Mother who says she shrank killer tumour drinking vegan smoothies
‘My oncologist told me it was quackery’
A MOTHER with terminal breast cancer believes she can beat the disease – by rejecting chemotherapy in favour of vegan juicing and positive thinking.
Marion Johnson was diagnosed with cancer which had spread to other organs after she found a small lump between her breasts in May 2015. She was given just a year to live.
The 42-year-old had six months of intensive palliative chemotherapy to prolong her life rather than fight the disease but scans revealed the cancer had also spread to her liver.
After looking into alternative methods Miss Johnson decided to stop chemotherapy – which left her bedridden for days – and instead overhaul her diet in a bid to ‘reverse’ her illness. She said she was determined to enjoy every moment of life she has left with her children Max, 11, Bailey, 10 and Ava, eight. Miss Johnson starts every day with dandelion and burdock tea, lemon juice and a fruit and vegetable smoothie made in a cold press juicer.
She has also given up meat, sugar, alcohol, gluten and dairy products and only eats organic produce. Daily vitamin supplements help boost her immune system, along with a weekly vitamin C intravenous drip and use of an oxygen chamber.
Despite going against the advice of her oncologist, and there being no evidence that diet alone can cure cancer, Miss Johnson claims she has noticed a difference. One of her tumours has shrunk while others are stable, the former vehicle production operator said. Miss Johnson, of Wallasey, Merseyside, said: ‘When I told my oncologist what I was doing and that I would not have any more chemo he had a go at me and told me it was quackery.
‘Since I’ve changed my lifestyle one of my tumours has started to shrink and my blood work is perfect. Even the oncologist has admitted I’m remarkable. I’m so well that when I tell people I have cancer they don’t believe me.’ She added: ‘I am 100 per cent certain I can reverse it. I don’t worry about what will happen to my kids after I’m gone because I’m not going to die.’
But Tom Sanders, Professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, said: ‘Unfortunately there is no evidence to support such a claim for a vegan diet being helpful.
‘Some years ago the Bristol Cancer Centre promoted a vegan diet for women with breast cancer, but a followup study of women who were treated with the diet showed they had a poorer chance of disease-free survival than those receiving conventional treatment – radiotherapy plus chemotherapy.’