A terminally ill mother – who kept her cancer diagnosis a secret from her toddler – has shocked doctors after her tumour was reduced by 75 per cent following alternative treatment in Mexico.
Back in October 2018, Kate Malvenan’s world came crashing down after doctors broke the horrific news that the non-smoker had just six to 24 months to live following a shock lung cancer diagnosis.
The 40-year-old, who is originally from Kessingland, Suffolk, but now resides on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, said she has always taken great pride in maintaining her good health by eating nutritious foods and regularly working out at the gym – while also being a strict non-smoker.
Kate Malvenan, 40, was told she just had months left to live after she was given a shock lung cancer diagnosis last October
So when Ms Malvenan began feeling ‘a little run down’ a few months before her cancer diagnosis, she simply put it down to a new intense fitness regime that she had been testing out.
Then in April last year, the single mother-of-one started coughing up blood, which she claims her doctor misdiagnosed as bronchitis.
But after she began experiencing chest pains in September, she was sent for a series of scans which revealed a massive tumour growing on her lungs.
Ms Malvenan refused to accept her doctor’s diagnosis and when she heard of a clinic in Mexico which offered alternative therapies she remortgaged her house to pay for it
Before: Ms Malvenan started coughing up blood and was given an x-ray which confirmed she had a massive tumour
After: Once Ms Malvenan had spent three weeks at the Hope4Cancer treatment centre in Mexico doctors were shocked that her tumour had shrunk by 75 per cent
Ms Malvenan’s worst fears were confirmed a few days later on October 3, 2018, when her doctor broke the horrific news that the deadly cancer had spread.
The mum was left reeling after three different specialists told her that she would be dead in six to 24 months – but as the sole carer for her three-year-old daughter Annabelle, the determined mum knew she had to do whatever was necessary to stay alive.
After a friend told her about an alternative cancer treatment centre called ‘Hope4Cancer’ in Cancun, Mexico, she remortgaged her home and dug into her life savings in order to afford the £35,000 three-week program.
And following her first treatment in late October, Ms Malvenan was amazed after scans revealed that the tumour on her lung had shrunk by 75 per cent – going from the size of an apple to the size of a grape – while there is now zero traces of cancer in her lymph nodes and limited cancer in her liver.
Even though Ms Malvenan had to leave her daughter, Annabelle, behind when she went to Mexico for her treatment, she didn’t tell her the real reason in order to protect her
Following her first treatment in late October, Ms Malvenan was amazed after scans revealed that the tumour on her lung had shrunk by 75 per cent – going from the size of an apple to the size of a grape – while there is now zero traces of cancer in her lymph nodes and limited cancer in her liver
Last year’s diagnosis came as more of a shock because Ms Malvenan has always taken great pride in maintaining her good health by eating nutritious foods and regularly working out at the gym – while also being a strict non-smoker.
Ms Malvenan, who owns her own homeware store, said: ‘A few months into 2018, I began feeling rundown. My hips, my lower back, my spine and my shoulders were all sore.
‘I’d been training hard on a new fitness regime, so I put it down to that. But we now know these were the cancerous spots.
‘I coughed up blood twice, but my doctor said it was bronchitis. It was only when I started having chest pains that they decided to do an x-ray.
‘The GP called me after hours and said it looked like cancer but did not know the extent of it and I was asked to go to the hospital the following day.
‘Realising there was something wrong, my parents decided to fly in from the UK to be with me.
Ms Malvenan said she made the decision to keep her cancer diagnosis a secret from her daughter, as she felt it was better to protect her from the dark and sad realities of cancer
The clinic in Mexico sees its patients undergo treatments for seven hours a day, six days a week
Treatments at the centre in Mexico include coffee enemas, saunas, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, full body hypothermia and infrared lamp therapy
‘I was told there was nothing I could do to save my life and that I only had six to 24 months at the very maximum to live.
‘That’s when my world stopped spinning. I couldn’t understand how I could have a terminal illness when I felt healthy.
‘My cancer had spread to my liver, lymph system, hips, spine, ribs and shoulders.
‘When you’re told by all the specialists that you’re going to die you believe it.
‘I was put on a target therapy drug called Alectinib, but was told it would only give me a two year life expectancy and I needed to live much longer than that.
‘Then a friend told me about a cancer clinic in Mexico and all the incredible results he had seen there.
‘I had no other choice. I decided I was going to do it. Two weeks later I was in Mexico.’
After the diagnosis, Ms Malvenan said: ‘My world stopped spinning. I couldn’t understand how I could have a terminal illness when I felt healthy.
She added: ‘When you’re told by all the specialists that you’re going to die you believe it’
Ms Malvenan underwent intense treatment for seven hours a day, six days a week at the clinic in Mexico.
Treatments focused on heat, light and laser therapies – including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, full body hypothermia, infrared lamp therapy, pulsed electro-magnetic field therapy, coffee enemas, saunas and vitamin C IV therapy.
She was also fed a strict plant-based organic diet while receiving treatment and continues to follow this eating plan to this day.
After returning home from her first stint in Mexico in November, Ms Malvenan underwent follow up scans at her local hospital in Australia – and claims doctors were shocked at her remarkable results, which revealed her tumour had reduced by 75 per cent with zero traces of cancer in her lymph nodes.
With such an incredible outcome, she decided to dig into her life savings again and return to Mexico in February for another round of intensive treatment.
Ms Malvenan was also fed a strict plant-based organic diet while receiving treatment and continues to follow this eating plan to this day
She wants to continue getting treatment and believes that with continued treatment her cancel will be completely erased
Ms Malvenan said: ‘I was told by one of my doctors to go home, drink wine and spend time with my daughter before I died.
‘There was no chance of staying alive. But now there is hope.
‘The doctors here have said my results are remarkable and that I’m breaking all the rules.
‘I’m very positive that with continued treatment my cancer will be 100 per cent eradicated.’
She said she made the decision to keep her cancer diagnosis a secret from her daughter, as she felt it was better to protect her from the dark and sad realities of cancer.
She said: ‘Annabelle has no idea about my cancer. She is too little and didn’t need to know that I could die.
‘I told her I was going on a long and boring trip to Bali for work, tears were flooding out of my eyes when I had to leave her. I didn’t know what I was going into and whether I’d come back alive.
‘Without her I wouldn’t have the motivation or strength to fight.’
Ms Malvenan has declined to have a fundraising page set up for her but has asked kind donors to support her through her homeware store, Maison & Maison.