Note: The following by Ann Knox, a supporter of ANH, is a personal account and one that we know some will find inspirational. However, it should be emphasised that Ann made a decision to avoid conventional treatment following provisional suspected diagnosis of a breast tumour. By also refusing biopsies, confirmed diagnosis of the tumour was never made.

 

By Ann Knox

 

I had always had fibrocystic breasts, having gone back and forth to my doctor to have them checked whenever I felt suspicious of a lump, or of anything that didn't feel normal to me. Our family had been thrown into the world of cancer throughout many years and I had always lived with a fear that one day it would possibly come to me!

Then 3 and a half years ago I was checking my breasts one evening as I lay in bed and I felt a lump positioned on my top rib under my left breast and I knew straight away that this was something other than normal. I made an appointment to visit with my doctor who at this time told me it was nothing that she would be concerned about and that to wait till my monthly cycle had finished and to see how my breast felt then, which I did and to me it didn't feel any different. I was advised to keep a watchful eye on it and if there were any further signs of change then I should go back straight away, so off I walked back into my life.

Over the months the lump didn't feel any different but I was very aware of it. My life was pretty chaotic at the time, being a single mum to a beautiful girl and having my own business, which was still in its early stages but was showing signs of being extremely successful, so I made plans to move myself and my staff into a new office. At this time I was aware that I didn't feel as if my health was quite normal, I was tired and becoming more tired than I normally would at the end of the day. This was a tiredness that was awakening with me in the morning and travelling through the day with me and I knew this tiredness didn't belong to my body.

Then on one dreaded morning I woke up, showered and noticed a slight puckering in the skin just above the position of the lump, so off I trod to the doctor. This was a year after I had first noticed the lump. I was sent immediately to the breast clinic at my local hospital and so my story begins.

I was put through the triad of tests and scans and kept there till the end of the day as they did with most ladies who were all being given the news that they had breast cancer. I was taken into a room to be met by the consultant, a trainee doctor and a breast care nurse, and was told that the mammogram had shown a tumour around 1.6 mm. I was told that it looked like it was a slow growing tumour and that I would have full mastectomy as they were highly suspicious of a further two spots in the breast both at 0.7 mm. I would then be given 6 months of chemotherapy and radiation and possibly even lymph gland removal from under my arms. It was recommended that I have a biopsy that day, which I refused, as I needed time to walk away from this vacuum of fear and think things through.

Having spent the evening in tears, not managing to sleep much, I woke up with my decision already made. I knew it was a decision that was still full of fear and panic, but I knew instinctively that I did not wish to have a biopsy or any form of conventional treatment.

I spent the rest of this day speaking to some very close friends and one in particular who had healed and cured her own cancer (Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) 12 years previously. I had visited with her some 6 years earlier when my mother was diagnosed with cancer as she had worked very closely with the Gerson practice. I created a plan within that 1 day and knew what I had to do.

Within 1 month I was well on my way to detoxifying and clearing my body of accumulated toxins—nourishing it using juicing, supplements and trying to make my body as alkalised as possible. I also embarked on an emotional and spiritual journey and worked with The Journey practice. I had weekly lymphatic drainage treatments and weekly reflexology treatments. On top of this I worked with castor oil packing and moving my lymph daily.

In a short while I knew that my body was responding and I felt the best I had for many, many years. I made a major decision to close my office and let all my staff go and I brought my business back to my home.  I knew that if I was to become better then I needed to commit every cell of my body to the recovery and healing process and so I took 2 years out and gave to myself completely.

I am now over 3 and a half years into my journey and as much as I feel on top of the world, that hasn't been the case with the hospital or consultants. After my initial consultation, I agreed to go for an MRI scan, which confirmed what had been detected via the mammogram. I explained to the consultant at the time that I was not wishing to have any further treatment, which they didn't take too kindly to and have actually made my life a living hell.

My own doctor continuously called me and told me that was I was in huge trouble should I not accept treatment and even arrived at the door of my home, armed with my health file under her arm and told me that I was reaching the time where conventional treatment would not be an option. All I had asked for was regular scans so I could monitor if the lump was becoming smaller/bigger and I was refused this each time.  I would only be offered this on the grounds that I accepted the biopsy.

It got the point where I was called and asked to visit with the head of my doctor’s office. After a short period of talking to him about where I was with my health, he promptly told me that I was in big trouble as I had let too much time elapse. I asked for my bloods to be taken, which I was refused and told that they could tell nothing through my blood and that if they detected anything untoward in my liver then it would be palliative care for me!

I was then told that my body was rotting inside and one day I would wake up, place my feet on the floor and I would go straight through the floor boards!  I was devastated to be treated with such disdain due to my making a personal choice for my own body that differed with conventional treatment.  I then asked to view my medical records and to my shock and horror discovered that my consultant had commented that I should be sent for immediate psychological counselling. 

This year I visited with a different doctor who seemed more open about different methods to treat cancer and more supportive in terms of organising further scans. He allowed me to “pick from the menu” as he called it, so I spoke with him about my wish to have regular scans. He was kind enough to organise this for me, so I returned to the hospital to visit with a further doctor who examined both breasts, as she was concerned that after 3 and a half years I would be showing signs of the cancer spreading. She looked for further lumps in my right breast or lumps under my arms, of which she found neither and I was told that there was a possibility that my body had encapsulated the cancerous tumour and that I would require a biopsy to determine if this was so. I refused again to have a biopsy, because if my body had actually manifested this, then to my mind, the cancer was contained and this is what I had worked to achieve with my body.

Today I have left behind very little of what my life was, what it meant and what I had worked towards.  I feel the healthiest I have in my entire life and I have worked tirelessly to clear what this tumour came to teach me—for all of that I feel very blessed.

I see my tumour not as a harbinger of death anymore, but a part of me that my body created to teach me much about myself. How graced I am to now look back over the last three and a half years and have an understanding of this.

My life is now about to transform yet again, as I embark on the launch of The Truth Matters Conferences. It is my intention that The Institute of Health will travel throughout the UK and hopefully worldwide, to bring the ‘truth’ of what nature intended for us all. 

Throughout the past 3 years I have met, studied and worked with some of the most beautiful people in the world, people who have healed their own diseases, people who work tirelessly with the same message .....and that message is:

Your body is not your enemy, it supports you for as long as it can.  Learn how your diet, repressed thoughts and emotions can have an impact on your health. Learn how your body's innate life force can be suppressed by procedures that are supposed to enhance it.

It is time to learn how truly powerful you are.  You have the power to heal yourself.

 

 

Find out more about the first Truth Matters Conference in Glasgow, 21st August 2010

Dr Robert Verkerk, ANH-Intl executive & scientific director, will be presenting a talk entitled “Natural health at Risk” at the conference.

The Truth Matters Institute of Health plans to next set up a charity. They will run silent auctions and all proceeds made will be given to this charity to help support families who are effected by cancer with the likes of organic boxes, water filters and funding for treatment.

Contact Ann Knox:

Email: [email protected] 

Tel: 01389 384 114 or 07930 649 139

 

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