Ahead of the initial meeting I was asked to attend the radiology unit the very next day for a full body CT scan, which would then be available to Dr Nicholson. This was undertaken on Friday 4 August.

On Monday 7 August I had a second meeting with Dr Burt, who had the CT scan results. Kim was with me. The scan confirmed the original MRI data and being a full body scan, revealed that in addition to the previous MRI revelations and identification of disease, additionally, I had bone cancer in some of my ribs, more extensively in my spine and a couple of other areas.

Kim and I met Dr Helen Nicholson on Tuesday 8 August. She had all the scan results. There was no doubt I had stage 4 bone cancer. The only thing to confirm was whether the primary cancer was in my prostate. Dr Nicholson, whilst Kim left the room, carried out a digital examination of my prostate and confirmed an area, around 25%, was hard, which indicated cancer. Interestingly, Dr Nicholson could see from a PSA test, I was only at level 13. She had expected this to be much higher, but it’s not unusual to be that low in some cases. It was still higher than it should be. She mentioned she had seen some patients with confirmed prostate cancer with a PSA score of 3 and had also seen them in the thousands.

The next step was to carry out a biopsy of the prostate. This would determine the aggressiveness of the cancer, which would in turn determine the relevant treatment journey I would inevitably be on going forward.

I couldn’t believe it when Dr Nicholson said she had an operating theatre space the following day. She does all her surgical work on Wednesdays. She was putting me on the list for the first operation! Can you imagine that on the NHS, even private care in the UK? Me neither!

Let me be clear, I do not have private medical insurance. Dr Nicholson has a limited number of opportunities to include non private patients in her schedule, which is what she chose to do. The health system here in Australia is known as Medicare. It’s the equivalent of the NHS, but if you go private Medicare cover costs up to a point, when the patient then has to contribute. When you read on, bear in mind my only outlay has been a little over $300 for everything that has been done for me.

I had to be at Shoalhaven Private Hospital at 11am the following day, 9 August. The prostate biopsy, undertaken through the perineum, was done under a general anaesthetic. It takes 10/15 minutes and removes tissue from all parts of the prostate, which is only the size of a walnut. I came round from the procedure without any problems, and it wasn’t long before Kim and I set off home. We were back by 15.30.

The collected tissue would be sent to a pathology lab for analysis. In the interim I was to have another scan, which was arranged for Tuesday 15 August. This would be a PET-CT scan because the MRI was very localised to the area of the pain in my hip. To save you looking this up on Google, a Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography scan. Before the PET-CT scan, you get an injection of a small amount of a radioactive sugar called fluorodeoxyglucose-18. This substance is sometimes called FGD-18, radioactive glucose, or a tracer. The cells in your body absorb sugar. Areas that use more energy pick up more of the sugar. Cancer cells tend to use more energy than healthy cells. The PET scan shows where the radioactive tracer is in your body.

At Dr Nicholson’s request, the results of the biopsy and the PET-CT scan were sent to Dr Laurence Kasherman, a medical oncologist as well as to herself for review.

However, in the interim, Kim had started researching prostate and bone cancer. As I mentioned earlier, there is so much value in sharing information – you will learn so much from the experiences of others. It’s so important.

Kim has a good friend and former work colleague, Sue McDonnell. I had met Sue when she came to stay with us some months earlier. Kim had shared the bad news with Sue. Sue knew of a friend of hers Justyna Bilski, who had a friend, Oxana Chekoeva, who had been diagnosed with cancer some 18 months earlier and despite predictions, had defeated it – she was clear. Justyna spoke to Oxana to discuss her regime and it became very clear to Kim and I that we needed a more holistic approach to my treatment – the medical route alone wasn’t going to be the answer for me, or indeed perhaps for any cancer patient. Justyna produced a prostate cancer map and program of core off label drugs and supplements. The map she produced was identical to one produced by Jane McLelland in her book “how to Starve Cancer”. Jane beat cervical, lung, and blood cancers using the missing link to defeat cancer: starving it. I immediately ordered the book.

According to doctors and cancer statistics, Jane should have lived only about 12 weeks after receiving her diagnosis of stage IV cancer (the same stage as mine). But she refused to go down without a fight. Taking matters into her own hands, she dug through medical journals, poring over long-forgotten research and overlooked evidence, looking for clues to overcoming her cancer.

Along the way, she discovered a missing link to defeating cancer: starving it. Based on this concept, she developed her own cancer-starving cocktail—utilizing diet, supplements, and off-label drugs—that proved to be effective alongside the traditional approaches of chemo and radiotherapy.

Now, 18 years later, after suffering from cervical cancer, secondary lung cancer, and treatment-related myelodysplasia, she is alive, well, and cancer-free. And she has made it her life’s mission to help other cancer patients achieve the same results.

Kim and I thought this was just what we needed ahead of the meeting with the medical oncologist, and we prepared materials to enable us to discuss an holistic approach to my treatment. There was sufficient evidence to suggest that modern drugs alone may not be the only way to achieve a successful outcome.