Justine's Journey

I refused to have surgery initially and embarked on a radical detoxing regime.

3 months later I was not improving, I had to surrender to my plan and opted to undergo a 9-hour surgery for a very aggressive Stage 3 bowel tumor with metastasis to my small intestine, abdominal muscle, right ovary and 14 lymph nodes.

Following surgery, I spent the next few weeks trying to sort out my feelings about it on one side and surfing the web for possible alternative treatments on the other. I had been given a 16% chance of surviving 5 years if I did not do the recommended Radiation and Chemotherapy treatment. And a 50% chance of survival if I did do the treatment, which my surgeon said I needed to do to buy myself some time. This was to be 6 months of Chemo followed by 6 weeks of Radiation.

One thing was in fact crystal clear to me since day one. Chemo or radiation didn’t sit right for me, and I had to TRUST my intuition that this was the right thing to do. I felt my body had created this tumor and wasn’t feeling at ease with using chemo. I felt chemo would poison my already weakened body in order to ”kill” my cancer. After all, I was only 45kg at this point.

I don’t have a bad relationship with death, we just don’t know how and when. “When” never concerned me much. I had already watched my father go through chemotherapy for Bowel Cancer and when his cancer came back within 6 months, my father took his own life before the sickness from conventional treatments took him.

I’d rather live a short, healthy and fulfilling life than a long, mediocre one. That’s why I never spared myself, diving head first with passion in embracing this cancer as an opportunity for me to change the way I was doing things in my life.

It made perfect sense to me to actually try and heal my body instead of using the recommended toxic chemo drugs. I respect the courage of everyone’s choice though if they do decide to do the treatments and many people get through the treatments very well.

People think I was brave to cross the border and receive alternative medicine to save my life and yet I think people who do chemo are brave. I realise many choices are made quickly because there is a sense of urgency instilled by the oncologist for us to act quickly.

We may save ourselves more harm if we take some time to research healthy ways to optimise our healing regardless of what treatments options sit right with us. We are part of our success, and deep down I knew I could do this my way, and I wanted to choose what was best for my body and not be thrown into FEAR by what the doctors told me I SHOULD do!

My health history wasn’t to flash prior to this diagnosis, I had already been through 3 surgeries to my belly. Faced with the reality that I couldn’t have children from the internal chaos created by a hospital bug following emergency surgery while I was traveling in Australia. My internal & external scars had already manifested to a very real outcome that I had to face.

I did not expect that after all the mental and emotional exhaustion that had come with my journey so far that I would be then faced with a Cancer Diagnosis. I was tired from surgeries and had developed chronic fatigue. The journey was extremely rough at times, I can still smell the anesthesia and feel all the IV needle pricks and of course, I felt the pain in my emotional body.

You go through shock at first. It’s a choice to adjust and love yourself regardless and believe that you will be loved again scars and all. We’ve all got something that doesn’t fit in our scope of the perfect body. I think our soul can become more beautiful as more scars collect on the outside. If people worked out their souls as much as they worked out their bodies, this world would be a better place to live in.

At the time of my diagnosis. I had made another big decision. I didn’t intend to allow cancer to rule my life. I never pitied myself, once I had reached that place of acceptance, I wasn’t going to allow others to do so. I felt so positive and inspired to find a new way forward through this process. I knew why I wanted to live and I knew my journey would allow me to open myself up to a new way of being, I just had to trust the process.

After living through this, I tell my story to as many people as will listen as I believe that I made it through all of this for a reason. It may sound a little weird but I chose to thank my cancer for coming and saw it has a blessing in many ways.

I want to be an inspiration to others. I want just one person to make a decision to see a doctor after hearing me, or maybe I can help someone live with a cancer diagnosis.

If I can help someone make a decision on his or her journey in this crazy world or if someone can look at me and think, wow, look at what she went through, look at what she was told, but she is still here, so I can do it too, then it was worth it.

You don’t have to listen to the odds and the statistics. Cancer is a label, a phrase, not a way of life or a death sentence. Just look at me! I am living my truth and I love every minute of helping others to live theirs too.

Whenever someone asks me about my health and how I’m feeling I say, “I’m awesome, I feel so good!” because the majority of the time I am and I do. I still struggle with an underlying level of fatigue some days but I live a very full, happy and healthy life – despite having cancer cells in my body.

Many doctors most likely will never heal you but instead will just manage your pain & symptoms through drugs. Its not normal to have symptoms (or a cabinet full of medications) it means something is wrong and you need to work out why. Nutrition is critically important to this as are other areas of our lives we typically take for granted.

Each cancer is different and needs to be treated differently. It’s up to us to discover what that involves.

As part of this journey, I have been inspired to learn a new way forward. I have a deeply embedded passion to help people live to be the best they can be. We have so much more control over our health & well-being than most people realize…at any age.

The coaching and the ensuing transformation has given me the reason to be, a greater understanding of who I am, love and acceptance of my imperfections and gratitude for the opportunity to work with people who want to find greater happiness.

I contacted a holistic clinic in Auckland who were incredibly supportive, they offered me a complete wellness package towards my healing. It’s was here that I was introduced to the following:

Ozone therapy is an incredible rejuvenator, normaliser, detoxifier, regenerator, immune enhancer and physical and mental energiser. You are welcome to read more about ozone therapy here…http://www.ozoneuniversity.com/intro-to-ozone-therapy.htm I now bring Ozone generators into the country for my cancer patients, so contact me if you would like to know more.

Low oxygen levels in cells may be a fundamental cause of cancer. There are several reasons cells become poorly oxygenated. An overload of toxins clogging up the cells, poor quality cell walls that don’t allow nutrients into the cells, the lack of nutrients needed for respiration, poor circulation and perhaps even low levels of oxygen in the air we breathe and not deep breathing ourselves.

For my healing, I traveled to Auckland every week for IV OZONE treatments until my blood was saturated with oxygen and then purchased my own generator so I could treat myself at home. I make ozonated water, used ozone via a rectal/vaginal insufflation, did ozone saunas and far infrared saunas.

Initially I was told to go raw vegan which I did, however, this made my body cold and I was not thriving. I changed to warming foods like slowly cooked organic chicken broths, and loads of vegetables and some slow cooked organic meats.

I eliminated processed sugar from all forms and got rid of refined foods that came in a packet, including alcohol and too much fruit. I eat some gluten-free grains, & I increased the healthy plant-based fats. I continue to make green vegetable juices, and green smoothies as part of my weekly routine, along with a mug of bone broth a day in the cooler months and try to include fermented foods into my diet. I still eat red meat every now and again but stopped eating it when I was initially diagnosed. I buy organic chicken and eat fresh fish a couple of times a week.

Supplements are designed to help optimise the immune system so it can better find and remove cancer cells.

My regime has changed over the years, however, I continue to use:

Immune herbs like Echinacea, Olive leaf, Astragalus, Ginger

Liver Herbs like Globe Artichoke, St Mary’s thistle, Turmeric

Minerals such as Selenium, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium, Trace Minerals,

Vitamins such as B-vitamins, B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E,

Omega 3, Digestive enzymes, MitoQ, L-Theanine

Stress Herbs such as Ashwagandha, Kava

Essential Oils such as wild orange oil, lavender oil, frankincense oil

Illness = Blockages ie: the body is NOT at Ease, it is Diseased. We hold on to emotions from our past and there is a connection to our physical health.

Used energy medicine treatments –Acupuncturee & Shiatzu Massage, PEMF.

* Released my suppressed emotions (a work in progress, as I work on peeling the layers of the onion) I worked closely with an EFT practitioner (emotional freedom technique)

* Increased positive emotions – found daily JOY, LOVE and happiness in the simple things, and learned to LOVE me (that was a BIGGIE)

* Embraced social support – Support is more vital when we are sick, I had to be open to the help that was being offered, neighbors cooking meals, doing our vacuuming, open to receiving financial help from those offering rather than trying to soldier on. I also connected with FB support groups, like “Bowel Cancer NZ” & “Fighting colon cancer both naturally and traditionally”

* Deepened my spiritual connection through daily meditation and mindfulness practices

* Started to follow my life’s purpose “I now love what I do”

6 months after my initial surgery a scan showed I had one enlarged lymph node with cancer cells, at this time my surgeon did his best to fill me with fear once again by telling me whatever I was doing was not working.

As far as he was concerned the cancer was back and the lymph node needed to be surgically removed. He told me in no uncertain terms that they would NOT remove it unless I did some Chemotherapy first.

This did not sit right with me at all, so I trusted in my own methods of healing. Each subsequent scan I had, showed a reduction in the size of the node and no further metastasis. By March 2015 there was no evidence of any enlarged nodes and I was officially de-cleared NED (No evidence of Disease)

Latest Update: May 2020 CT SCAN RESULT – NED No evidence of disease!

Pretty cool huh!