through his first cycle of chemo on the 29th of February..  The following two days he was on steroids and these kept him in kind of like " a high" so his body really did not feel the chemo's hit.  On the 4th day after chemo  he started to feel unwell, tired, "funny".  His stomach was very upset and this must to be due to the medication he took prior and post chemo.  I was reading about steroids and yes, they can have a bad effect on patients.

Henry was starting to eat less, he was also getting fed up of being on pain, yes, I can imagine that constant pain must be hard, also, it is like a continuous reminder that you are ill.

On the 6th of March Henry started taking Aloe Arborescens.  We got to hear about Aloe Arb. from Connah's granddad. Connah is a boy from Wales  that is being treated with PDT in the same clinic that Henry wants to go to for his treatment (by the way, we have a video of Connah's case on the "Testimonial" page).

Ok, so we ordered  Aloe Arb. and Henry started taking it.  I must be honest and tell you that I was a little afraid of this herbal medicine, the only thing that put my mind at ease was the fact that I spoke to the distributor in England, Mark, a really nice guy from Canada that was totally honest about the product.  He did not try to sell the product nor did try to tell me what he knew I wanted to hear, so that made us buy the product.

Funny enough at the same time I had a good feeling about it.  Maybe it is because just days before I watched a BBC documentary about plants and their internal wonderful, powerful and amazing way of working.  

Maybe it was that, maybe it is that I just wanted to believe that it could work.  Don't know.

So, Henry started taking the juice, 10ml 20 minutes before meals.  Nothing really happened for the first two days, in fact, Henry was still having stomach pain.  One night, just after taking the juice, he could not even finish his dinner due to his stomach pain. For a moment I thought we had really messed up with the juice.

But suddenly, from being unwell and lacking energy, out of the blue, Henry got up the third day of taking the juice,  free of stomach-ache.  He had energy and not one day since then has had to lye down because he has been feeling run down.  
His temperature has been stable (fingers crossed). This is great considering that Henry is underweight and weak due to the illness.

He started developing spots, first on his face, mainly on one side, the right side and around the nose.  Since the biopsy Henry has had problems, his nose bleeds most nights. He also got spots around his ears, but this only lasted  for a few hours (no that I seat right next to him with a chronometer....)

The interesting part is that the spots, little white spots, came on mainly on the right side of his chest, over the lung area; the lung that is ill.  

Before Henry started taking the juice, I read a lot about it, I read as much as I could as really, to get the proper information you need to get an specific book that talks about the plant 's scientific research and foundlings with regards to this formula. But I got to read that people who take the juice can get spots, this is because the body is going through a detox process. When spots come out it is because the treatment is really working.

I did not mentioned this to Henry before taking the juice as I did not want him to get paranoid about "nasty spots".  I waited to see...and yes, it did happened!

I think it is interesting to see how spots only come on the right side of his body.  The right side of his face, the right side of his chest and around the nose, which , as I have already said, has also been affected by the biopsy.

No temperature, good appetite, no stomach -ache and excellent levels of energy.  I don't think this is coincidence, I have seen it my self, I have seen the change from no taking Aloe Arborescens and taking it.  So far Henry, considering...., is doing well.

A couple weeks ago somebody told me that if we wanted to raise money for Henry, we would have to make very sad statements, but fortunately... or unfortunately, Henry and I are not like that.  I can't seat here to tell you sad things so you will put a tenner,  £100 or £1.000 for Henry's appeal. No this way, no!.
 
This is about fighting cancer, fighting to get treatment and fighting the chemo's symptoms until we can get the treatment, and if we can find ways of making this nasty journey easier then we are going to share it with you just because you may know somebody who is living with cancer or at some stage of your life you will know somebody who has also been affected by cancer.

I do not think none of us can go through a life time without being touched direct or indirectly by cancer.

For anybody wanting details from "Aloe Arborescens", please, just ask.  We are happy to pass on information.

Salud!!

Keith, one of Henry's work mates, used to be his team leader in a different branch at Tescos (so they have not been in touch for a while now), has come to visit Henry.  

Since Keith found out about Henry, he has been ringing very often, he has also donated money.  He is giving so much to support Henry....

Today I overheard him talking on the phone to someone , he said "Today is my first day off in six weeks".  And I thought to my self, and he is here, with Henry.  That is a friend!!

He does not ask for nothing in return, he does not set rules and he does not expect recognition. It really brings tears to my eyes to know that Henry has this support and people that cares for him.

What I have learn in this journey with Henry is that it comes clear very quickly when people do things coming from their heart and understanding on what life and friendship is about .

So to Keith and people like Keith, thank you.