Breathe

Sophie Trew at conference

This blog is just a quick plug for the work of Sophie Trew. At the recent Yes to Life conference (see last two blogs and more coming) we had a session from Sophie before starting the afternoon sessions. I can only say if you've not tried breathe work then do give it a go - the power of the breath is extraordinary.

See Sophie's instagram for tasters: https://www.instagram.com/sophietrewbreath/

Sophie does a session with Yes to Life once a month: https://yestolife.org.uk/breath-relax-and-reset/

See Sophie's website with some great surviving cancer info: https://www.sophietrew.com/

See my previous blog on breathe: https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2023/01/breath-and-cancer.html

See my film of Sophie's Trew Fields Festival 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJXShaDMMko

And 2018 Festival: https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-cancer-festival.html

Support Yes to Life's Camino walkers

The team at recent conference Sept 2025

Tomorrow my former colleagues who are leading Yes to Life are off on a 230km walk along the Camino de Invierno to Santiago de Compostela (a destination for pilgrims). There is still time to support them and ensure Yes to Life continues it's vital work.

Support here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/holdmywalkingstickchallenge

Each member of the team brings their own reason for walking. Robin Daly MBE, who founded Yes to Life after losing his daughter Bryony to cancer, sees the Camino as a tribute to two decades of life-changing support for those facing cancer. CEO Miquel León-Canete walks to mark a bold new chapter in Yes to Life’s mission, while Sue de Cesare, former Executive Director, returns to the charity for this incredible challenge with deep gratitude for the community built over the years. Sara Spinks, coordinator of Wigwam cancer support groups, will walk for all those who’ve ever sat in a Wigwam Group seeking hope and understanding.

“This Camino marks more than a milestone—it’s a tribute to everyone who’s walked with us over the last 20 years. As we reach Santiago, we carry the stories, the courage, and the hope of the many lives we’ve touched.” Robin Daly MBE – Founder, Yes to Life

“This is about connection—between people, land, and purpose. The Camino is humbling. It’s the perfect way to honour our past while walking boldly into the future of integrative cancer support.” Miquel León-Canete – CEO, Yes to Life

“I joined this walk because Yes to Life has always been a journey of transformation—now we literally walk that path. Every step is a thank you to those who believed in this mission from the start.” Sue de Cesare – Former Executive Director, Yes to Life

“For me, the Camino represents the Wigwam spirit—togetherness, strength, and mutual support. I’ll be walking for every person who’s ever sat in a Wigwam group seeking light and support.” Sara Spinks – Wigwam Coordinator

Read Sara's blog about why she is doing this 'pilgrimage': https://yestolife.org.uk/our-camino-a-pilgrimage-of-purpose-hope-love-and-trust/

Support here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/holdmywalkingstickchallenge

The best guide in cancer care?

Panel of doctors with Mark Taylor Sept 2025 conference 

This is so exciting - a new website portal, ‘Hacking Cancer 0.1’, that gives us all the info about research into integrative cancer care. Here’s how it is described: "This is more than just a book—it is the beginning of a movement to empower patients in making informed decisions about one of humanity's oldest and most daunting challenges. With medical knowledge doubling every three months, driven by advanced diagnostics, increased understanding of the immune system's role in cancer, a huge growth of new drugs coming to market, personalization of medicine to the tumor specifics and the increasing use of AI, we are on the brink of a potential for revolutionary changes in our understanding and treatment of cancer.”

Last Saturday I was fortunate to join the annual conference in London of the charity Yes to Life where there was a talk from Mark Taylor, Founder of Patient Led Oncology Group and the lead behind the guide. This year the title of the conference was: "What’s Really Working? Integrative strategies that are transforming health and wellbeing.” The conference was a wonderful mix of new connections, reconnecting with folks I’ve met previously, meeting a whole host of professionals and some great inspiring talks - and one of the talks introduced this guide - and wow, wow, wow do we need this.

https://conference.yestolife.org.uk/

The team behind the guide monitor publications and the guide is updated twice a week with as many as ten papers each week - there is also an option (for a fee) of counsel/support to be guided through the info. It is not written by medical professionals but rather mathematicians and business people by background, who became a patient and caregiver. They note: "This book is written more like an algorithm or a business strategy document than your normal cancer book. Complex problems need complex solutions, and the structure and content is laid out in a peculiar but deeply thought through way”. 

As the slides of Mark Taylor's talk here show in the UK we have a limited number of treatments - looking overseas we see many other treatment possibilities. However there is still lots we can do even if we can’t afford to travel and find those treatments overseas.

I welcome that this team are trying to encourage those of us with cancer to look at whether the treatment options have been studied with humans (and perhaps with animals where useful) - stuff just tested in Petri dishes doesn’t really hack it. 

There are some great examples of where research has been done and shown hugely positive results but very little is being done to encourage use - for one example see the slide below with Pubmed links on taking an oral bicarbonate showing significant impacts.

Mark talked about how too often we are encouraged by ’survivorship bias’  to try something like Fenben - this is a common name for fenbendazole, a medication used to treat various gastrointestinal parasites in animals, such as dogs and cats. It is having a real moment online with lots of suggestions re its use with cancer - yet as the guide shows there is not a single case report of someone curing cancer with Fenben. Joe Tippens who did lots to launch Fenben and cancer did it with immunotherapy - there is no research re Fenben alone yet - however it is being tested in combination with other drugs.

There is however lots of new exciting developments especially in immunology but also the benefits of mind, body and spirit work. Indeed, research is starting to show how this deep inner work can activate the body's innate healing and lead to improved outcomes, including durable remissions. 

It was interesting to hear that Mark is suspicious of diets sorting out cancer. Many of us have put a lot of faith in getting healthy diets right - however he says they can help but often their impact is over estimated. Of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t eat a healthy diet! I am looking forward to reading more on that in the guide.

The recordings of the conference will be for sale in a couple of weeks or so from Yes to Life - in my view definitely worth looking at! If you can’t wait that long for Mark then here is a link to him being interviewed re the new guide by the Cancer Patient Lab: https://youtu.be/RaidIt4Zs_0

See the guide at: https://www.hackingcancer.health/products/hacking-cancer-0-1

Speedier scans diagnose prostate cancer faster

Great to see this in Positive News yesterday:

Millions of men could benefit from faster scans to diagnose prostate cancer, scientists said this week. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and is typically diagnosed using a three-part MRI scan that involves injecting dye into patients. This is both costly and time consuming, and as a result only 62% of men in England and Wales who require a prostate MRI get one.

But that could be about to change after researchers at England’s University College London and the University of Birmingham found that a two-part MRI scan without dye was just as accurate at diagnosing the disease – and took a fraction of the time. 

Dr Matthew Hobbs, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, described the research as “a hugely important step”. 

A second trial of the two-part scanning technique is currently underway in the UK. “The results of the two trials together should provide the complete evidence package we need to change practice across the country,” said Hobbs. 

A look at hydrogen

Some 6 years ago I met Jan Beute and he was very persuasive about how useful hydrogen can be in treatment of cancer. See my post then: https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2019/01/meeting-jan-beute-hydrogen-auto.html

Chris Woollams has just done a useful post on CancerActive about hydrogen. He writes: "Molecular hydrogen (H2) is a promising addition in cancer treatment, having the capability to induce anti-proliferative, anti-oxidative, pro-apoptotic and anti-tumoural effects; it also reduces the side-effects of conventional cancer treatment."

See article at: https://www.canceractive.com/article/hydrogen-as%20a%20cancer%20treatment

Six years ago I purshased a low cost prototype hydrogen machine that allowed me to inhale hydrogen and make hydrogen water. Sadly this prototype had a small flaw and so I got my money back. There are now many machines on the market although sadly not at the price I purchased for inhalation. There are however many reasonably priced bottles that produce hydrogen water.

Chris writes: "Drinking Hydrogen water does not find hydrogen detected in the blood stream, whereas inhaling it results in it remaining in the blood stream for over 2 hours. 100 times more hydrogen can be absorbed by inhalation." 

So are the water bottles worth it? Well I think there is a case for them to support health and I have now been using a bottle for the last five months. At the bottom of this blog there are some of the studies showing benefits but it does seem inhalation is the way to go if you can afford!

How did I decide which one? Well Abbey Mitchell from the Facebook Healing Cancer Study Support has done the research and I trust her. The Hydrogen Health Water Bottle is designed (in Australia) and will infuse your water with a very high amount of molecular hydrogen - it is portable and rechargeable.

How much each day is considered therapeutic? These leading-edge 550ml bottles, which creates much smaller hydrogen bubbles, to produce a super high 5.5 mg/L, a concentration above and beyond the average 550ml bottle's 1.6mg/L.

How to reach the dose that researchers are currently calling the therapeutic dose range? 1.5-2 L, of 1.6 mg/L concentration per day is considered therapeutic. This bottle provides a much higher concentration of 5.5 mg/L, so you only need to drink between 440 mL to 580 mL each day of the HRW it produces rather than 1-2L.

Where to buy? Here's the link to the bottle that I got and has sadly recently gone up in price - however I think Abbey's affiliate code still works for 20% off (MHC20) and also supports her work: https://www.hydrogenhealth.net.au/products/hydrogen-health-water-bottle

Abbey also writes in her Facebook pages about Hydrogen inhalation and suggests that if you are buying a machine to not consider anything less than 1000ml/min flow of Hydrogen. However you are talking about minimum of £1800 for a decent machine. I'm not in a position to consider that at the moment. 

You can see conversation threads about Hydrogen on Abbeys super-useful Facebook pages - including choosing a hydrogen machine at: https://myhealingcommunity.com/active-conversation-threads-a-z/

Here's some of the research Abbey looked at: 

Study: "Effects of drinking hydrogen-rich water on the quality of life of patients treated with radiotherapy for liver tumours"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3231938/

Hydrogen-rich water may alleviate chemo-induced neuropathy by affecting the diversity and structure of the gut microbiota, and then the LPS-TLR4 pathway, which provides a direction for further research.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7956896/

Decreased chemotherapy-induced liver injuries in colorectal cancer patients: Study: "Hydrogen-rich water exerts antitumor effects comparable to 5fluorouracil"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790422/

Improved mood, anxiety, and autonomic nerve function in daily life:mStudy: "Hydrogen therapy: An emerging therapeutic strategy in cancer treatment"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5806445/

Reduced cholesterol levels and improved metabolic syndrome markers: Study: "Health Effects of Electrolyzed Hydrogen Water for the Metabolic Syndrome and PreMetabolic Syndrome: A 3-Month Randomized Controlled Trial and Subsequent Analyses"
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/13/2/145

Alleviated abdominal pain in inflammatory bowel disease: Study: "Efficacy and safety of molecular hydrogen in the management of chronic inflammatory bowel disease: A pilot study"
URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v28/i28/3757.htm

Update 1.10.25: From the Yes to Life conference here is Patricia Peat's slide from her talk that mentioned hydrogen benefits (recordings of talk available in a couple of weeks from Yes to Life):

Chris Wark interview with Julie Mason

Some years ago now I worked alongside Julie Mason - she was a true inspiration in how she took a grasp of her healing journey. You can hear her story in this new interview with Chris Wark.

It was back in December 2016 that Julie was diagnosed with stage 3c endometrial cancer, a rare, high-grade tumor. Doctors told her there was no cure and offered palliative chemotherapy and radiation. She was sent home to prepare for hospice care. Julie had other plans. 

For a key part of her healing she credits Chris Warks' Square One Cancer Coaching Program. As Chris Wark writes: "Today (August 2025), Julie is over eight years cancer-free. She’s a cancer coach, speaker, and the founder of Cancer Soothe, where she helps others navigate cancer with tools to calm the mind and strengthen the body. She is a living reminder that cancer can be healed if given the proper nutrients and care".

Chris who healed himself many years ago now set up Chris Beat Cancer which is one of the front runners in integrative cancer care in the States - his podcast is now in the top 0.5% of podcasts worldwide. His book was voted in Yes to Life's best books for those to read about cancer in 2021. I also had the pleasure of a brief conversation with him in one of the Yes to Life Forums we set up - see that here: https://yestolife.org.uk/yestolife_forum/healing-cancer-holistically/ I personally have found many of Chris' interviews hugely useful - but as always do your own research and talk to your medical team.

Anyhow here are the topics in the interview with Julie:

-Julie's stage 3 endometrial cancer diagnosis
-Why me?
-What inspired me to start Chris Beat Cancer 
-You're not selfish, you're prioritizing
-Why creating a new healthy routine is key
-You have the power to change your whole life
-20 Questions for your oncologist
-Julie's purpose after cancer
-Don't be a passenger on the treatment train
-How to be prevention-minded
-Healing happens at home 
-The importance of the Square One Support Group 
-The fundamentals of healing
-Imagine a future where you are alive 
-And more

Go to interview at: https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/from-hospice-to-healed-julie-masons-endometrial-cancer-journey/

Exercise is Medicine

I know I go on about exercise in this blog but it really does seem to be one of the areas that can support our health most and get some of the best outcomes. This podcast from the charity Yes to Life is a great overview of some of the latest research plus a look at best practice.

"Prof Rob Newton is a world leader in pioneering Exercise Oncology, destroying previous misconceptions about the need for rest in the face of physically challenging treatments like radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or when faced with common symptoms such as fatigue, low mood or the inability to sleep, with rigorous trial data demonstrating significant improvements in quality of life and substantial cost savings. More recently, the science is demonstrating that exercise really is great medicine for cancer, worthy of equal consideration alongside the best treatments that modern medicine has offer as a means of extending lives". 

Go to : https://yestolife.org.uk/podcast_episode/episode-2-17-exercise-is-medicine/