Bay Harbour: March 17, 2021

Wednesday March 17 2021 Bay Harbour News
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 13
Young mother’s determined
cancer message: ‘It is not my time’
Anne Bay has come
through breast
cancer and has now
confronted brain
tumours. She tells
her story to reporter
Samantha Mythen
“I ALWAYS said I was going to
see my daughter get married,
even if they had to chop the
cancer out of me, bit by bit and
I just had enough to survive and
they had to roll me out with just
my head, I would see her get
married, no matter what.”
These are the determined
words of Anne Bay who has been
battling incurable cancer for five
years.
A year ago she found out her
stage three breast cancer had
metastasised to her brain and she
was told she had just six months
to live.
Almost 12 months later, Anne
received her big miracle. Her
doctors told her all the cancer
was gone.
It took four doctors before
Anne believed them.
“I feel incredibly blessed and
incredibly grateful for all the
support and love I have received.
It has probably been what has
healed me,” she said.
Doctors say they expect the
cancer will return. But the mother
of three young children is 100
per cent committed to “healing”.
“If I have to deal with cancer
again, I will. But I’d prefer not,”
she said.
“I do not see myself as a sick
person, I see myself as a very well
person. I do believe that I will
fully heal. It is not my time.”
After being told her cancer
had gone Paisley, her six-year-old
daughter shouted out: “My mum
is brain cancer-free! Yay!” all day.
Paisley, was 13-months-old
when Anne first found the lump
in her right breast. Anne thought
it was normal as she was breastfeeding
and assumed her ducts
were blocked.
However, the lump did not go
away, it grew to 8cm.
On March 13, 2016, then 29,
Anne was first diagnosed with
breast cancer. She said she was
too young and too healthy for
cancer.
Anne immediately started to
work on healing herself. Pairing
diet changes with detoxes and
supplements, infrared saunas
and cannabis oil. Anne hoped to
shrink the growth of her cancer.
Still in the middle of
breastfeeding, Anne had a
month to wean Paisley before
she went through a mastectomy
in May that year. This removed
the lump as well as several lymph
nodes as the cancer had begun to
spread.
“They wanted me to do
chemotherapy straight away
afterwards but I didn’t feel
right about it. I asked for the
percentages and the survival was
not favourable.
“I thought, if that is all you’ve
got to offer me, then I’ve got to
figure out a way to survive this
cancer, my daughter is only 13
months,” Anne said.
Anne and her family have been
putting remarkable amounts of
effort into researching treatment
options that can help heal her.
She completed a Research Genetic
Cancer test which assesses
what types of cancer treatment
will be most effective for that
specific person and their specific
cancer.
Anne also went to the Hoxsey
Biomedical Centre in Mexico
three times, a clinic which has
been treating patients with cancer
for more than 100 years.
Ben, her husband, said: “The
medical system here focuses on
the treatments we have available
yet there are so many other legit
options out there. But because
they are outside the realm of
TREATMENT: Bay receiving
her first infusions of
Herceptin in 2018.
what oncologists can offer,
there’s a lack of research and
resources available to help you
understand it all.”
Anne said: “I knew with the
medical system and your health,
you had to take control of it
yourself. You cannot just leave it
up to doctors or other people to
be in charge of your health. It has
to be you, doing the research and
figuring out what you need.”
‘I am too healthy, I am too
well, my spirit is too strong
and alive to die. I am too
committed to healing.’
- Anne Bay
Eighteen months from her first
diagnosis, Anne found out her
cancer had metastasised and she
had seven new localised tumours
in her hip and pelvis, ranging in
size from 5mm to 15mm.
She was told her cancer was
incurable.
After this, at the beginning
of 2018, she decided to begin
chemotherapy and Anne was
petrified.
Anne continued with her
detoxing, organic diet, infrared,
intravenous vitamin C treatments
alongside chemotherapy
and radiotherapy.
“I really work on intuition and
what my body needs. I’ve become
very in tune with myself.”
The pain from treatments has
been immense. Anne has experienced
weeks of nausea, diarrhoea
with bleeding haemorrhoids, flu
symptoms and an aching body.
Her skin became raw and itchy,
and her mouth was often filled
with ulcers. She lost her hair.
“The treatment for cancer is so
hard on your body. It is a balance
between killing the cancer and
yourself,” she said.
After seven weeks of chemo, at
the end of 2018, Anne was told
by doctors there was no cancer
they could see.
Three and a half weeks after
her last chemo session, Anne
received her second miracle.
She found out she was pregnant.
With twins!
The couple had to decide
whether to go ahead with the
pregnancy, Anne’s body still immensely
weak from chemotherapy.
It was already extraordinary
she was pregnant. Diagnosed
with endometriosis as a teenager,
she was told she would need to
have children by 21. Yet along
came her three children.
They had decided to go ahead
with the pregnancy and Ralphie
and Knoxie were born.
Anne had done everything she
could to heal from her cancer.
She had moved on with her life
and was busy with motherhood.
Ben was in his final year of a
double degree at university.
But then she started experiencing
headaches and visual
disturbances.
After just finishing breast
feeding, in March 2020, Anne
was diganosed with brain cancer,
three tumours growing in her
brain which had metastasised
from her original breast cancer.
“I turned around to my husband
when I heard the news and
said: ‘No. I’ve got brain cancer!
No’ I felt so shocked but I was
not surprised.”
In May, she had invasive brain
surgery to remove the tumours,
and started radiotherapy.
“After being told I had brain
COURAGEOUS:
Anne Bay with
husband Ben
and children
Paisley (middle)
and twins
Ralphie (left)
and Knoxie.
PHOTO: GEOFF
SLOAN
cancer, for the next
two weeks I watched copious
amounts of people healing from
crazy things and I thought, if
they can do it, I can heal too.
“I’ve indoctrinated myself that
healing is easy and very doable.
The power of the mind is incredible.”
But more cancer spread
through the protective membrane
in her brain.
“One night after an MRI, I lost
my cognitive ability. I couldn’t
read or write, I didn’t even know
Knoxie’s name. I felt so scared,”
she said.
They went straight to the
emergency department and that
was when they got the devastating
prognosis.
The oncologist told her she had
six months to live. The cancer
was spreading too quickly.
“I thought no, I am too
healthy, I am too well, my spirit
is too strong and alive to die. I
am too committed to healing.”
Anne had not even made a
will, so determined to heal, but
with this final blow, she thought
she would have to finally prepare
for her death.
“Leaving your young children
is so hard. How do you even
prepare them?” she said.
Anne would often tell Paisley:
“We never know when people
will die. People can die suddenly
and that’s why we just value and
love the people in our life while
we can.”
She said: “When I hug my
children I don’t think about
losing them as I don’t want to
pass that fear through to them, I
try and keep myself in a place of
pure love.”
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