Galway Advertiser 2007/2007_03_08/GA_0803_E1_020.pdf 

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Galway Advertiser

March 8 2007

NEWS

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FASHION

BEAUTY

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H E A LT H

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LIFE

MARY O'CONNOR A commonsense approach to healing
Bernadette Bohan is hailed as a woman of courage and determination who took her health into her own hands with incredible results. Yet the 52-year-old Dublin mother of three who has survived cancer on two occasions and written two books about her cancer-beating formula says she is an ordinary woman trying to help other ordinary people. Bernadette, who grew up in Drogheda but now lives in Malahide with her husband and three children, was 33 years old when she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. She had just returned from holiday and was feeling great. "When I was diagnosed I wasn't ill at all. I'd never looked better. I had just pulled out the kitchen table when I noticed there was a lump on the side of my leg. I went to the doctor and he put me on antibiotics for a week. He said to make sure to come back to him." By then, she knew she was pregnant. She already had two children, Richard (7) and Sarah (4). When she returned to the doctor he carried out some tests and said her pregnancy would complicate things. She was later told she had either lymphoma or non Hodgkin's disease. "I didn't know what lymphoma was but I knew that Hodgkin's didn't sound good. I did all the conventional treatments and went away with armloads of drugs." She thinks it was shock at her diagnosis which made her miscarry her baby. "The doctors said it was the Grace of God. They said if I had taken the treatment it would kill the foetus and if I didn't I wouldn't have lasted nine months. As it happened the decision was taken out of my hands." It got to the stage that there was nothing left to do!" She survived cancer and on subsequent visits to the doctor for regular check-ups, kept asking if it were safe for her to have other children. "The big worry the doctors had was that another pregnancy would trigger the cancer, they thought it had links with pregnancy hormones. Seven years later coming up to my 40th birthday I chanced it." Her daughter was five years old when Bernadette got cancer again. This time it was in her breast. "I was in bed one night and I thought I was sore. I put my hand up and felt a lump. I tried to put it out of my mind but Gerard [her husband] said to get it checked. I went in straight away. The doctor sent me to a specialist for a biopsy." She describes her second cancer diagnosis as "devastating" and a "nightmare". But she refused to be beaten. "I told Richard, my son, `If I'm going down, I'll go down fighting.' He put his arm around me and said `Good on you, mum.'" Within days of her diagnosis, she began to read a book called Spontaneous Healing by American doctor Andrew Weil. "I realised there were loads of things that could be done for cancer. The more I read the more I realised how nutrition plays a huge part in combating the effects not just of cancer but other diseases. I thought I was a very healthy eater but realised I had much more to learn." learned about what's in the water we are drinking and the perfumes we use. Initially, I didn't know how to source things. Gradually, I moved away from personal care products with dangerous chemicals. I learned how to find safe shampoos and toothpaste, we are the first generation exposed to all these chemicals. "I got into juicing, two [sessions] a day can get six to 10 [portions] of fruit and vegetables to you. I learned how to add foods like wheat grass and apricot kernels that nature has given us which are very rich in fighting disease. I clean water that comes into the home." She urges people to be careful about both what you put into and on your body. She describes sugar as the "sweetest poison" and claims all cancers love it. "Every medium grows in sugar. Studies in Denmark show how cancers can grow in freshly squeezed apple juice." She says health is not rocket science or complex like we have been led to believe. "I haven't made a new discovery, I'm implementing common sense into my daily routine." publicly." The author of two books on the subject, The Choice and bestselling The Choice, the Programme, she explains how her four-step plan - juicing, power foods, pure water and safe toiletries - helped save her life. Her advice to people suffering from cancer is to learn more about their illness and ways of beating it and focus on improving the health of their physical bodies. "First of all, I'd say educate yourself. Knowledge is power. Secondly, focus on doing something to get your physical body back on track and boost your immune system." She insists her story is in no way unique. "It is simply the story of a mother who tried to reshape the life I was so desperately trying to hold on to. I am an ordinary woman whose life was turned upside down by two different types of cancer. Together with my family I went to hell and back. But I recovered and now I feel healthier than I have ever done. Why? Because I made a few simple changes to the way I lived my life." * Bernadette Bohan will give a seminar at the Clayton Hotel, Ballybrit on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm. Admission is 60. For further information telephone her at (01) 8452957.

As Bernadette Bohan made changes to her diet, her health improved.

Health improved
As she made changes to her diet and began to incorporate exercise into her life, her health improved. The arthritis in her hand went away, her eyesight got better and her energy levels increased dramatically. "I used to have very bad arthritis in my right hand. I'd have it bandaged up. Gerard used to often have to peel potatoes for me, I was that bad. The arthritis disappeared, there has been no return of it in seven years. "I wore reading glasses since I was 16. Soon, I realised I was picking them up less and less. I was more energetic too, better than I had been in years." People remarked on how she glowed with health and wondered what was the secret of her success. She gladly shared the key to her new found wellbeing with others, at first around her kitchen table, later in sell-out seminars. "I have put 1,000s through my hands. It started out with four people coming to my home. I did that for five years. Then, the groups got too big and I began to speak to crowds of 300 to 400

A black hole
Over a six to eight month period she had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. "My God, the chemo was so tough. I was so sick. I took steroids, I was hallucinating, it was like a black hole. I couldn't function as a person or mother. Emotionally, it was a huge struggle. There were times I was falling apart. One night I left home very, very sick and I went and took instruction from a psychotherapist who did visualisation. She was amazing and helped me deal with it all, she helped me focus on what I could do." During her cancer treatment programme she learned about foods that fought disease. "I

Conventional treatment
Bernadette, who will give a seminar in Galway later this week, started conventional treatment to fight the cancer. "It was tough. I didn't have chemo but had massive doses of steroids. My face swelled, it was so bad I couldn't see out." The steroids gave her false energy and she worked round the clock scrubbing her home. "The house was never so clean.