“The Bristol Approach has enabled me to see my diagnosis as an opportunity to change, fight and appreciate the beauty of life. At Penny Brohn Cancer Care I learnt so much and found tools I could use to fight the battle. I meditated, cried for the first time in decades, released inner stresses and felt revitalized and positive.”
I was first diagnosed with a small skin cancer 15 years ago aged 37. In October 2003 age 51 cancer recurred in one lymph node. In December 2003 six metastates were found and I was subsequently given a terminal diagnosis of six months, of which 50% would be quality time.
The cancer spread: by March 2004 I had eight metastates in the liver and one in the lung and I was very close to death. Metastatic melanoma of the extent I had is supposed to be “untreatable”. However I believe that the Bristol Approach helped me to respond to chemotherapy and then immunotherapy successfully and against huge adverse probabilities. The result was a dramatic improvement and by September 2004 just two remained. I currently now have one lesion which may or may not be cancerous, but they are “stable” and I have a quality life.
Following my terminal diagnosis I was keen to find out what I could do for myself: The oncologist did say ‘probabilities do not count for you’ but when I asked what I could do the only comment was ‘eat healthily’. Complementary therapies seemed ‘eccentric’. I felt as if the whole system was pushing me down a slippery gutter pipe to death, no way out, no hope – just prospects of managed pain and death. I felt out of control.
Attending a course at Penny Brohn Cancer Care in February 2004 was my turning point. I was primarily seeking a source of authority on diet, but it also opened my eyes to the benefits of other therapies like healing. I now believe that guided meditation can relieve suppressed stresses and can predispose the body to better health, as can diet. Having been previously sceptical I now value some complementary therapies in a way I never imagined possible.
The medical profession is doing amazing things with so many people, but with terminal cases they do not yet know why sometimes medicines do work against impossible odds. Too many mothers, fathers and children will die of cancer this year. But for me, any one of the many small positive and healthy changes made might just have tipped the balance in my favour. The Bristol Approach helped me to ‘make my own luck’, without that success, the cancer would have taken me over two years ago. The extra time has been so precious, priceless – thank you on behalf of myself, my wife and my three daughters.
IAN DIXON, 54
Finance & Administration Director; Married, Father of three; Fetcham, Surrey. Skin cancer diagnosed c.1990, Metastates and terminal diagnosis 2003.
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 Ian Dixon |
 The Dixon Family |
