Taking treatment into her own hands, one local resident turned to natural therapy when it came to treating cancer.
Shaylee Feist was diagnosed with stage one colon cancer in 2014 at the age of 24, while parenting a five year old son.
At the time she was enrolled in fashion design at Lethbridge.
Once diagnosed, Feist started researching her options and came across different treatments, many of which used natural therapies as a remedy, including a high-dose Vitamin C therapy.
When Feist presented the information to her doctors, she said they were reluctant with her decision to use natural therapy.
“The response I got was terrible, no one was accepting it, but I gave them the research and everything I found. I wasn’t doing it to be ornery, I just believed in natural therapy a lot more.”
According to the Canadian Medical Association, thirty years ago, reports surfaced indicating the beneficial effects of high-dose Vitamin C therapy for patients with terminal cancer.
But further clinical trials failed to show any benefit and mainstream oncologists discarded the role of Vitamin C in cancer treatment.
However, the CMA said the two studies were different as the first combined intravenous and oral administration, whereas the latter used only oral administration.
Since then, significant evidence has been accumulated over the years and high dose Vitamin C treatment, has been studied for its beneficial actions and continues to be used as an alternative cancer therapy for over 25 years.
Yet, Stephen Sagar, a professor of Oncology at McMaster University said, “In Canada we do not have integrative oncology,” meaning a healthcare system, which incorporates complementary medicine with conventional medicine, which can be beneficial.
Lethbridge Naturopath, Priscilla Peltier said natural therapies are more integrated in certain countries in Europe, but are gaining popularity here at home.
“There’s a lot of it around, more so now. There hasn’t been much in Lethbridge or Alberta for that matter. It is gaining and I see that here in my clinic. I get more and more clients who come in and are not getting results elsewhere.”
This is something Feist said she understands all too well and although she did do six months of chemotherapy, her focus the past two years have been on natural therapy.
Something she added has had its share of challenges.
“I go to Calgary for my Vitamin C treatment but my medical side won’t do anything the naturopathic side needs. I needed a certain blood test done to see that I wouldn’t react badly to the Vitamin C, but they wouldn’t do that so I had to pay for it.”
In order to help pay for her treatments, Feist started a GoFundMe account and has raised just shy of $1,000.
After six months of IV Vitamin C therapy, Feist received news that her PET scan, a test used to evaluate normal and abnormal functioning of cells and organs, came back clear.
She said right now there’s no signs of cancer, but has another PET scan in June and says there’s still has a long way to go in order to be considered cancer free.
To anyone else considering using natural therapy, Feist said trust your gut.
“It’s a terrible place to be when you’re at the end of you’re life, or they’re telling you, you’re close to dying and feeling like you should have done something more, it’s the worst feeling.”
