I’m Auma, the evil troll, Big Pharma employee and government spy who also posts on Candice’s Facebook.
I also happen to be a papillary thyroid cancer survivor (stage I, definitely not terminal) and obviously was quite interested in Candice’s claim about how she cured herself “naturally”. In the past days I have tried to piece together the sequence of her treatment and to understand where all those ridiculous claims come from, what diagnosis she was given and where that could have come from. I have to warn you that this will be a long post, so you may want to grab a coffee (to be used in the traditional way). Also a note – I am not a native English speaker, so excuse me if there are some weird turns of phrases or grammar issues.
The very first information that came to my attention was published in Daily Mail and some other newspapers:
Based on these articles and her own writing on Facebook, there are several impossible or misleading claims about her diagnosis and “natural cure”.
- Having cancer spread to liver. After those pesky cancer surviving trolls started asking her questions on Facebook, she admitted liver tumors referenced in Daily Mail were benign.
- Being stage IV. A few days back she claimed on FB that she had never called herself stage IV. How did the journalists get the idea of stage IV (in one article – grade IV) cancer then? Also, papillary thyroid cancer in people younger than 45 can only be stage I or II and 5 year survival is almost 100%.
- Mark Simon being an oncologist instead of a quack nutritionist without a medical degree. This she also later admitted on FB and Daily Mail actually made a correction.
- Rejecting chemo – in different sources Candice mentions having rejected radioactive therapy or chemotherapy. This sounds strange, because chemotherapy usually is not the first line of treatment for papillary thyroid cancer, but she makes it sound like she was certainly offered to do chemo and absolutely rejected it.
- The biggest claim of them all is her terminal diagnosis and being given 5 years to live. I am not sure if she actually believes that herself or exaggerated her claims to get attention and embellish her money-earning cancer story. This is what I want to explore the most. Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor, just a patient myself who remembers the process of treatment well. If a medical specialist reads this, please add your perspective. Also, because I am not from an English speaking country, I constantly call thyroglobulin TGB, because that is how we abbreviate it. In English documentation it is usually abbreviated as Tg.
I used the following sources to piece together the timeline:
- 2011-2012 posts on her FB account which has since been made private, but screenshots are visible here here: http://realitybasedmedicine.blogspot.com/2015/04/candice-marie-fox-2011-2012-cancer.html
- 1.5 hours long interview with Candice for Statera podcast, kindly transcribed by another reader Ella on this very blog and published in series “Candice on cancer”
- Candice’s comments on HealthyCandy.eu Facebook page
- I also found 2 more Facebook groups where she posted about of her story back in 2011. At the time of writing the post these groups were available and the significant bits were fully screenshot, which is lucky, because as of April 12th they are not available anymore.
This far she has mentioned 2 instances, in which she was given a grim prognosis. Since her diagnostics and treatment happened in two different locations with different level of diagnostics, I have divided the story in 2 phases.
Before we go any further, I want to specify papillary thyroid cancer staging, because that is important in the context of her claims.
Papillary or follicular (differentiated) thyroid cancer in patients younger than 45
• Younger people have a low likelihood of dying from differentiated (papillary or follicular) thyroid cancer. The TNM stage groupings for these cancers take this fact into account. So, all people younger than 45 years with these cancers are stage I if they have no distant spread and stage II if they have distant spread.
• Stage I (any T, any N, M0): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has not spread to distant sites (M0).
• Stage II (any T, any N, M1): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has spread to distant sites (M1).
• Stage I (any T, any N, M0): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has not spread to distant sites (M0).
• Stage II (any T, any N, M1): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has spread to distant sites (M1).
So, here we go!
The moment she noticed something was wrong was this:
(Source is a post from a now deleted FB group page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-will2-live-Attitude-Cancer/109231765851115?sk=info&tab=page_info)
PHASE 1 IN KARRATHA, PILBARA
http://realitybasedmedicine.blogspot.com/2015/04/candice-maries-statera-podcast.html: in the first part of the transcribed podcast she says she got her lump checked in a local hospital in a remote area in Karratha, Pilbara. She had neck ultrasound, lumpectomy for the lump above her right collarbone as well as fine-needle biopsy of neck lymph nodes and possibly other, unspecified tests. Then she waits for the biopsy/histology results. It takes some time, she runs out of patience and goes to the local hospital to find out what that neck lump was. It is September 2011.
And there is the first questionable moment of receiving a diagnosis, which she repeatedly claims was grim and fatal.
Quote from the transcript:
As soon as…because, I went into the hospital, and they…it took ages for them to tell me about the lump. So I walk back in there, about two/three weeks later, because I really wanted to know. And they were like, ‘Oh, the doctor’s on holiday, blah blah blah blah,’ and I was like, ‘No, I need to know now.’ So then a girl that I knew, her boyfriend was a doctor there, so he saw me, you know, in a bit of a panic. And he came over and he was, ‘are you okay?’ And I…explained the situation, and I was like ‘I really need to know. What’s going on, what do I need to do.’ Like, ‘why is it taking weeks?’ And then he pulled me into a room and he said, ‘okay, I’ll go and find out.’ So he went off and found my records, come back [sic] and he was like, ‘I’m really sorry to tell you, but it’s papillary thyroid carcinoma.’ He goes…you know, my chances of survival are very slim, because it’s like all over, and I was just like, ‘oh my god.’
On FB she was asked for proof and for information on who this doctor was.
Note that Candice mentions a “fatal diagnosis”. I am truly looking forwards to seeing documentation for this and getting that statement from the doctor.
Then I tried looking for information on what tests she might have had up to the point where she met this boyfriend-of-a-girl-she-knows-doctor. On https://www.facebook.com/groups/161184177262976/permalink/233377190043674/ (currently deleted) there is the following post, dated September 18th, 2011 (she keeps referring to September as the month of getting diagnosed in other sources)
If what she has written is precise, it would seem at that point she had a biopsy/histology confirmed spread of papillary thyroid cancer to the neck lymph-nodes, consistent with stage I papillary thyroid cancer, for which 5 year survival rate is practically 100%. If the spread was more distant further, and even if the doctors would suspect cancer spreading to liver (which she later claims was benign tumors) AND lungs, I find it hard to believe that this doctor would give a terminal diagnosis before arrival in nuclear medicine centre in the bigger hospital in the city, doing more tests on that liver lesion and “something” on lung and before finding out her response to radioactive iodine therapy. With hypothetical spread to lungs or liver the cancer would still be classified as stage II (any T, any N, M1), for which survival rate is still good: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/thyroidcancer/detailedguide/thyroid-cancer-staging unless she is one of those people who do not respond to radioactive treatment (are RAI non-avid), in which case chemotherapy could be an option and survival rate would be worse. But, because radioactive treatment has not been even tried yet, I don’t understand how a doctor at that point would suggest she is terminal.
Candice still has not answered our question about the specialty of this doctor or his name, he is not her treating doctor, just a friend of a friend who happened to be in the hospital while her own doctor was on holiday. She needs to show documentation for this specific time frame and the existing diagnosis.
PHASE 2 – SURGERY, RADIOACTIVE TREATMENT IN THE CITY
So, sometime in autumn of 2011 Candice goes to the “city hospital” in Perth, namely Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. To a fellow patient in radiation oncology, this place looks pretty cool: http://www.scgh.health.wa.gov.au/OurServices/CancerCentre/RadiationOncology/index.html
Her experience in this hospital is described in the next part of the podcast here: http://realitybasedmedicine.blogspot.com/2015/04/candice-of-cancer-part-ii.html
Candice goes to 2 different surgeons in the city who both say she needs to have her thyroid and lymph nodes removed, followed by radiation and possible chemo. It is probable that doctors laid out the possible ways how the treatment could pan out and chemo could potentially be a part of the story. She mentions going natural to a doctor, who tells her that without treatment she will lose voice and possibly die. But it is also clearly said that with treatment she has very good survival rate:
CANDICE: “I ended up being scared into the surgery…I went to two different surgeons, and they both said the same thing: total thyroidectomy, take all the lymph nodes out, then radiation, possible chemo, blah blah blah. When I went in there and I said to them ‘look, I want to do it naturally,’ he was just like ‘oh, okay, yeah. If you do it naturally, if you leave it for another year and it takes over, you might lose your voice, you know, it will probably eat at your vocal cords’ – really scare tactics – and he was like ‘and then you’ll probably die.’ Like, literally.”
“And then, 90% survival rate, they gave me, from doing it their way. They were like, ‘yeah, high chances, we’ll just take out the thyroid, you might not even need radiation, we’ll see how you go.’”
It is interesting that these doctors who have seen her supposedly terminal test results from earlier diagnostics are now saying that Candice has a 90% survival rate and may not even need the first step of adjuvant radiation treatment.
In October 2011 the “best surgeon in Perth” does her full thyroidectomy and lymph-node removal. During the surgery she also gets her parathyroid glands removed, which she considers a major error of the surgeon, although this is a known possible complication from thyroidectomy.
She is also preparing for radioactive iodine treatment that will follow surgery.
Please note: she herself admits that she won’t know if she is cancer free for maybe another year.
In November 2011 Candice finds out that the tumor (primary tumor in thyroid) was stage 3 and the lymph nodes were stage 1.
I believe this information comes from the full pathology report after thyroidectomy and lymph node dissection surgery and suspect these numbers are a part of TNM staging formula (a standard way to describe how large a cancer is and how far it has spread), where:
• T indicates the size of the main (primary) tumor and whether it has grown into nearby areas.
• N describes the extent of spread to nearby (regional) lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are bean-shaped collections of immune system cells to which cancers often spread first. Cells from thyroid cancers can travel to lymph nodes in the neck and chest areas.
• M indicates whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other organs of the body. (The most common sites of spread of thyroid cancer are the lungs, the liver, and bones.)
• N describes the extent of spread to nearby (regional) lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are bean-shaped collections of immune system cells to which cancers often spread first. Cells from thyroid cancers can travel to lymph nodes in the neck and chest areas.
• M indicates whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other organs of the body. (The most common sites of spread of thyroid cancer are the lungs, the liver, and bones.)
If that is the case, at this point she would possibly have:
T3: The primary tumor is larger than 4 cm across, or it has just begun to grow into nearby tissues outside the thyroid.
N1: The cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes
N1a: The cancer has spread to lymph nodes around the thyroid in the neck (called pretracheal, paratracheal, and prelaryngeal lymph nodes).
N1b: The cancer has spread to other lymph nodes in the neck (called cervical) or to lymph nodes behind the throat (retropharyngeal) or in the upper chest (superior mediastinal).
M value depends on what distant spread Candice potentially has:
MX: Distant metastasis cannot be assessed.
M0: There is no distant metastasis.
M1: The cancer has spread to other parts of the body, such as distant lymph nodes, internal organs, bones, etc.
Staging thus depends on what the M value is – M0 or M1.
Stage I (any T, any N, M0): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has not spread to distant sites (M0).
Stage II (any T, any N, M1): The tumor can be any size (any T) and may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes (any N). It has spread to distant sites (M1).
The staging information comes from here: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/thyroidcancer/detailedguide/thyroid-cancer-staging
Sometime after surgery Candice has a CT of thyroid bed. Excerpt from the deleted FB group.
It is not quite clear if this really was a CT scan, maybe a medical professional could elaborate on how typical it would be to check post-operative thyroid bed remnants with a CT scan. My own remaining thyroid cells in the thyroid bed showed up in a neck ultrasonogram and a whole body scan (WBS) before radioactive treatment, when nuclear medicine department was planning the dose of RAI I would need.
Having such remains in thyroid bed is typical, as it is not possible to surgically remove thyroid without leaving something behind. Also, it is worth pointing out that, as far as I have read, CTs before a planned radioactive iodine treatment can be contraindicated – if iodine containing contrast dye is used, that could diminish the efficacy of radioactive treatment because remaining thyroid cells would have a smaller ability to absorb radioactive iodine. The said hospital offers PET/CT scans as well, maybe it was that?
Then the next step is radioactive iodine therapy. It is also referenced as radiation in her texts, but this should not be confused with external beam radiation therapy (which can also be an option in thyroid cancer treatment).
From what I gather, Candice was actually lucky and did not have to go through “hypohell” – this is how patients call the process of going hypothyroid naturally (I find it ironic and amusing that in this very “unnatural” course of treatment she gets to skip the really unpleasant “natural” phase) by not having any replacement hormones for quite some time to make sure any remaining thyroid cells (benign or cancerous) are sufficiently “starved” of iodine and the ablation is as successful as possible. She supposedly receives Thyrogen instead, which artificially causes sufficiently high TSH results in a few days, so the patient does not have to endure unpleasant hypothyroid symptoms for long. (I’m a bit jealous here – I had to go hypo naturally and I felt like an intellectually challenged puffy blowfish for a long time, because lack of thyroid hormones messes with concentration skills and makes you puffy and extremely sluggish.)
It is worth pointing out that her radioactive iodine therapy is scheduled on December 14, 2011 and it appears that she expects to be cancer-free in 10 days by Christmas, although in October she was told that the results of radioactive treatment may not be known for a year. To me this shows a complete lack of understanding about the radioactive treatment process and maybe explains why she got so shocked by that post-RAI scan after which she thought her cancer had spread because of surgery and radiation.
This is a fragment from https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-will2-live-Attitude-Cancer/109231765851115?sk=info&tab=page_info (currently deleted, but screenshot, yay!)
So, at some point between the surgery (initial lumpectomy and biopsy) in October 2011 and radioactive treatment in December 2011 she had a CT scan in which tumors are found in liver. I am not sure what the diagnostic process would be, if doctors would potentially think that could be cancer spread to liver. I am having a hard time tracking down the exact time when it became clear they were benign, but in an article she wrote for Eluxe magazine (http://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/killer-fillers-one-models-story/),she states that in 2012 she was diagnosed with a benign liver tumor. So it is not clear if at the moment when Candice was going for RAI, she already knew they were benign.
Either way I don’t understand why this episode of cancer spreading to liver would ever make it into the several articles that got published in newspapers and why she felt it was necessary to correct irrelevant information about “ditching her husband” and the precise location of Houghton Regis, when there is such glaring misinformation about having had cancer in liver.
On December 14th 2011, Candice enters the hospital for radioactive iodine treatment. In my hospital standard tests right before RAI were abdomen USG, lung X ray, blood tests and 1 WBS (a.k.a whole body scan, whole body scintigraphy or i-131 scan) to determine the necessary ablation dose of radioactive iodine. She has not specified what her tests were precisely, but it is interesting that I have not seen a single post where she mentions WBS - a form of visual imaging, which is crucial in diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer. I have only seen neck ultrasound, CT and MRI mentioned and I think it shows that she does not understand the differences between the results that can be obtained by different methods and what their goal is. It is also useful to note the date of treatment, because the administered radioactive iodine dose will keep working until December 2012.
Then she takes the radioactive iodine capsule and goes into isolation for the first days in the hospital. During this time patient has to take regular showers, drink lots of water to excrete the radioactive iodine through urine, feces and sweat. The patient becomes radioactive and dangerous to others, that’s why the nurse says that she can only leave the hospital when the radiation monitor shows a specific radioactivity level. Then, according to the transcript from the podcast, she goes to an outpatient facility where she has to stay for one more week until radiation levels drop further to avoid harming other people.
So, after this very long process we arrive to the point where she gets her 2nd terminal news.
From https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-will2-live-Attitude-Cancer/109231765851115?sk=info&tab=page_info, again deleted, but screenshot. 
I went back to the hospital for a MRI scan to see how the radio-active Iodine had worked. This is when I was told that the Cancer had spread into my right lung and more extensively in my neck and chest area also :(
From the podcast:
The Monday after [radiation] I went in for a scan…and my doctor wasn’t there, and the guy that was there, he was all, ‘oh I think I’d rather your doctor gave you the news.’
And I was like ‘No, I don’t want to wait, she’s on holiday. Can you give me the news?’
And he was just like, ‘are you sure?’
And…I was just like…‘Tell me. Like just tell me.’
And he was just like ‘I’m really sorry to tell you this… the cancer has spread. It’s now gone into your right lung, it’s gone more down your chest lymph nodes, it’s in the back of your neck – the lymph nodes that weren’t affected – I had five tumours on my liver…they were benign, but they were still there…and he said basically, ‘you’re looking at like five years left to live.’
And I was [sic] just looked at him, and I was just like…instantly, I was like, ‘how do you know five years? Instantly, I was like ‘where do you get five years from?’”
[He said]: ‘Oh, just, you know, because cases, and, you know, we’ve seen this happen before, statistics, la la la. It’s about five years, you know, give or take.’
I was like, ‘oh, give or take.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
And I was like ‘No, I don’t want to wait, she’s on holiday. Can you give me the news?’
And he was just like, ‘are you sure?’
And…I was just like…‘Tell me. Like just tell me.’
And he was just like ‘I’m really sorry to tell you this… the cancer has spread. It’s now gone into your right lung, it’s gone more down your chest lymph nodes, it’s in the back of your neck – the lymph nodes that weren’t affected – I had five tumours on my liver…they were benign, but they were still there…and he said basically, ‘you’re looking at like five years left to live.’
And I was [sic] just looked at him, and I was just like…instantly, I was like, ‘how do you know five years? Instantly, I was like ‘where do you get five years from?’”
[He said]: ‘Oh, just, you know, because cases, and, you know, we’ve seen this happen before, statistics, la la la. It’s about five years, you know, give or take.’
I was like, ‘oh, give or take.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Is it not weird that for a second time a terminal, horrible diagnosis is given by “a guy” who is not her doctor? And her real doctor again is on a holiday? That is some seriously bad luck. Who are these guys in hospitals wandering about and giving people terminal diagnoses? I would like to know so I can avoid them. Who knows, I may also suddenly turn from a stage I patient to a walking dead person just because I ran into these guys, scary!
I have tried looking at all possible FB posts for the information on this scan and it is clear to me that she did not understand what test she had (I don’t see why she would go for MRI at that point), what happens at this stage of treatment or is deliberately lying. After RAI treatment a papillary thyroid cancer patient always receives WBS scan: also called whole body scan, whole body scintigraphy or i-131 scan. The idea is to see where radioactive iodine administered during RAI treatment collected and to plan further treatment strategy.
Here is a good explanation of RAI and WBS: http://endocrinediseases.org/thyroid/cancer_rai.shtml
Quote: One week after receiving the dose, a whole body scan will be performed to show where the iodine collects in the body. Uptake is normally seen in the salivary glands, gastrointestinal tract, and urinary bladder. Normal uptake may also be seen in the liver. Seeing these areas light up on scan does NOT mean that thyroid cancer has spread to these organs. Often, uptake is seen in the mid portion of the neck where residual thyroid tissue (i.e. the remnant) is found. (Figure 4) Uptake in the sides of the neck may indicate that cancer has spread to lymph nodes. (Figure 5) Uptake in the upper-middle part of the chest (i.e. mediastinum) may be normal uptake in the esophagus or thymus or may indicate spread of thyroid cancer to the lymph nodes in the chest. (Figure 6) Uptake in the lungs or bones may indicate spread of thyroid cancer to these areas as well. (Figure 7)
Also, one has to keep in mind that there could be two WBS scans (as in my case) – one right before administration of radioactive iodine and one about a week later, so she possibly had both. Here is an article about the meaning of result differences in-between these two scans:
Quote: In many centers, pre- and post-RAI whole body scans (WBS) are performed routinely on patients undergoing RAI for DTC. After surgery and prior to RAI delivery a pre-RAI WBS is performed with either 123I or 131I to identify remnant thyroid tissue and residual local or distant metastatic thyroid cancer. Post-RAI WBS is primarily done to identify metastatic disease not seen by the pre-RAI scan.
What this means is that the results of the first and the second scan can differ, the second scan provides more information. I have a suspicion that maybe she actually had the first WBS scan right after her surgery and before RAI – the scan she called CT and in which remnants in thyroid bed were found. The machine for WBS scan really looks very similar to MRI or CT, so they could be confused.
Therefore, if Candice had iodine uptake in right lung, additional neck lymph nodes and upper chest, this is not considered cancer spreading. Whatever these lit up areas were, they could have been there all along, but were not detected in the other types of visual imaging tests she had. Also, as far as I understand, complete evaluation of areas that light up in the WBS scan is not instant, it takes time to see the changes in thyroglobulin cancer marker after the administration of radioactive iodine. To me it looks like Candice did not realize the differences in diagnostic methods and maybe thought that radiation and surgery caused a sudden spread of cancer in lung, neck and chest, because she was not aware of these locations before.
Even if all of this iodine uptake corresponds with metastatic spread, according to the TNS staging system, papillary thyroid cancer with a spread to lungs is T3N1M1, thus stage II. Not stage IV, not terminal, not deadly. 5 year survival rate for treated stage II papillary thyroid cancer is also excellent.
After administration of RAI the patient has regular follow-ups to see the trend of thyroglobulin marker – decreasing is obviously great - and to adjust the replacement dose of thyroid hormones (which can also be a part of therapy for the suppression of remaining thyroid cells).
So, surgeon and nuclear medicine people do the standard thing – they want to see how the remaining thyroid cancer cells react to radiation in the long term and tell her to come back in 6-9 months to see the progress and, if necessary, have more surgery or RAI. Again, she does not mention chemo being offered. For someone so scared of chemo that killed her friend and cousin, it seems strange not to mention it.
In May 2012 (6 months after RAI) she gets the first thyroglobulin marker test results, which indeed are pretty great - TGB of 0.7 ng/ml, surgery and RAI have worked quite nicely.
In the podcast Candice says she had a visit with her nuclear oncologist at this 6 month post-RAI point.
“It's just, you know, all these things happened. And then yeah, so I proved them wrong. In six months I went and had the test done, and it went from level 13, to naught-point-seven [0.7]. So no large tumours, just small-scale cellular cancer left in me. And when I said to my nuclear oncologist, she was so shocked. And I was just like, ‘so, can I have it come from your mouth, that this is not the radiation that's done this, this is not anything you've done, this is what I've done, since leaving you?’
And she was just like, ‘look, I kinda hate to admit it, but it can't be...because...when we tested you, it was just level 13, now it's 0.7.’ She goes, ‘It's nothing to do with us. But we still want to mop up that 0.7 with some more radiation.’”
And she was just like, ‘look, I kinda hate to admit it, but it can't be...because...when we tested you, it was just level 13, now it's 0.7.’ She goes, ‘It's nothing to do with us. But we still want to mop up that 0.7 with some more radiation.’”
The only situation where I can imagine the oncologist saying that is if she wanted to make sure Candice does not run away from conventional medicine while chanting and waiving a broccoli and kindly let her think she had some influence on this downward trend.
CANDICE: “So I was just like, ‘Are you f*****g sh*****g me?’ And that’s when I sat there and I said, ‘I want to be real with you now. I’ve had the worst and the best…last few months, and I know you're not a bad person…I know that you think giving me radiation is good for me. You really do, you think you're doing good.’”
SNARY: “That's what she's been indoctrinated into.”
CANDICE: “Yeah. And I said, ‘But you're not. You're not gonna give me broccoli. I love my broccoli. But you're not gonna give me broccoli, and say that cures cancer.
SNARY: “That's what she's been indoctrinated into.”
CANDICE: “Yeah. And I said, ‘But you're not. You're not gonna give me broccoli. I love my broccoli. But you're not gonna give me broccoli, and say that cures cancer.
(I couldn’t help interjecting with a comment here – I would eat my hat just to see the oncologist’s facial expression at this point)
You're just not gonna do that. Because you deal in radiation, but I'm here to tell you that radiation doesn't really work. Like, you didn't tell me that it ups my chance of leukemia by 70%, did you?’
And she was like…‘Why worry about one cancer when you're dealing with one now?’ That's what she said to me!
And I was like, ‘Because I don't want another cancer down there! Why can't I deal with all these cancers and wipe them out? [...] That didn’t make sense to me either, and I was just like, ‘Look, I'm not gonna take it […] I'm not going down your route anymore, and I don't want to come for any thyroid clinics, I don't want to do anything that you...’
And she instantly was just like, ‘you know that you could be killing yourself.’ Same, same thing!”
SNARY: “Even after the results are in, and she'd seen the results for herself?”
CANDICE: “Because it's 0.7! There's 0.7. And she goes, ‘This 0.7 could be hiding somewhere, and it could blow up.’”
This is pure speculation, of course, but from that conversation it would seem to me that Candice had an open argument with her treating oncologist and tried to illuminate her that her stupid radiation does not work (despite TGB going down from 13 to 0.7), but broccoli does. I may be wrong, but I think if I was an oncologist, I would be internally screaming and thinking that this silly patient might have some residual disease left, she is about to quit conventional medicine completely and those 0.7 ng/ml might or might not cause recurrence later if the marker does not keep decreasing for the next 6 months. Who knows, maybe I would try to convince the patient to do one last RAI ablation just to be on the safe side, so Candice can continue prancing around Ibiza beaches, waving broccoli and actually being in a very safe position. Also, it can be seen here again that chemo is still neither specifically offered, nor rejected.
And she was like…‘Why worry about one cancer when you're dealing with one now?’ That's what she said to me!
And I was like, ‘Because I don't want another cancer down there! Why can't I deal with all these cancers and wipe them out? [...] That didn’t make sense to me either, and I was just like, ‘Look, I'm not gonna take it […] I'm not going down your route anymore, and I don't want to come for any thyroid clinics, I don't want to do anything that you...’
And she instantly was just like, ‘you know that you could be killing yourself.’ Same, same thing!”
SNARY: “Even after the results are in, and she'd seen the results for herself?”
CANDICE: “Because it's 0.7! There's 0.7. And she goes, ‘This 0.7 could be hiding somewhere, and it could blow up.’”
This is pure speculation, of course, but from that conversation it would seem to me that Candice had an open argument with her treating oncologist and tried to illuminate her that her stupid radiation does not work (despite TGB going down from 13 to 0.7), but broccoli does. I may be wrong, but I think if I was an oncologist, I would be internally screaming and thinking that this silly patient might have some residual disease left, she is about to quit conventional medicine completely and those 0.7 ng/ml might or might not cause recurrence later if the marker does not keep decreasing for the next 6 months. Who knows, maybe I would try to convince the patient to do one last RAI ablation just to be on the safe side, so Candice can continue prancing around Ibiza beaches, waving broccoli and actually being in a very safe position. Also, it can be seen here again that chemo is still neither specifically offered, nor rejected.
So Candice walks out of nuclear medicine department halfway through the 12 month period in which radioactive iodine is supposed to keep working, already with a very good result and a possibility that it will keep improving. In December 2012, 1 year after radioactive iodine Candice’s TGB result is 0.3.
I cannot know what exact TGB result Candice’s oncologist was aiming for and if she had actually reached it. The results are always interpreted in the context of thyroid hormone level, we don’t know if she has appropriate hormone replacement therapy, any interfering thyroglobulin antibodies, if any of the TGB results were stimulated or not, if there could be potentially benign leftovers of thyroid tissue affecting TGB results - there are a lot of variables in play, so I can’t and won’t go into that as a non-specialist. But at face value that 0.3 ng/ml is really good. In one of my labs in Europe reference value for thyroglobulin in thyroidless people after RAI ablation is <2 ng/ml, in another one they have 0.2 as the lowest amount of TGB that the lab can detect, so <0.2 for me is awesome news - no thyroid activity can be detected. I don’t know what lab reference or methods are used in Candice’s case, but 0.3 is still pretty great.
Out of interest, I looked at my own results with RAI ablation date as the reference point in time:
6 months: 0.839 ng/ml (Candice’s is 0.7) – clearly I ate less pineapples
8 months: <0.20 ng/ml (undetectable) – I probably ate more pineapples than Candice
So, where do I officially announce a miracle happened to me? I mean, it could not have been radiation, right?
I have a suspicion that the only truthful number that refers to expected survival in her story is “90% survival with treatment”, as stated by her actual doctors, not some mystical guy or a friend of a friend that she met while her doctors were on holiday.
My post is finally coming to an end. I primarily wanted to look into the timeline to see where Candice could have possibly misunderstood something, where the line between lack of understanding and pure dishonesty is and where the impossible claims are coming from. Perhaps the specific details about scans and treatment are not very interesting, I also cannot guarantee the accuracy of this timeline, because I am not a doctor, I have no medical education, and there is not enough information from Candice. However, it is not my duty or anyone else’s to prove anything about Candice’s treatment, it is her responsibility. Candice is the one declaring that she cured her cancer naturally, is building a business based on impossible claims. So the burden of proof is on her and she is welcome to submit any correcting information, confirmed by documents. Not generalized reports from naturopath MDs, nutritional oncologists or leprechaun podiatrists, but the actual documents from the 2 hospitals where she was treated - excerpts, blood test results, pathology results, all scans with corresponding dates, etc. All of it.
Candice still has to answer the following questions:
- Where is the evidence for having been given 5 years left to live, being terminal/fatal/with very slim chances?
- Where is the evidence that her diet did anything at all, if the timing in which TGB marker so beautifully decreased is still within 12 months of RAI being administered? I.e. – where exactly is the miracle?
- Why both times “a fatal diagnosis” was presented by someone who was not her doctor, while her own doctor was on a holiday? Who were these people and what were their qualifications? Where is their statement confirming that they gave such diagnosis to Candice?
- How did the journalists get their facts so wrong about cancer spreading to liver? Where did they get the idea of Candice being stage IV?
Also, because the readers must have been really patient to read this very long post, which does not contain so much material for comedy (hats off to Ella for her transcript commentary), I have a special treat for dessert. It shows Candice’s thinking and grand plans for her future health. If you think curing terminal cancer with pineapples was a bold statement, you’re in for a surprise.
Yes, you read it correctly, Candice expects to prove those evil, evil medical professionals wrong, to regrow her missing thyroid and stop using those the silly hormone replacement pills. As one of the readers/writers on this blog said a bit sarcastically, she could revolutionise the transplant system. Maybe she is in the wrong line of business, what do you think?
If it was my call, I would prefer she continues her road of psychic exploration, floats to some alternative reality and becomes a leprechaun podiatrist instead of a fake cancer cure promoter. We can all hope, right?
P.S. Big Pharma and government representatives – when can I invoice for the time I spent collecting all this information and writing the post?
Auma, thank you, this is like brilliant. I'm sure even a new cancer sufferer not yet versed in 'cancer speak' could follow this and think twice before believing anything Candice has to say. This must have taken you hours. People such as yourself, Violet, Ella and everyone from this blog should be proud. Imagine if someone with thyroid cancer actually believed Candice and didn't go ahead with conventional treatment, not realising that this is why Candice no longer has cancer! They'd end up dead. While Candice parties with her mates at Blazing Swan. The final comments are just cringeworthy, embarrassing. Can someone please tell Candice to just stop talking!
ReplyDeleteShe really does suffer from, like, chronic over-sharing.
DeleteThanks Clover, much appreciated.
DeleteAnother danger of these claims being out there is scaring other papillary thyroid cancer patients with a similar initial condition. What if they also start to think that they are terminal, because they have something in lungs, and that surgery/radiation spreads cancer?
On the other hand, the more she talks, the more she shows how she does not understand basic concepts. Maybe that is just as worthy as having actual transcripts of her interviews out there. If someone realises she believes she can regrow her own body-parts, that should be, like, a major warning sign;)
Painstaking work Auma, a good read :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amanda:)
DeleteMaybe she's waiting til her thyroid grows back before she posts proof of illness!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that she probably also plans to regrow her parathyroid glands removed by that nasty "top surgeon", since she wants to quit using calcium supplements. We might have to wait even longer and hope she does not lose any other glands in the meantime.
DeleteI incerely hope she's still getting good advice from actual physicians, and hasn't cut them out of her life entirely.
Delete*sincerely.
DeleteElla, this is actually something I am hoping for as well. It sounds like someone is watching her TGB, but I hope she also sees someone in nuclear medicine and has her calcium and vitamin D levels taken care of.
DeleteI have to have regular checkups with neck USG, lung X-ray and blood tests to watch for recurrence, I hope she gets them too.
It should be gone now.
DeleteTeratomas are a very interestingly morbid subject.
DeleteI am starting to think she has not understood that whole third eye and pineal calcification issue properly. Maybe the real location for the real third eye is in ovaries!
Thx Violet! Can you alse delete my subsequent post and I'll rephrase here for clarity. My partner (medical expertise in tumour pathology/disease spread) commented that he wished Candace luck in regrowing her thyroid, but that unfortunately the only location thyroid tissue could regrow would be in her ovary as part of a tumour called a teratoma, which can grow any type of body tissue but with zero benefot to the patient.
DeleteWell done Auma!
ReplyDeleteYou have made a very murky story a great deal clearer, and really highlighted just how ridiculous and deceitful her claims are.
Your story juxtaposed with hers is so valuable and interesting, so thank you for being so open about your journey.
I'm sorry you had to go through such a tough time, though I'm glad you were lucky enough to live in a time and a country where such incredible and effective treatments exist - something Candice fails to appreciate.
Thanks RKM:)
DeleteI think this is what irritates me the most - she does not even understand how lucky she was despite all the difficulties (which I really do know well), despite having a spread that would freak out a lot of cancer survivors commenting here - she and I both were lucky to have such a targeted silver bullet treatment of RAI. Many cancer patients don't get that and they also don't create businesses claiming having found a cure.
Candice's oncologist/radiation therapist, if you ever read this, hats off to you - for your patience and getting a clearly delusional patient to at least remain in your care until those 0.7 ng/ml were reached, it probably was not easy.
As others have said, her ingratitude is very frustrating. She was clearly in the care of doctors far more learned and experienced than herself, but she levels a lot of frankly bizarre criticism at them, and she resents them for doing their job. At the end of the day it sounds like she got the treatment she needed, and she got it quickly. She benefited from the best modern science has to offer.
Deletedisclaimer - I am Australian. I am incredibly disappointed in her attitude to our healthcare system. Yes, there are problems especially in rural and remote areas, but she got VIP treatment. A young woman with cancer? First appointment of the day. Discussed at lengthy meetings. Offered the latest therapies. Were it not for our robust pap programme that offers paps from any age (compared to the UK) she wouldn't likely have had her cervical issues diagnosed until much later, and she risked losing her cervix or her life. Took too long for the RAI to arrive - sorry, it was being made in the reactor for you, wouldn't want to speed up that process too much. Ugh. Go fend for yourself in the NHS or pay through the nose in the US if the ...free... high quality care isn't to your liking.
DeleteSorry. Rant over. I am proud to contribute to my country's healthcare system in taxes - I'm sensitive to it being criticized so needlessly.
Completely agree - we are very, very lucky!
DeleteYes this lack of recognition of the medical expertise that has helped her irks me too. I have worked (nursed) at Sir Charles Gardener Hospital, including some shifts on the oncology ward where she would have been. It is a great teaching hospital. She was very fortunate and seems oblivious to this.
DeleteI'm Australian too, and I've actually had a terrible time with shamefully long waiting lists and unhelpful doctors. So while I definitely sympathise with people who have difficulty with the system, it actually sounds like Candice was incensed BECAUSE she was treated appropriately, quickly and efficiently. She was offended when the doctor explained that she would probably eventually die without surgery. She was offended by the radiation process. She was offended that nobody offered her broccoli and told her it would cure cancer. These are really not legitimate things to be outraged by.
DeleteGreat job Auma!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy:)
DeleteI think the Pilabara Doctor was either an intern/junior Doctor on secondment from Perth or a junior locum Doctor who probably new nothing about thyroid cancer. Is it possible that the Perth bearer of bad news was a radiographer? I think the biggest lesson Candice should learn from this whole scenario (if her accounts of terminal diagnoses are even true) is DON"T PESTER UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE INTO DISCUSSING YOUR RESULTS WITH YOU!
ReplyDeleteAmy this is an excellent point!
Deleteand Auma - thank you for so systematically setting this all out and showing what is likely to have transpired. Well done!!
Yes Amy. Looking at the website for the hospital Ms Fox likely went to, she certainly would not have spoken to an oncologist. I imagine she may have first seen an emergency department doctor who then referred her onto a general surgeon for her lumpectomy. The doctor who was a friend of a friend was likely too junior to know what to do with the information she wanted and too junior to know that he shouldn't have been giving it out.
DeleteIt is amazing how she was so frustrated at delays in getting her pathology results but appears offended that the medical system acted quickly when it came to actually removing her cancerous bits.
I noted that too, Ian. I think she's irrationally angry at the medical profession regardless of what they do or don't do.
DeleteAmy, exactly - thyroid cancer is not extremely common and should be only discussed with appropriate specialists. I wonder if that friend-of-a-friend is following this story, because his input (if true) seems to at least partially be the reason why Candice is claiming to have cured herself.
DeleteIf I as a doctor was dealing with a patient like this, I think I would document every conversation very carefully to avoid my words being twisted and misrepresented later.
Yes Ian, when I was an inexperienced RMO locuming in regional hospitals I would never have dreamed of discussing progonisis with a patient let alone a "friend of a friend". I guess it might be that in this small community they had all been partying and drinking together and the Doctor may have been put in a difficult position by Candice. No excuse though!
DeleteThank you Auma. An excellent analysis and write up.
ReplyDeleteYour own thyroglobulin results really show how meaningless Candice's claim to have healed herself is - her thyroglobulin dropped in a very similar way to yours, as expected.
Your second question is core: "Where is the evidence that her diet did anything at all, if the timing in which TGB marker so beautifully decreased is still within 12 months of RAI being administered? I.e. – where exactly is the miracle?"
Thanks, David.
DeleteTo be fair, my thyroid cancer was earlier stage, but the TGB dynamic was similar, as is in many other cases.
Auma, you're a treasure. You've found sources I didn't know existed, and you've done some phenomenal detective work! Your understanding of this condition, the treatment, and the terminology, has really filled in a lot of the gaps for me.
ReplyDeleteI'll respond in point form, for clarity:
*Your question about how the newspapers got three things wrong - the stage IV cancer, the cancer in the liver, and the idea that Mark Simon was an oncologist - is a really important one. The other claims (like the five year prognosis), she herself is either deluded about, or lying about, or both. But she herself publicly admitted the errors in the media articles, after pressure from readers. So my question to Candice would be, where did those errors originate? A press release from Candice? An interview with Candice? A comment from Mark Simon?
*Candice's statements make it clear that the doctors indicated that it would take a year to know for sure whether she was cancer free, and that Candice herself acknowledged this. However, she seems to think this would be a sort of "waiting period" before having chemo, which is why she felt she had to "cure" her cancer herself in that time - to avoid chemo. Subsequently she obviously is under the impression that she cured herself in the intervening months, rather than that she was simply waiting for the radiation to work, and waiting for the verdict on whether the conventional treatment had been effective.
*"Prancing around Ibiza beaches, waving broccoli and actually being in a very safe position" sums up Candice's life at this point beautifully. She was (apparently) successfully treated for cancer. That's it. That's the story here.
*Thanks for including your own results from around the results with RAI ablation date, because that really puts it in perspective for the uninitiated: you experienced as good (or slightly better) a result with no pineapple!
*"However, it is not my duty or anyone else’s to prove anything about Candice’s treatment, it is her responsibility. Candice is the one declaring that she cured her cancer naturally, is building a business based on impossible claims. So the burden of proof is on her and she is welcome to submit any correcting information, confirmed by documents."
Exactly. Is she's going to claim a miracle, she needs to prove a miracle.
Well done, and thanks for all your hard work!
*IF she's going to claim a miracle.
DeleteThanks, Ella!
DeleteIt is great you did the transcripts, as they show the timing and her perspective quite clearly and those are her own words, not some "misrepresented" article in Daily Mail.
It seems like she really did not understand what is supposed to happen in those 6-9 months and maybe wanted to have some kind of sense of control over her treatment. A common psychological mechanism, I suppose, but at some point it must have morphed into an illusion of omnipotence.
She's got lots to say to the Daily Mail, and she knows who Belle is now:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3037872/I-m-not-Belle-Gibson-s-not-glamorous-former-model-claimed-eating-vast-amounts-PINEAPPLES-cured-cancer-hits-social-media-sceptics.html
Well, I'm frustrated that she's still making ridiculous claims in public, but at least the Daily Mail consulted some actual experts this time! She really should lay low until she's collated her evidence.
DeleteThe article pictured in Auma's post where Candice is skydiving is here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/7585565/Cancer-prompts-healthier-lifestyle
It's dated 31 August 2012, and calls Mark Simon a "nutritional oncologist." So those errors have been circulated for a while. You'd think Candice would have been aware of that, and made sure the Daily Mail et al didn't repeat them.
Shame that article doesn't clarify the time course it takes RAI to work
DeleteI wonder if these so called journalists are capable of proper fact-checking at all.
DeleteIncredible that she claims she has not deleted anything when she has deleted so much in the last few days ...
DeleteThe egocentricity is also quite astounding.
She has been deleting so many comments. She posted a meme about the positive benefits of bananas on cancer earlier and now its gone too...
ReplyDeleteMaybe she did not want cancer fighting bananas competing with pineapples for the place in spotlight...
ReplyDeleteLol. Maybe she is thinking twice about what garbage she publishes...
DeleteAuma, this is a thorough and exhaustive look at her claims. I'm impressed with your analysis and the questions you pose with the knowledge you have from undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. I applaud you for your perseverence and research skills and I'd never have guessed that English was not your first language - well done!
ReplyDeleteSadly, I doubt you'll get a response to your questions and she will go on to peddle her fiction to her fan club. I notice that it's mostly the sleazy, bottom dwelling tabloids like The Daily Mail who are talking to her. The average reader of that paper has the attention span of a gnat and it is known for printing sensationalist "cures" in its heath section. The fact that the latest one totally contradicts the one they printed last week doesn't seem to register.
Things which cure cancer, accoring to stories in The Daily Mail include cloudy apple juice, green tea, spicy food, a Mediterranean diet, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, apples, peanuts, soya, pineapples, your blood cells, evening primrose oil, the "energy" from crystals, red wine, breast milk, white bread , a fibre-rich diet, watercress, coffee enemas, eating at least 19 portions of vegetables a day, eating only meat, paleo, 5:2 diet, chocolate, raw foods, kale juice. The list is never ending and Candice Marie is just one more in a long, seemingly never ending line of cancer prophets keen to pass on their secret (at a price, of course).
She said in the DM she was not making money off of it! Actually, I believe that at this moment that is true. My problem is that she is obviously planning on making a profit off of it.
DeleteThank you Marie, I'm glad you found it useful.
DeleteI am a bit comforted by the fact that this far she has only reached tabloids, not more serious newspapers, like Jessica Ainscough and Belle Gibson and with exposure in this blog and because of her less savvy marketing she won't reach the same heights of woo propaganda.
As to making profit off her cancer claims, I have no doubts that without her cancer story she would have nothing to offer in the “wellness” blogging - after all, what exactly are her qualifications or skills? Cancer can lend a certain aura (pun intended) and give credibility to people to whom nobody would listen to otherwise. In my experience I have had quite a few situations where people literally ask me "what is the big lesson from cancer", "was this your life changing gift" [sic!] or "what would you want everyone to know about life". Last I checked, I am not a prophet, just a person who had cancer. People want to be inspired and to find all sorts of meaningful ideas for their life, relationships, spirituality, approaches to food, etc. That to me seems the deeper problem and at least partially the reason why Jess and Belle gained a following and something that Candice can exploit as well, although in her case target audience would have to be a lot more gullible.
There is an interesting perspective of this "inspiration porn" from Stella Young, a comedian who looks at the ways society views disability. There is definitely some overlay with patients of cancer and other diseases in terms of being used as inspiration porn. Besides, Stella is funny :)
http://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much
Unfortunately Stella Young died suddenly last December.
DeleteAuma, you speak of Stella Young in the present tense. Perhaps because you don't live in Australia, you're unaware of the sad news - Stella died unexpectedly in December 2014. She was only 32.
DeleteI agree with what you wrote. Stella was funny, and smart, and fearless, and is hugely missed in the disability community.
And that was a great blog post, by the way. Meticulously researched and clearly written.
I know she died, unfortunately. She was one of the people who really made me think about perceptions of ability/disability and I feel a bit protective - I tend to speak of her in present tense so nobody who comes here unaware of certain difficult subjects can discredit her and say that her message was less worthy because she died early.
DeleteI think it's legitimate to speak of someone in the present tense when you're referring to their writing etc. Like I might say "Charles Dickens writes..." or "Sir Isaac Newton argues..."
DeleteI remember Stella's observations about disability and "inspiration." She was a smart cookie.
Violet, I think your questioning came at a very awkward time for her. I read somewhere that she signed a book deal in March, so she IS planning on making money out of her miracle pineapple cure claim. Asking pointed questions while she's trying to get ready to flog off her book would not be welcome by Team Candice (and yes, I do believe there is a puppet master somewhere behind the scenes pulling the strings).
DeleteAuma, you bring up some excellent points. After the whole Belle Gibson thing blew up, any publicity she was seeking would be looked at by potential media backers through the "Belle Gibson filter" given that a whole lot of them have ended up with egg all over their faces because of their fawning, unconditional acceptance of Belle's nonsense claims. Paleo Pete's undoing would not have helped, nor Jessica Ainscough's death and revelation that she'd been somewhat less than truthful about her condition. So really the mainstream press has kept its distance and probably now do a bit more research on these "miracles" than they might have done a couple of months ago. If you google Candice Marie Fox, this site is high up on the search list, which is a good thing. Your questions are just the sort of thing a decent investigative journalist should be asking.
Stella Young was a very astute observor of society and someone who could talk with authority about disability. Unlike these other wannabes. There is a British comedy series called "That Mitchell and Webb Look" and they have a sketch on there about Homeopathic A&E (I'm sure it's on YouTube) that people who knock the medical profession and prefer cure by woo ought to look at. I'm flabbergasted that after all the conventional treatment she had, Candice doesn't acknowledge that it might have been THAT which helped her beat cancer. I'm sure a healthier diet and life changes would have been a boost, but to put all of her faith in only pineapples borders on the "fruitcake" scale of probability.
Her quote from the Daily Mail: 'It just seems they've got this massive agenda to break down my story.' Yes, Candice, that's the idea! Also, is she back to promising medical records, or is it still just a report? Because a report is useless and so she may as well offer nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteOh, and does a photo with a C-list celebrity somehow bolster her credibility or something?
Violet, you totally need to hobnob with some D-listers if you want to be taken seriously.
DeleteAuma that is absolutely brilliant work!
ReplyDeleteJust a quick note ,
https://www.facebook.com/DreamCatchersInternational , appears to have been deleted / removed and has been replaced with,
http://www.healthycandy.me/
As you can see created April 9 2015 , with most information private, this is common practice for scammers , spammers and the like.
Anyone operating a legitimate website has nothing to hide.
Registrant Contact Information:
Name: Registration Private
Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
City: Scottsdale
State: Arizona
Zip: 85260
Phone: +1.4806242599
Fax: +1.4806242598
Administrative Contact Information:
Name: Registration Private
Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
City: Scottsdale
State: Arizona
Zip: 85260
Phone: +1.4806242599
Fax: +1.4806242598
Technical Contact Information:
Name: Registration Private
Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
City: Scottsdale
State: Arizona
Zip: 85260
Phone: +1.4806242599
Fax: +1.4806242598
Information Updated: Thu, 9 Apr 2015 01:07:18 UTC
Excellent write-up, Auma! It must have taken you forever, so the effort is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to add that the article that she wrote about her breast implants originally said that the liver tumors were cancerous. I pointed this out to her on her FB page, and she claimed that an editor had changed it after she turned the article in, and "besides I didn't know at that time that they were benign". Two statements that seem to contradict each other but whatever! This discussion has been deleted.
After I commented, she went in and changed it. Still says her body was "riddled" with cancer tho.
Thanks Ann!
DeleteI was curious about that magazine article. I had an impression that when I originally read it before more serious sleuthing, it clearly connected liver with cancer, but when I rechecked it later to use it as reference, it said "benign tumors". I thought maybe I had misread the article the first time.
I asked her on FB when exactly her liver tumors were diagnosed as benign, but she has not replied. It is clear she loves exaggerating her claims.
Here is the original from the Wayback Machine:
Deletehttps://web.archive.org/web/20140717113755/http://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/killer-fillers-one-models-story/.
She says "In 2012 I was also diagnosed with a liver tumour, but I didn’t understand how my young body could be so riddled with cancer..."
Oops, that's me, Ann :D
DeleteI am not so sure about that article. If she was diagnosed with CIN precancerous cervix cells and 6 months later she got a thyroid cancer diagnosis, it can be understood how one would feel "riddled with cancer" at the age of 28-29 and having had all these issues at once (I had a history of pituitary tumor and other supposedly benign lesions before thyca, I was of similar age and it really messed me up emotionally and made me paranoid).
DeleteIf she wrote this article before attempts to monetize her cancer story, I have no objections, because she does not seem to understand her condition very well, probably got scared and it is natural to wonder why this happened. If she willingly used the liver tumor story later, insinuating that was cancer spreading - absolutely not. That is why I am trying to find out when she found out that they are benign.
Auma, there is a difference though, in that she was writing an article about her condition. While young women affected with the disease could totally be forgiven for thinking they're "riddled with cancer," not all of them go public with that story!
DeleteOn a related note, did we work out what the deal was with the pre-cancerous cells in her lungs?
True, they would at least try to be precise.
DeleteI don't know where exactly those "precancerous cells" were mentioned, do you? Whatever those lung spots were (there can be false positives/unclear spots in scans), as far as I know, they would not be checked with biopsy and the radiation oncologist would still wait those 6-9-12 months to see what happens. In her transcripts she mentioned a post-RAI scan that found iodine uptake in lung, that is pretty much all I know.
Hi, I just wanted to add to the conversation in a very minor way.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I think you are all doing a fantastic job in holding Candice to account with regards to clear communication.
Secondly, I've lived in Perth for 20 years and in the Pilbara for 4 years prior to that. Many of us who live and work in the Western Australia wouldn't necessarily consider Karratha "remote" - recent planning approval for a new Hilton Hotel in Karratha is a small indicator of that. Medical services are significantly better in the Pilbara than the "remote" tag infers for many people.
Thirdly, my own medical history includes viral cardiomyopathy with a highly confronting diagnosis of "you'll remain in the cardiac ward for several weeks, we think we'll be able to obtain permission to fly you home after then but unfortunately that's it". I'm able to type this note 7 years later because I was one of the people whose heart responded positively to the carvedilol/clopidogrel/atorvastatin/perindopril drug regime for my enlarged heart and associated issues (plus I was only 5 minutes from the Royal Brisbane Hospital when my heart failed and lungs started filling with blood). I completely changed my lifestyle and while I'm very proud of what I've achieved since (450km bushwalk, 6 month self supported bicycle ride up the east coast of Australia, weight loss, etc), I'm only alive because of the drugs and I will be forever grateful to the companies that did the research to deliver carvedilol to the market. I'm so happy to pay for my medication each and every month and to contribute to the the considerable profit the industry makes, without which the research wouldn't have been done and I would most certainly have died. Like many people with life threatening medical experiences, I maintain a comprehensive medical folder that factually summarises the key events, outcomes, location and medical practioner at the front with the results incuded behind the summary for no other reason than at some instant in the future, providing that information rapidly just may save my life. Not maintaining that information is difficult to understand or raises the possibility the story is the equivalent of the software industry's "vapourware".
Finally, I'm disappointed for Candice that she hasn't taken the opportunity to pause and reflect on her planned path, given the issues already presented by the highly relevant questions being asked of her story (thought she had paused when the Facebook page vanished). While honesty is less marketable, with a highly toxic wellness brand environment, her current path is unlikely to have any long term future and may have disastrous results for other people.
Thanks again to all for your efforts.
Thanks for the insight. It sounds like you had a very scary experience and appropriately appreciate modern medicine. So do I.
DeleteI am starting to think that she is calling that Karratha hospital "remote" and trying to turn attention away from it because of the fear that somebody would contact the first friend-of-a-friend doctor who allegedly said her "survival chances are slim", which is likely a lie the same as that second fatal diagnosis.
As to the folder - exactly! Mine is quite thick precisely because I want to make sure doctors instantly have my data in case something happens to me, not because of thyroid cancer itself but because of other conditions. Because I frequently travel between several countries with different spoken languages (and in that case my folder could be confusing), I have also created an account in a "medical data bank" that lets you upload scans, blood test results and any other information that doctors may need and have it localized into English. I also have a medical emergency ID card in my wallet that doctors can use to log into that online service to see my medical history. Hopefully I will never have to use it, but it feels good to have it.
Thanks Auma, I very much agree with your thoughts. Great idea about having your scans online when travelling. I'm hoping Perth doesn't continue to produce wellness gurus, we have enough problems with dishonest mining entrepreneurs.
DeleteAuma, incredible work fact finding and compiling. You have done an amazing job and relaying your own story speaks volumes.
ReplyDeleteThis may be the best estimate of reality we ever get - Absolutely incredible work! :)
Thanks Jared. It indeed looks like hoping for any proof from CMF is hopeless.
ReplyDeleteIn case people haven't realised what Candice said only yesterday 20-4-2015 after losing her cool while responding to Ann Tucker-Gwinn .
Delete[I have shown my records to trusted individuals like Chris, that can vouch for me and will send the message out to the people who need to hear it! ]
Remember everyone Candice has been claiming she doesn't have these records and has been telling us all along she is waiting for them!!
Liars always trip themselves up!!.
I'm actually pretty shocked she hasn't banned me. Although she has deleted a majority of my comments.
DeleteIn the "Candice on Cancer Pt 1" post, Candice says the original lump developed above her LEFT collarbone. Her FB post(s) above say it was the RIGHT collarbone.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm just nitpicky and have a weird memory, but this doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd just forget.
Yes, this is something I have been wondering about as well, as well as the position of scar on the chest in one of the pictures (lower than thyroid) and invisible thyroidectomy and neck dissection scars on the neck. OTOH, my surgeon did a great job, placing my lumpectomy and thyroidectomy scar in a skin fold (I never had neck dissection), and maybe in her case Photoshop, vanity and make-up do wonders and maybe she actually had affected lymph-nodes on both sides. If she went for breast augmentation, it is also possible she could have had further cosmetic surgery to hide neck scars.
ReplyDeleteConfusion about sides can be possible, too - 5 years ago I had a right ankle surgery and sometimes, when I have to refer to that in my medical history, I have to actually check which leg has the scar, because I forget, especially if I am hypothyroid, with memory problems.
Who knows what the real story is.
ReplyDeleteNice blog! all the images and contents are very good. Very informative blog I just read . GE 3S
Quite inspiring stories. No one expects cancers. But we can't decide. The things we can do is to live a more healthier life.
ReplyDeleteThyroid cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control. Any cells in
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What a beautiful day to share love in this quiet day of love. But Cancer has affects all of us, whether you’re a daughter, mother, sister, friend, co-worker, doctor, or patient. Thinking when will I be free from my nightmares but God have his own way of reaching his children, I was once a breast cancer patient for two years and eight months but now, happiness and joy has filled my soul. "ALL THANKS AND PRAISE TO GOD ALMIGHTY" for using Rick Simpson and the entire team of Phoenix Tears Foundation to cure my cancer with the Rick Simpson Cannabis oil, the God sent natural plant (Hemp oil) to help stop this cancer madness on earth. Help a life by reaching the Phoenix Tears foundation at ricksimpsoncannabisoil_phoenixtears@outlook.com or call 850-588-3358 to help save a life today. Nothing is impossible; if I can cure my cancer then you can too.
ReplyDeleteNever lose hope fighting cancer, only the strong continues.
Lindsay Payton, Paloma Lane, Harlingen,Tx
As a sign of gratitude for how my wife was saved from CANCER, i decided to reach out to those still suffering from this.
ReplyDeleteMy wife suffered cancer in the year 2013 and it was really tough and heartbreaking for me because she was my all and the symptoms were terrible, she always complain of abnormal vaginal bleeding, and she always have pain during sexual intercourse. . we tried various therapies prescribed by our neurologist but none could cure her. I searched for a cure and i saw a testimony by someone who was cured and so many other with similar body problem, and he left the contact of the doctor who had the cure to cancer . I never imagined cancer. has a natural cure not until i contacted him and he assured me my wife will be fine. I got the herbal medication he recommended and my wife used it and in one months time she was fully okay even up till this moment she is so full of life. cancer. has a cure and it is a herbal cure contact the doctor for more info on drwilliams098675@gmail.com on how to get the medication. Thanks for reading my testimony.
My names are HARRY MARY I’m a citizen of United Kingdom, My younger sister was sicking of breast cancer and her name is HARRY Sandra I and my family have taking her to all kind of hospital in UK still yet no good result. I decided to go to the internet and search for cancer cure so that was how I find a lady called peter Lizzy she was testifies to the world about the goodness of a herbal man who has the root and half to cure all kind of disease and the herbal man email was there. So I decided to contact the herbal man for my younger sister help to cure her breast cancer. I contacted him and told him my problem he told me that I should not worry that my sister cancer will be cure, he told me that there is a medicine that he is going to give me that I will cook it and give it to my sister to drink for one week, so I ask how can I receive the cure that I am in UK, he told me that I will pay for the delivery service. The courier service can transport it to me so he told me the amount I will pay, so my dad paid for the delivery fee. two days later I receive the cure from the courier service so I used it as the herbal man instructed me to, before the week complete my sister cancer was healed and it was like a dream to me not knowing that it was physical I and my family were very happy about the miracle of Doctor so my dad wanted to pay him 5 million us dollars the herbal man did not accept the offer from my dad, but I don't know why he didn't accept the offer, he only say that I should tell the world about him and his miracle he perform so am now here to tell the world about him if you or your relative is having any kind of disease that you can't get from the hospital please contact drsujuherbalhome@gmail.com or call <+2348168259521> he will help you out with the problem.
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.. TESTIMONY OF HOW MY DAD GOT CURED FROM CANCER......
ReplyDeleteMy name is Brown, my father has been suffering from cancer for over 3years, and the doctor told us that there is nothing he could do after doing 5 times chemotherapy and radiation and my father was not responding to treatment and not getting better.i was frustrated and confused and i started seeking advice from people until a friend told me about Dr. ALABI herbal medicines and cannabis oil and its fast curing ability of any kind of cancer and told me that her mother ovarian cancer was cured with the cannabis oil. I was desperate to save my father and i contacted Dr. ALABI via his email adress: dralabim5@gmail.com to get the miraculous oil. that was how the oil was sent to me through UPS Currier service. within 4days As i am writing this testimony on this Blog my father is so strong and healthy no more cancer in his cell blood again.my Father has been himself and i am so exicted of his fast recovery and with the help of this cannabis oil. What a miracle. My Father is now back alive, strong and healthy just within 3 weeks. We have gone for test and the doctor said there is no trace of cancer again in his body. you can also reach him via his whatsapp number:+2348155011610...Dr, ALABI CAN AS WELL CURE THE FOLLOWING DISEASES:
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TAKING YOUR TIME TO READ THROUGH MY TESTIMONY
AM RUFORS, FROM HOLAND, THANKS TO DR ONIHA WHO CURED ME FROM liver chirosis and FATTY LIVER PROBLEM WITH HIS HERBAL MEDICATION. I WAS DIAGNOSED OF FATTY LIVER PROBLEEM FIVE YEARS AGO, I VISITED MEDICAL DIALYSIS CENTER, AND THERE WERE NO BETTER IMPROVEMENT, UNTIL I SAW DR ONIHA'S TESTIMONIES AND RECONMMENDATIONS ONLINE, ON HOW HE HAS BEEN CURING PEOPLE OF LIVER PROBLEMS, AND I DECIDED TO CONTACT HIM, AND HE ADMINISTERED HID DERBAL MEDICATION ON ME, WITHIN A MONTH, I WAS CURED. IN CASE YOU ARE PASSING THROUGH A SIMILAR PROBLEM AND YOU NEED DR ONIHA'S ASSISTANCE, YOU CAN CALL OR WHATSAP +2347089275769 OREMAIL: DRONIHASPELL@YAHOO.COM
ReplyDeleteThere are some natural remedies that can be used in the prevention and eliminate diabetes totally. However, the single most important aspect of a diabetes control plan is adopting a wholesome life style Inner Peace, Nutritious and Healthy Diet, and Regular Physical Exercise. A state of inner peace and self-contentment is essential to enjoying a good physical health and over all well-being. The inner peace and self contentment is a just a state of mind.People with diabetes diseases often use complementary and alternative medicine. I diagnosed diabetes in 2000. Was at work feeling unusually tired and sleepy. I borrowed a glucometer from a co-worker and tested at 760. Went immediately to my doctor and he gave me prescibtion like: Insulin ,Sulfonylureas,Thiazolidinediones but Icould not get the cure rather to reduce the pain abd brink back the pain again. I found a woman testimony name Comfort online how Dr Akhigbe cure her HIV and I aslo contacted the doctor and after I took his medication as instructed, I am now completely free from diabtes by doctor Akhigbe herbal medicine.So diabetes patients reading this testimony to contact his email drrealakhigbe@gmail.com or his Number +2348142454860 He also use his herbal herbs to diseases like:SPIDER BITE, SCHIZOPHRENIA, LUPUS,EXTERNAL INFECTION, COMMON COLD, JOINT PAIN, BODY PAIN, EPILEPSY,STROKE,TUBERCULOSIS ,STOMACH DISEASE. ECZEMA, PROGERIA, EATING DISORDER, LOWER RESPIRATORY INFECTION, DIABETICS,HERPES,HIV/AIDS, ;ALS, CANCER , MENINGITIS,HEPATITIS A AND B, THYROID, ASTHMA, HEART DISEASE, CHRONIC DISEASE. NAUSEA VOMITING OR DIARRHEA,KIDNEY DISEASE, WEAK ERECTION. EYE TWITCHING PAINFUL OR IRREGULAR MENSTRUATION.Dr Akhigbe is a good man and he heal any body that come to him. here is email drrealakhigbe@gmail.com and his Number +2349010754824
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Can't still believe that I got cured from Genital Herpes through herbal treatment from Dr Vadi who I met through the internet, I actually couldn't believe it at first because it sounded impossible to me knowing how far I have gone just to get rid of it. Dr Vadi send me his medicine which I took as instructed and here I am living a happy life once again, a big thanks to Dr Vadi, I am sure there are many herbal doctors out there but Dr Vadi did it for me, contact him doctorvadi@yahoo.com , also call or whatsApp him on +2348074133083.
ReplyDeleteWHAT A GREAT MIRACLE THAT I HAVE EVER SEE IN MY LIFE. My names are Clara David I’m a citizen of USA, My younger sister was sicking of breast cancer and her name is Sandra David I and my family have taking her to all kind of hospital in USA still yet no good result. I decided to search for cancer cure so that was how I found a lady called Peter Lizzy. She was testifying to the world about the goodness of a herbal man who has the roots and herbs to cure all kinds of disease and the herbal man's email was there. So I decided to contact the herbal man @herbalist_sakura for my younger sister's help to cure her breast cancer. I contacted him and told him my problem he told me that I should not worry that my sister cancer will be cure, he told me that there is a medicine that he is going to give me that I will cook it and give it to my sister to drink for one week, so I ask how can I receive the cure that I am in USA, he told me That I will pay for the delivery service. The courier service can transport it to me so he told me the amount I will pay, so my dad paid for the delivery fee. two days later I receive the cure from the courier service so I used it as the herbal man instructed me to, before the week complete my sister cancer was healed and it was like a dream to me not knowing that it was physical I and my family were very happy about the miracle of Doctor so my dad wanted to pay him 5 million us dollars the herbal man did not accept the offer from my dad, but I don't know why he didn't accept the offer, he only say that I should tell the world about him and his miracle he perform so am now here to tell the world about him if you or your relative is having any kind of disease that you can't get from the hospital please contact dr.sakuraspellalter@gmail.com or whats app him +2348110114739 you can follow him up on Instagram @herbalist_sakura for the cure, he will help you out with the problem. And if you need more information about the doctor you can mail me davidclara223@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWHAT A GREAT MIRACLE THAT I HAVE EVER SEE IN MY LIFE. My names are Clara David I’m a citizen of USA, My younger sister was sicking of breast cancer and her name is Sandra David I and my family have taking her to all kind of hospital in USA still yet no good result. I decided to search for cancer cure so that was how I found a lady called Peter Lizzy. She was testifying to the world about the goodness of a herbal man who has the roots and herbs to cure all kinds of disease and the herbal man's email was there. So I decided to contact the herbal man @herbalist_sakura for my younger sister's help to cure her breast cancer. I contacted him and told him my problem he told me that I should not worry that my sister cancer will be cure, he told me that there is a medicine that he is going to give me that I will cook it and give it to my sister to drink for one week, so I ask how can I receive the cure that I am in USA, he told me That I will pay for the delivery service. The courier service can transport it to me so he told me the amount I will pay, so my dad paid for the delivery fee. two days later I receive the cure from the courier service so I used it as the herbal man instructed me to, before the week complete my sister cancer was healed and it was like a dream to me not knowing that it was physical I and my family were very happy about the miracle of Doctor so my dad wanted to pay him 5 million us dollars the herbal man did not accept the offer from my dad, but I don't know why he didn't accept the offer, he only say that I should tell the world about him and his miracle he perform so am now here to tell the world about him if you or your relative is having any kind of disease that you can't get from the hospital please contact dr.sakuraspellalter@gmail.com or whats app him +2348110114739 you can follow him up on Instagram @herbalist_sakura for the cure, he will help you out with the problem. And if you need more information about the doctor you can mail me davidclara223@gmail.com
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I want to thank Dr Successful for helping me with his herbal medicine to cure my herpes infection completely, i have been living with the disease for the past 2yrs. Right now am herpes negative after using the herbal medicine Dr Successful sent to me. I give thanks to God and healed completely you are the best Traditional doc in the world contact Dm https://web.facebook.com/Drsuccessful-109263294750359 Or WhatsApp +2349054910629 He also have powerful herbs remedies his herbal medications prevent and cure Cancer, Diabetes, High-Blood Pressure, Kidney Diseases, Prostate, Gall Stone, Myoma, Cyst, Paralysis, Stroke, Leukemia, Dengue, Anemia, Primary Complex, Gout, Arthritis, Migraine, Sleep Disorder, Dysmenorrhea, Goiter, Heart Problem, Hepatitis, Psoriasis, Vertigo, Low Sperm Count, Sexual Impotence, parasite and other serious problems.
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