Our birthday weekend went by beautifully, the weather held up, I dug a new veg patch, and sifted the soil to the consistency of the finest enama coffee granules. Our birthday Saturday was lovely, with a trip to Oxford's Comedy Club, a fun night indeed. Sunday was a drive up to Melton Mowbray to meet with Stephen Gamble, the Gerson Practitioner, his wife Melanie and his cat. We arrived at the house at 9.50am for the 10am kick off. We pulled up tight behind the Suzuki Swift on
the driveway and knocked on the door. It was going to be another beautiful day, and we were destined to be stuck inside for the majority of it, but hopefully it would be well worth it. Stephen welcomed us into his modest home. With brief introductions carried out between ourselves and the other four attendees the session began. I won't go into it all.... as it will take all day, we left at 5.15pm.
One young couple, Alex and Jasmine, were qualified Osteopaths. They wanted to learn more about the Gerson Therapy, having read a lot about it, alongside many other nutrition based treatments. Alex had lost his Dad to pancreatic cancer, and was disappointed and angry at the advice and treatment from various doctors and oncologists his father received during his illness. Luka had came all the way from the Netherlands with his friend (possibly partner, Juergen), Luka was ill, but we didn't pry as to what his illness was. Stephen ran through the nutritional diet in full, how to perform coffee enemas comfortably, juice with gusto, purifying your drinking water, and generally running through the logistics of the whole process. We didn't really learn anymore than we'd already read in Max Gerson's publications, though it was great to see how other people manage it. It was also nice to read other patientse successful case studies, and to have questions answered with regards to certain parts of the diet etc. Mid morning we knocked back a fresh juice, and at lunch time Melanie had prepared a Gerson based feast! Quite a spread! Mid afternoon we were treated to a green juice. We were very well taken care of. Stephen let Amanda take a prepared coffee enema concentrate to try out when she got home (it would be difficult in a moving car, and truck drivers would be able to see Amanda's bum.). After we left, we took a walk around the Melton Mowbray country park for twenty minutes. It was absolutely beautiful, everything bathed in a golden hue as the earth gently moved around, tilting the sun out of sight. We chatted about the Gerson Therapy, and what we'd need to have in place to allow Amanda to manage this intensive procedure. It isn't logistically simple, it's incredibly time consuming, the patient and partner have to be very committed indeed. Similar in a way to chemo. You have to form a routine and stick to it, the same as taking medication. Amanda is not used to routine, this will change that.
We argued that night, as I'd made some comment about something, and Amanda bit. I bit back. We didn't speak for half an hour or so. Then we hugged, kissed and apologised. This is how we resolve things, it's simple really..... I like simplicity.... so does Amanda, that's why she married me!
This morning we rose at 6.30am. I carried out a couple of hours of work, Amanda prepared me a birthday breakfast, thanks sweetheart it was lovely.
We had to be on the road for 9.15am to get Robyn to the University open day in Bristol. We'd decided to tie in 'look around' and lunch at the Penny Brohn Centre. The Penny Brohn Centre is a leading charity which offers specialist support, including complementary therapies, advice & counselling for people living with cancer, along with their supporters. All services are offered free of charge. Wow! It's a long way from Banbury, about 110 miles. We dropped Robyn off and headed to PB.
We walked into the open, airy, peaceful atrium. A little reception area on the left, with a shop selling organic goodies, books, vitamins and supplements on the left. Just beyond the reception was the cafeteria. This opened at 12.30pm. It was only 11.30am, so after being provided with our guest badges and our food tickets (not free, £4.50 each, which was a bloody bargain!), we wandered. The beautiful Georgian building, Horn Green House, contained huge windows, and toweringly high ceilings. The first room we entered had a grand piano in the far left corner, and a huge log fireplace in the back wall. The lights hanging from the ceiling were huge thick glass inverted cone shapes, held in place with vines of bronze. The room was beautiful. The place was soooo quiet, serene, it was lovely. The next little room, was more of a den, I say a den, but it was easily the size of our dining and living room. A circle of chairs sat in the centre of the room, where I assumed cancer patients chatted about their experience and feelings. There were candles, scented sticks, and a lovely pyrite cubic crystal, you know the ones... a big old rock, broken in half, revealing it's inner beauty, purple glimmering crystal formations. This was a room to feel relaxed and safe in. The book shelf had everything from conventional religion (if there is such a thing) to spiritual body & mind healing books. The Qur'an to the bible, you get the idea.
The next room we headed to was the library. A cosy little place, again, with lots of natural light. This was my favourite thing about Horn Green House, lit by natural light everywhere. There were books on every type on alternative healing, on nutrition, on cancer victims journeys. VHS tapes on one shelf, cassettes on another (I jest you not!), we both grabbed a selection of books and got to reading. Before we knew it, 12.30pm had arrived, so we headed to the cafeteria. We helped ourselves to Sweet Potato and something soup, then a huge portion of salad and tenderstem broccoli. The main course was delivered by one of the kitchen staff, a daal curry with a pinch of crispy onions on top. The selection of teas on offer would make Twining's shudder with embarrassment, Amanda went for peppermint, I tackled a Rooibos, as I couldn't find caffeine anywhere!
After filling our bellies, we headed back to the library, I picked up my Patrick Holford book, 'Say No To Cancer' (we never said yes, but unfortunately we also forgot to say no, that could be where we went wrong). Holford's writing's and nutritional advice concur with Gerson's ideas, though I have to say Holford has also managed to get his hands on some more up to date nutritional theories. Holford though is 'Saying No to Cancer', Amanda had/has it so we need Gerson to help with the combination of the nutrients he found to be successful way back when, a nutritional system that is still helping people's immune systems and bodies to get back to being able to 'fight for themselves'. This program is still working for many, many cancer sufferers throughout the world.
By 2.30pm Robyn was ready to be picked up. We signed our books out for 4 weeks, and Amanda managed to get a cancellation slot for a 3 day residential stay on the 19th April to the 21st. There may be a slot for me to go along too, but the lady was waiting on confirmation from another patient. Amanda will be bringing the juicer and the 'coffee kit' along with her. The coffee enema is very interesting, I will go into more detail as what it is actually believed to do, and what it has also been proved to do in the next few days.
One thing's I can assure you all of, this method will not replace the plunger for a really good cup of coffee!
Amanda's blood pressure is still low, 85/69, she is wearing her compression socks as we speak, and may wear her 'Skinz', compression leggings (normally worn for running) tomorrow. Generally Amanda has low blood pressure, but she is suffering extreme light headedness if she stands quickly. To remedy this, I've told her to stop standing quickly.
Once Amanda has completed her Gerson Therapy, she will go back to introducing some of the classic anti-oxidant foods and phyto-oestrogens too, some that aren't permitted in the therapy. Whilst she is on it though, she intends sticking to the combination of foods that have been tried and tested. It's not the foods, it's the combining effects of the nutrients within the foods that do the work. Many elements, require the presence of other elements to allow them to be processed, simple enzyme biology. I'm too tired to go into all that now, so I'm going to bed. I will tell you more about it soon, for those that like reading biological material, you can do it yourselves now, makes great bedtime reading! I'm absolutely knackered, Amanda passes her love on to you all. Again she is not ignoring anyone, there is just so little time in each day at the moment, hence the reason I'm sitting here updating you all at 11.39pm! Take care, speak soon x
PS. Thanks to Sue and Raquel. I will tell you more about them too, when I can manage to stop my eyeballs rolling into the back of my head, night night, ZZZZzzzzz zzzzz xxx
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