For several years my dear friend Sandy has told me about a remarkable woman named Sheree DeWulf. Sandy traveled with Sheree as she desperately sought a cure for her “incurable” cancer. I wanted to hear her story for myself and share it with anyone who might be helped by her experience. I called her and we met at Starbuck’s.
Sheree found a lump in her breast 11 years ago, while taking a shower. She went to her doctor immediately and had a mammogram. Nothing showed up on the mammogram and her doctor told her it was probably a cyst. Sheree insisted on an Ultrasound. The Ultrasound showed “something”, but still her doctor was not concerned.
Sheree had a history of constant bladder and kidney infections and had previously scheduled an appointment at Mayo Clinic to determine the cause of the painful infections. Having received no satisfaction from her own doctor, Sheree asked for a biopsy of the lump in her breast at Mayo. Not only was the lump malignant, but there were two other satellite tumors in her breast. She had a modified radical mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
Even though the doctors were telling Sheree there was no cause for alarm, the shock of finding that her body was capable of harboring a potentially fatal disease made Sheree re-evaluate her habits, her lifestyle and her faith. All needed attention. Sheree’s faith became her mainstay, guiding her calmly through the terrible years to follow.
Sheree was to have six months of chemotherapy. She asked her doctors for any information they could give her on treating the cancer naturally – diet, supplements or anything else that might help the chemo work. She did her own research, determined to make changes in her life that would help her heal. She showed her doctor an article about nutrition and its effect on cancer. His dismissive reply was, “Don’t believe everything you read.”
After completing the series of chemotherapy treatments Sheree was to follow up every three months, then every six months, and finally yearly. During one of her annual visits Sheree told the doctor of back pain she had been having for a year and a half. Again the doctor was unconcerned. Again, Sheree insisted on an X-ray. There was a tumor on one of her vertebrae.
Sheree knew there was no remission with metastatic cancer. Her chances of survival were slim. She woke up regularly in the middle of the night, sobbing convulsively – desperate to have more time with her children, and certain her time was nearing its end. As her chances of survival grew weaker, her faith grew stronger.
Chemo had been terrible. She didn’t want to repeat the experience. Sheree found a center with an excellent reputation for treating difficult cancers only three hours from home. Sandy insisted on going to the center with Sheree. When they met with the doctor assigned to Sheree, they were told that Sheree’s condition could be “controlled” with tamoxifen and radiation. When pressed for more information on how it would control the cancer, the doctor admitted that it would only control the pain – the cancer would kill her regardless of any treatment.
Outraged by the doctor’s bluntness, Sandy went to the center’s administrator to complain about the insensitive treatment her friend had received. “He TOLD her she was going to die!” Sandy’s normally sunny personality turned deadly serious. “We need POSITIVE help here!"
There was one treatment that could extend Sheree’s life by five years at best, Sandy was told. Possibly by then there would be a more effective treatment. It was a stem cell transplant, and they began preparing for the procedure. Part of the preparation was more chemotherapy. Sheree grew weaker and weaker from the chemo. After one month of chemo her scan showed a spot on her arm. The next month there was a spot on her spleen.
Sheree was too sick for more chemotherapy. She would need the stem cell transplant immediately. She applied to her insurance company and was refused on the grounds that their research showed the chance of survival no better with a stem cell transplant than with the treatment she was already having.
Three weeks after being turned down, Sheree got hepatitis. She saw her doctor the Friday before Mother’s Day and told him with unwavering conviction, “I will not spend Mother’s Day in the hospital. It is the last Mother’s Day I will have with my children. I’m not giving it up.” As Sheree related this part of the story to me she stopped, choked back tears and said, “I don’t relive this very often. It’s hard to think about those feelings."
“Until that time,” Sheree told me, “I had put my health in the hands of the doctors. I was eating nothing but sugar – you crave sugar when you have cancer. No one would tell me anything about what I should do about my diet or my cravings. They didn’t tell me anything except – we’ll do more chemotherapy.” A friend told Sheree of a clinic in Utah that combined traditional and non-traditional methods to treat cancer. A team of medical and non-medical personnel incorporated essential oils, a raw food diet, organ cleansings, and massage therapy into a regimen of chemotherapy. Sheree and Sandy jumped in the car and drove the 1300 miles to Provo.
“Sandy never let me get down,” Sheree told me. “We shopped, we ate, we drank and we laughed – and laughed – and laughed.” Sandy slept in the room with her, sometimes sitting in a chair, afraid that if she left Sheree’s side she would die alone before Sandy returned. Sheree’s treatments, at $2500 a week, included more than physical healing – they included emotional healing as well. Sheree was taught to speak in terms that didn’t sabotage her subconscious, and practiced emotional clearing and forgiveness exercises. She was told that she must learn to make herself calm, to think about herself and concentrate on healing. She learned about the poisons in the medications she was taking and the poisons she takes in every day in shampoos, toothpaste and cleaning solutions.
She went from excruciating pain to feeling fabulous. She stopped taking all of her meds except one and had the first normal scan she had had since the cancer was found. Life was looking up.
A year later her condition began to reverse. She and Sandy went to the Hoxey Clinic in Mexico where Sheree took herbal tonics. She visited a Naturopath and took dozens of supplements. Nothing was working. She called Sandy and told her she was too depressed to face more hospitals or debilitating treatments. There was nothing more she could do. Sandy reminded her of a treatment they had heard of – a treatment of supplements from a company that had shown remarkable results with a variety of serious illnesses. “It’s worth a try,” Sandy told her.
Sheree bought $1000 worth of nutrients and began her fight once more. Within a year Sheree’s scans were clear, her pain was gone and her alkaline tests were normal (cancer can’t grow in an alkaline environment). Her bladder infections stopped, too, and her energy level went beyond where it had been before she got sick.
“My healing was based on a combination of things,” Sheree believes. “The cleansing, the diet and the supplements have made me well. I had a 72 year old man who had cancer for the second time call me. He followed some of my treatments and is now in remission. Different things work for different people, but I believe in getting your body clean and putting the right nutrients back in. I also believe in faith, laughter and the power of friendship. Sandy is my angel. Without her, I don’t think I would have made it.”
As I listened to Sheree I was reminded of Norman Cousins and his inspirational, Anatomy of an Illness. He described his treatment regimen as megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter from watching old Candid Camera episodes and Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."
Sheree’s recovery is nothing short of miraculous. I know that cleansing, diet and supplementation were an integral part of her recovery. But when I see this beautiful, vital woman, with energy to spare, and I hear her story, I can’t help but believe that her determination to live, her faith in God, her positive attitud, and the laughter she shared with Sandy were just as important as anything she put into her body.
The good news is that Sheree is healthy, enjoying her granddaughter and helping others heal as she did. The bad news is that a recovery like Sheree’s is rare. Without the advantages Sheree had – the knowledge of available treatments, the support system, and a strong determination to live, thousands of people believe their doctors when they are told that there is no hope, and simply surrender to this terrible disease. Insurance companies turn them down for treatment, and our government refuses to allow people to choose their own course of action. We can’t reveal the names of the facilities nor the supplements that saved Sheree’s life. They could be shut down for publishing claims that don’t adhere to standard medical doctrines.
Every person who reads this may take a different lesson from Sheree’s experience. But one lesson that all of us must learn and practice in our lives is to take control of our own health. Don’t accept what anyone tells you. Do your own research, have faith in your convictions, and love your body. It worked for Sheree. It could work for you.
We will be videotaping an interview with Sheree soon. Watch for the video on our web site www.wellpast50.com.
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