What cancer were you diagnosed with?

kidney cancer

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What age were you diagnosed?

32

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What helped you to thrive?

My health started to go downhill after that and I could hardly push my baby daughter in her pushchair to the end of my street. I made the decision I was not going out like that and decided to come off the treatment for a better quality of life and take matters into my own hands.

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Connell's Story

At 32 years old, I considered myself to be a fit and healthy individual until the dreaded morning I passed blood in my urine. I went to my GP who referred me to the hospital for abdominal scans which showed up a 6.7 cm diameter tumour growing from my kidney. I had surgery to remove my kidney/tumour soon after to which everyone thought was a success.

I had noticed a little lump on the side of my head to which everyone thought was a sebaceous cyst. I had this removed about 5 months after my kidney surgery and 2 weeks later got a phone call from my consultants' secretary saying he would like to see me the following day. Straight away I knew something wasn’t right. I went and was told that the cyst was actually a metastasis of my kidney cancer which meant it had spread. I went from having Stage 3 kidney cancer which was thought to have been contained to the kidney to Stage 4 metastasised cancer. The outlook was looking bleak and I was put on a new type of chemo treatment taken orally to which I was told I would be on indefinitely. My health started to go downhill after that and I could hardly push my baby daughter in her pushchair to the end of my street.

I made the decision I was not going out like that and decided to come off the treatment for a better quality of life and take matters into my own hands. I started to research people who had beaten it and what they had done. I attended a raw food health programme and bought myself a juicer. I started to juice a pint of organic vegetables every day and cut out sugar from my diet. I gradually cut out meat than fish then dairy and tried as much as possible to follow a vegan type diet. By doing all this I’ve basically alkalise my body to create a hostile environment for cancer and my scans have thankfully been clear ever since.

It is always a worry with Stage 4 cancer that it will return but hopefully by continuing to follow this diet and lifestyle it won’t.

I have enrolled in a Nutritional Therapy course with the College of Naturopathic Medicine as I am really passionate and positive about this lifestyle. I have also started a website and blog Savour Life as I love nothing better than helping other people on their journey by sharing the knowledge I have experienced.