Video: The Healing Journey from Stage 4 Bone Cancer

Hi, my name is Marlowe Sutton. I was fortunate to recently move to Florida and landed an hour from LifeWorks which was perfect timing. I was diagnosed with stage 4 bone cancer and after a couple of months at Moffitt, I determined that that was not the route I wanted to go. I had been doing quite a bit of research online and with friends help, I, I had determined that there was probably a better way to try and heal my body.

And fortunately LifeWorks met all of those needs all in one place, all under one roof. I spent a couple months at Moffitt and was listening to all that they had to say about what my treatment was going to look like. And it basically was going to be for the rest of my life. I would be taking big pharma drugs that were going to make me feel horrible. And I’m really a quality of life kind of girl.

So that didn’t really fit my outcome of what I wanted to do. And after our first session at LifeWorks they, they explained to me that they were going to attack my cancer from the inside out, that they were going to figure out why my immune system went wonky and they were going to fix it. And I thought that sounded like a much better plan so that, that got me going back in April.

So just starting meeting with Dr. Van Leuven was very impressed with all the staff that I interacted with on my first day here. Everybody has such a great attitude and all, even the patients in the waiting room, everybody is so friendly. It’s like you, you’ve now just joined a new family. It was a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but they hold your hand through the whole process and teach you ways and hacks to get up to speed and get through all the life changing events.

Because there’s definitely a lot you need to do to make this work. It’s it to me it was sort of a job, but it’s a job to save my life. So I, I fully jumped in head first. My therapies were the ones I really liked were, I love the Hocatt, it’s nice warm little sauna. And didn’t like the hyperthermia but I realized how important it is and did hyperbaric chambers, the oxygen baths, the Kaqun baths, lots and lots of supplements, many, many IVs, all of which have really brought me to wearing this beautiful crown today.

Because this is my last day of treatment. I will be looking forward to my next PET scan in two weeks. The first one, after three months, took all of my numbers in half. My signetera test number went from 4311 down to 0.27 in just four months. So I fully committed to doing everything that they’ve had me do. And I gotta say, I feel better now than I have in 25 years.

And I’m playing tennis five days a week, riding my bike 10 miles, doing water aerobics, doing anything. And I got here, I was in excruciating back pain. All of that is gone. So it is a beautiful story. I feel like Cinderella, because I have the crown on.

Well, I mean, I think success is just achieving the goal.

I came here hoping to rid my body of cancer, to put this in my rearview mirror. And, and I do believe wholeheartedly that’s going to be what I. I find in the next couple of weeks, just based on the mid midterm report card, which was, which was an amazing result. So I can imagine it’s going to continue. Yeah. Oh. As far as the success story goes, I just want to share.

I mean, I’ve been wanting to post on Facebook and just, you know, not educate, but at least open people’s minds to the possibility that you, you know, the standard of care that’s preached at all the hospitals isn’t the only way to go. This is a much better way where you’re actually treating your body. You’re. You’re allowing your body to heal itself. And as a firm believer in God, I know that he’s created our bodies that are magnificent and they can heal themselves.

And so rather than go kill all your cells with chemo, radiation and, and, and drugs, let your body do the work and, and give it the tools that it needs. I feel like the first few weeks here, you guys, I called it boot camp first for my killer cells. Like, you guys gave me all the chemicals. Not chemicals, the, the supplements and the things that I needed to prepare me to endure this journey.

And, and with that, I’ve gotten. My energy is off the charts. I have. I feel fantastic. And my people can’t. My friends can’t believe that I’m sick. They think I’m faking it because I’ve just been doing so good. So, yeah, I want other people to know that there are other options, and I really encourage them to open their minds and give it a try. Oh. I think as a Christian, I would say lean into your faith and really, I think just know that God has you on this and, and to, to not give up that.

I know that there are dips. There’s, you know, in life, there’s always your. You got the hills and the valleys and sometimes, you know, your body’s detoxing or whatever, you don’t feel that great. But to just keep steady on the path because you’re going to get to the other side. And so I would encourage people to just, you know, give it. Give it your all.

I mean, that’s kind of how I did it. I didn’t just put my toe in the water. I jumped into the deep end of the pool. And in many ways, I felt like I had a little bit of an advantage because I was a weight watcher. So I like going to the keto. That was kind of an easy thing for me because I learned how to eat with weight watchers, so I just used all that same skills in switching to keto – bonus, lost 30 pounds.

And I’ve really, you know, gotten to enjoy and I mean, I do miss the Diet Cokes. I’m not gonna lie. Glass of wine here and there would be nice. But, yeah, I’m sticking to the diet. I’m sticking to the things that will keep me healthy, that will continue this success, because I got a lot of things I want to do. I’m not done here yet. So I want to be strong and healthy and vibrant and I need, you know, I need all the energy I can to do those things.

So I would say A++ to all of the people that work at LifeWorks, this is such an amazing facility. Dr. Van Leuven was kind and caring and spent so much time explaining. I mean, the difference between meeting with Nina and meeting with the doctors at Moffitt was it was the opposite.

I mean, she goes through everything, really explains it so that you understand exactly why you’re doing what you’re doing and how it’s going to get you where you want to go. All the nurses in the IV room, I mean, it’s a family. Everybody here is so caring and loving and supportive and encouraging. It just warms my heart.

I have to give credit to my team of friends back in California.

I had a group of friends, neighbors, and even my tennis friend’s husband, who all just started digging into the Internet and sending me podcasts and videos and Facebook posts of all these other options of holistic natural care before I even left California. And so my eyes were open to the possibility. And then after spending a couple work weeks at Moffitt, a couple months at Moffitt, I realized that that was really going to be a better fit for me.

But the trick was I couldn’t find a place. And I had done some Google searches and unfortunately lifeworks didn’t pop up. But God is good. And the girl I play tennis with, I had just mentioned to her I’m looking for a natural holistic cancer center. And the next day she emails me or she texts me a link to LifeWorks. And I thought that was God, because this is exactly. I said, Doug, where’s Clearwater? We just moved here. I have no idea where we are. He says, it’s about an hour from here. I go, I just found my place.

So that was really just an answer to prayer and I really felt like just God’s hand was all over us moving to Florida, ending up an hour from the perfect place. I mean, I’ve told people, come stay at my house and you could go get treated in Clearwater. I’ll put you up, I’ll take you there because I want to share this experience with others and let them get healthy too.

I’ve really learned how much what we put in our mouths is super important. I mean I’ve always, you know, I’ve known about organic and grass fed, grass finished, but just really understanding how much, how much chemicals we are putting in our bodies as far as like the makeup we put on the body lotion, the stuff that has since our dishwashing pods and laundry detergents, all of that stuff I have changed over to natural.

So I, I just really hadn’t thought about it. But you think your skin is your biggest organ, right? I’m slapping on that orange ginger smells good cream and thinking, okay, that’s really not good for you. So the Yuka app has been really eye opening as far as being able to, you know, discern what to buy in the store and just, yeah, learning how to choose the right things off the menu, staying away from things. As Dr. Minkoff says, it’s not food if it’s in a bag.

So yeah, I’m getting, becoming a little more aware of, of how to eat and just changing my whole perception. I think I used to live to eat and now I eat to live.

Well, yeah, so when I arrived in Florida, I had extreme back pain. Like if I dropped something on the floor, I had to get my husband to pick it up.

And you know, starting care at Moffitt, they were, you know, they did lots of scans and they basically just were prescribing lots of drugs that had side effects as long as my arm. And that just wasn’t something I was looking to do for the rest of my life. I couldn’t imagine taking pills that cost $33,000 a month for the rest of my life to make me feel horrible.

So, yeah, coming here, they’re immediately, you know, addressing, let’s get to the bottom of this. And, you know, pretty soon I’m able to play tennis, which is my passion. It’s my love. And. And I want to, you know, be out and about and doing stuff. And. And the people at Moffitt said, well, the most you should really do is walk. And I thought, there’s just no way. If I’m walking, then just take me to heaven, because I’m not interested in that for the rest of my life.

So now I’m happy to say I’m on two tennis teams, playing competitive tennis and doing everything that I want to do, either. I have no limitations. And so that just brings me so much joy, and I want to share that joy with anybody that, you know, you can get back to where you were. In fact, get better. I feel like an old car that came from Jay Leno’s garage.

It’s, like, completely. I’m refurbished from the wheels up because so many of the pains that I had that weren’t even related to the cancer. Like, my knees hurt, you know, my shoulder hurts. All that’s gone. It’s. I feel like all these supplements and things have not only addressed the cancer, but they’ve also addressed deficiencies in my system. So I’m getting the bonus of, you know, complete rehab, and it’s worth every penny.

I want to say a big giant thank you for being here for Dr. Minkoff and all of his perseverance to start this and to keep it going and to watch it flourish. I mean, it’s really amazing to see the big building next door and just see all the new faces. I’m going to miss all my friends in the waiting rooms and.

But I really encourage anyone who’s struggling with anything, doesn’t have to be cancer. I mean, there’s just, they treat so many things here holistically to get us off the big pharma drugs and to let your body have a natural healing. I want to recommend that you give it a try because it’s well worth the effort, and I think you’ll be as amazed and blessed as I am.