This is a true story. It was only a few days after I had received my cancer diagnosis and I was, quite naturally, in shock. We went out for a ride in the country and I chanced upon a very kind old lady who I used to regularly stop and chat with. She asked “how are you”. I couldn’t help myself, I blurted out “not good - I’ve been diagnosed with cancer”! She just carried on smiling serenely, nodded towards an old man working nearby and said “you want to talk to Ted” (not his real name). It was a bright sunny day and ‘Ted’ (slim, tanned and brown as a nut) was obviously in his late 70’s but he was standing in her garden, stripped to the waist and digging vigorously with a huge spade. He seemed to have the energy of a man years younger. “Oh aye” said Ted casually. “I had cancer years ago. I had all the treatment of course, an operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Then they found it in my colon” he said. “So they removed some of my colon and I’ve got a colostomy bag now”. But he hadn’t finished his story yet.“Then they found it in my lungs” he continued nonchalantly “and I had to have part of my right lung removed”. I stared at him open-mouthed. “Then they found it in my liver and so they had to take a bit of that away too”. I was reeling by now. “But I’m still here” he said cheerfully, and he carried on digging. I just stared at him, amazed. “It’s the carrot juice” the old lady whispered. “Get a juicer and drink carrot juice every day”. “Oh aye, carrot juice, I swear by it” said Ted. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Let’s be straight about this - I’m not suggesting to anybody that carrots are the vegetable equivalent of Auntie Maggie’s Home Made Remedy because that would be plain daft, although funnily enough I did see a heading in a national newspaper a few weeks later that stated "Carrot Juice - The Cure For Cancer? (note the question mark). However I do make sure that I eat a wide variety of healthy fruit and vegetables (including carrots of course, because I like to hedge my bets and they can’t do me any harm unless I eat so many that I turn orange!) The moral of this story is, I suppose, that even when things look really black there can still be hope. So far as I know ‘Ted’ is still alive and kicking!
I love your posts Flora! x
i’m pleased to hear that too Fiesty. Exemplary xx
Hi again Feisty, sent you a long pm message today. Had a reply notice from the Forum, but when I tapped onto it, it wouldn’t come up, just came up with a blank page!! You ok??
Delly xxx