Woman with cancer who was ‘sent home to die’ in agony has made a miraculous recovery in just six weeks
Cancer left Claire Cunningham, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, unable to walk, talk or even eat – and she was effectively sent home to die
A WOMAN with cancer who was “sent home to die” has made an amazing recovery.
Claire Cunningham, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, stared death in the face and pleaded for her suffering to be brought to an end.
Cancer left brave Claire unable to walk, talk or even eat – and she was effectively sent home to die.
Just six-weeks ago, Claire was seemingly edging closer and closer to death’s door, but incredibly she has now made a miraculous recovery.
Today, Claire is back on her feet and pain free - a far cry from the six stone woman who believed her time was up.
Close friends and employees Adam Sayers and Jayne Thomson, who moved in with Claire to care for her, refused to give up hope.
Claire talked of having cutting-edge treatment at Hallwang, in Germany, but her consultant had warned the treatment would be no match for her aggressive illness
But Jayne, 49, and Adam, 29, persuaded the clinic to treat her and set up a page to help fund an air ambulance.
Claire said: “The doctors in Britain had written me off. They said even if immunotherapy did work, I couldn’t get on a trial because I was too ill.
“Doctors agreed I had reached the end of the line, that nothing could be done.
“I started researching the Hallwang because I didn’t want to give up and I won’t give up.
“If I gave up I might as well have put a gun to my head the day I was diagnosed as terminal.
“I’d heard about a friend’s cousin treated at the Hallwang and I was researching it when I was taken into hospital.
“After the seizures I remember very little until I woke up in the clinic in Germany.
“When I realised my friends had arranged the whole thing and well-wishers had donated I was overwhelmed.
“Within 10 days I was back walking around on a frame. I couldn’t believe it – I still can’t.”
Immunotherapy, which has been hailed as the cancer medicine of the future, encourages the immune system to fight the disease.
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But the NHS has yet to embrace it.
An article on its Choices website states: “the results, while promising, are unfortunately not a cure” and goes on to label claims that immunotherapy could be the future of cancer treatment “over-hyped”.
In Britain, clinical trials are now taking place with blood cancer patients and doctors researching genetically engineered viruses which could kill rogue cells and activate the immune system.
Meanwhile, US studies have found immunotherapy to have been hugely effective against kidney, bladder and head and neck cancers.
However, with no availability on the NHS, British cancer sufferers must fund the treatment themselves if they want to try it.
Jayne said: “Claire was so sick I wondered if we’d even make it to Germany.
“She was at death’s door. But we made a pact that we would celebrate our 50th birthdays together next year and I wasn’t going to give up on that.”
Claire has fought breast cancer twice before, but she was left “in total shock” when it returned.
Heartbreakingly, she then had to tell her 78-year-old widowed dad Joseph that this time it was terminal.
Desperately-ill Claire was eventually taken to Hallwang on November 22 last year.
She said: “I was hardly conscious. I must have thought I was going on holiday because I was apparently asking for bikinis and high-heeled boots to go in the case.
“Jayne sat with me that first night at the clinic in case I passed away.”
But the miracle drugs kicked in and within two weeks of starting vitamin infusions and immunotherapy vaccines Claire was pain-free and able to walk again, with the help of a frame.
Now, she is able to walk short distances, is eating and has put on weight.
Claire even says that lumps around her body have now disappeared.
Amazingly, tests indicate the cancer in her spine has disappeared completely.
But the life-saving treatment has cost around £110,000 and Claire has had to take every penny from her company to pay for it.
She could not afford to fly back to the UK and Adam had to drive her home in a 1970s VW campervan.
Claire is now hoping strangers will help fund her next round of treatment – which is due to start later this month.
What is Immunotherapy? (Source: cancerresearch.org)
Immunotherapy is a new class of cancer treatment that works to harness the innate powers of the immune system to fight cancer.
Because of the immune system's unique properties, these therapies may hold greater potential than current treatment approaches to fight cancer more powerfully, to offer longer-term protection against the disease, to come with fewer side effects, and to benefit more patients with more cancer types.
Some types of immunotherapy enable a stronger immune response, while others teach your immune system what cancer looks like so that your immune system can hunt down cancer cells.
Both chemotherapy and immunotherapy eliminate cancer cells, but while chemo targets tumors, immunotherapy targets the immune system and empowers your own body to destroy tumors.
Immunotherapy is the ray of hope for many cancer sufferers – if they can afford it -but Claire warns that the treatment is not a “soft option”.
She adds: “It involves being drip fed with vitamins and immune-boosting remedies before huge injections of vaccine into your stomach.
“I think part of the reason my body was so responsive is because I had already changed my life after having breast cancer.
“I ate clean, walked 30 miles a week and basically lived a toxin-free existence.”
Claire had treatment alongside West Yorkshire mum Sally Major, who faces selling her home to pay a £300,000 therapy bill. UK medics failed to spot her bowel cancer 12 times.
Claire says that she feels angry that she was not offered trial on the NHS.
She added: “It’s horrendous a doctor can tell you there is no treatment and you’re literally sent home to die.
“I met so many others at the clinic who were all told the same thing and all of them are now in recovery.
“But there is medical help – you just need to pay for it. I’ve put every penny into my care and now I have to ask strangers to help me go back to Germany.
“It should be available on the NHS... everyone deserves a chance to live.”
To contribute to Claire's GoFundMe campaign, visit: