In her quest to find a cure for skin cancer, Louise Ellis explored both conventional medicine and Chinese herbalism to overcome the illness

 

When warnings first came out about skin cancer, I remember having a nervous feeling as I mentally ticked all the boxes. Blonde hair. Tick. Fair skin with freckles. Tick. Suffered from sunburn as a child. Tick.

Not, I might add, through any parental neglect. My mum and dad put loads of suntan cream on me as a child.  But on a few occasions I did unfortunately burn, and blister. Well, who didn’t in those days. It was the sixties and seventies, and a suntan was one of the main reasons for going on holiday. People even used to lie on silver foil to maximise the number of rays hitting their skin.

In my late twenties, I noticed a freckle on my face getting a little darker than the others.  Ironically around that time I was researching a report on skin cancer for a TV health series, and so I mentioned it to the specialist I was interviewing. He told me it was a solar lentigo, also known as a sun or liver spot, which could easily be removed with cryptotherapy (freezing).  Usually they are harmless, but they do indicate an overexposure to the sun, and are taken seriously by the medical profession as a suggesting a future possibility for the development of skin cancer.

He told me that damage to the skin from the sun can remain undetected for many years, sometimes only becoming a problem ten to twenty years after the original overexposure. I do have memories of suffering from sunburn on my face as a nine year old while on holiday with my family in Hawaii. And I remember developing blisters, and some people on the beach saying that this could cause me problems later in life.

I went ahead and had the cryptotherapy, and the years passed, and all was well. Then around eight years later, I noticed the freckle creeping back.  By this time I was living in London, and a colleague suggested I went to Dr Nick Lowe, a dermatologist specialising in laser therapy.  He carried out a biopsy, which came back as benign, and then removed the freckle with a laser. Life went on as usual, until one day, a year or so later, I noticed it creeping back again. So I went back to the dermatologist, who did another biopsy, and called me one rainy December day in 2004 to tell me that the freckle had turned into a lentigo maligna melanoma. In other words, it had developed into skin cancer.

There are several different types of malignant melanoma, a form of cancer which develops from cells in the skin known as melanocytes, which give skin its colour. The type which develops from a mole is the most dangerous, with a high incidence of fatality, because a mole is embedded more deeply into the skin tissue, and cancer cells can therefore spread quickly via the blood and lymph into the rest of the body. My dermatologist explained to me that fortunately the melanoma on my skin had developed from a freckle, rather than a mole, meaning that it was confined to the very top layer of my skin, and was likely to grow very slowly. 

Last summer, Cancer Research UK warned of a dramatic rise in the figures for melanoma, with a 40 per cent increase over a decade, making it the fastest rising cancer in Britain.  In a recent report, the British Association of Dermatologists stated that every four hours someone in the UK dies of skin cancer. If detected soon enough, a skin cancer can be successfully removed with surgery.

My dermatologist booked me in to see Mr David Ross, a plastic surgeon specialising in skin cancer, who explained to me that he could remove the cancer, leaving a small and barely noticeable scar. However, at this point, after having read various books about the body’s natural ability to heal itself, I felt strongly that I could cure the cancer through diet and other therapies. Also, as a Nichiren Buddhist, I was confident that through chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo I would strengthen my wisdom and courage, enabling me to make the right decisions. 

I rushed out and bought an industrial strength juicer to make raw vegetable juices, and through a synchronistic encounter, met a Chinese doctor who had cured another patient of a similar condition with acupuncture and herbs. I felt that I was on the right path, and religiously made my herbal concoction morning and evening, and had weekly sessions of acupuncture. The essence of this treatment was to boost my immune system, to help my body kill the cancer cells. Previously I had always suffered from more than my fair share of colds and flu’s, however, after a year of this treatment, I noticed that I had hardly been ill at all, an effect which has lasted. However, I didn’t notice any change in the freckle. My family was worried about me, and I began to question the path I had chosen. 

 Around this time I saw an article in the Sunday Times written by Ginny Fraser who was given six months to live after a malignant melanoma spread to her brain and other organs. She survived through a holistic healing approach, and now offers a counselling service for people with cancer. I contacted her, and through talking to her, I realised that it needn’t be an either/or situation, and that I should use both conventional medicine and other therapies to cure the disease.  I realised that I had been closing off my options, and that I was very fortunate to live in an era when we have so many choices for tackling health problems. 

I also spoke to another acupuncturist who explained that surgery can help the body to heal, as it removes diseased tissue, a bit like a tree surgeon getting rid of a dead branch. The body isn’t under such pressure to cope with the disease and so can become stronger in fighting off any future illness. This made sense to me.

So, after thinking long and hard about my situation, I decided to go ahead with the surgery. This decision wasn't in any sense based on a feeling that the acupuncture and herbs hadn't worked, as it had obviously made my body stronger, which was proven by the fact that I wasn't catching as many colds as before. However, I realised that it would be foolish to risk waiting to see if it could help my body reverse the symptoms of the skin cancer, with the freckle becoming benign or disappearing completely. I was lucky that it was trapped in the outer layer of my skin, but if it did develop into an invasive melanoma, when cancerous cells spread to other organs, then the effects could be potentially fatal. 

So I returned to the surgeon, and agreed to have the freckle removed.  He told me that it had slightly grown by a few millimetres, and that I would need to have it cut out under general anaesthetic, with a skin graft using tissue from my neck, to replace the skin removed. I had this done over a year ago, and am pleased and relieved. I now have a small round piece of new skin about 2 cms in diameter on my cheekbone, which has settled in well, and is hardly noticeable.

I know that now my challenge is to make sure that it doesn’t come back, through maintaining a healthy lifestyle, with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and wheatgrass juice, as well as Chinese acupuncture and herbs, to maintain a strong immune system. And of course I’m careful in the sun, using a high protection sunscreen, and wearing a hat. I also have yearly checkups with my surgeon to make sure everything is OK.

I would encourage anyone who is worried about a mole on their skin to get it examined by their GP as soon as possible. There are now also special clinics offering “mole mapping”, where a doctor keeps a regular record of the moles on a patient’s skin.  It is also worth checking out any other unusual growths on the skin, as there are several non-melanoma skin cancers which are not as potentially dangerous, but it is sensible to get them treated.

When this all began, I looked forward to writing an article saying that I had cured myself of skin cancer purely through a healthy lifestyle and herbal medicine, without having to resort to surgery. However, my healing journey has taken me on a different, but equally profound and rewarding path. I feel very fortunate that I had a biopsy carried out early on, and even though I delayed a year, I had the surgery to remove my skin cancer. I  also feel fortunate that I had access to so much wonderful information about diet, lifestyle and complimentary therapies, and that I used acupuncture and herbs to strengthen my immune system.

This might sound strange, but I don’t regret the experience at all, because I have learnt so much. It has opened my eyes to the importance of really taking responsibility for our health, consciously looking after any weaknesses, and investigating all treatment options if illness does occur. It is so easy to have a knee jerk reaction, and be narrow minded about the path we choose, whether this is conventional medicine or so called complimentary therapies.