How to Resist Chemotherapy: A Step of Faith (Part 2)

Video Transcript: How to Resist Chemotherapy: A Step of Faith (Part 2)

For part 1 of Chris’ story, click here.

Charlene Bollinger: Hello everybody! Ty and Charlene here. Did you see the first part of Chris Wark’s presentation from The Truth About Cancer LIVE Orlando? We promised we’d be back with Part 2 so here it is.

Ty Bollinger: The world we live in has constructed a system on how to cure cancer but you’ll quickly realize how alone you are when you deviate from that system. Chris is about to talk about his experience from that kind of pushback.

Chris Wark: And so, I was just overflowing with emotion and joy, and like just the lightbulbs are firing. I know you know these feelings, right? This excitement. Like I had just had this like mainline injection of hope, right? And I called my wife and I was so excited, and I was telling her about this book, and I was talking 90 miles an hour, I’m sure. And she was like “What are you talking about?” That’s how she talks. And I’m like “I got this book, and I’m not going to do chemo. We’ve got to find a juicer.” She was like “What?” And as soon as I put the phone down it rings again. And it’s another family member.

Because in my wife’s family, you tell one person something and they all know. They all know. There may be witchcraft involved. I’m not sure. I’m not sure. But I’m getting calls from family members, “Chris, we heard you’re thinking about not doing chemo. You really need to what the doctor says. I know someone who did alternative therapies and they died. You can’t boil broccoli in hydrogen peroxide. It’s not going to cure you.”

Someone told me that. I don’t even know what that—I didn’t even know that was a thing. Somebody told me that. Some of you are going to go home and do it, too. You’re going to try that. Let me know how it works. So, I got all this—it’s funny now, yeah. You’re laughing it up now. It wasn’t funny then. I got all this pressure instantly to do chemo from everyone around me. And it was terrible.

It was absolutely terrible to get this answer to prayer and then everyone around you says “No, no. That’s not an answer to prayer. That’s a mistake. You’re wrong. You’re being stubborn. It’s not going to work, not going to help you. Don’t you think if there was something better they’d know about it?” I don’t know how to answer these questions. I’m only on chapter two of this book. Let me get back to you. Come on.

But it was very discouraging. It was very discouraging because my support system kind of evaporated, right? Some of you, the same situation, right? Your support system was like “Poof!” Right? “Oh, you want to do chemo? Let’s run a race together. We’ll make some, get some T-shirts, print it up, bring some donuts. Like oh, chemo cancer club. Running a race.” You get all the support. “Do some stretching before we go.” You’ve got all the support in the world if you go that way. Right? All the support in the world. And if you deviate, if you deviate from the path, everybody’s like “No.”

So, I had a tough, a very tough wake-up call that I was alone. I was alone. The only person that supported me in the beginning was my mom. And this is an amazing—

Yeah. She’ll see this eventually, and then she will be very happy to hear you clap for her. My mom was a health nut, like 70’s era health nut, right? And so, I grew up eating like semi— quasi-healthy food, right? Like the peanut butter with the crunchies in it and the oil on the top. Like we had that. And we had sprouts. Avocados, we had some of those usually. We had kefir before anybody knew what kefir was. We had kefir in the house. She had a product called Parkelp. Still don’t know what that is. Something to do with kelp, I guess.

So, she would always buy little knick-knacks at the health food store. And when I told her about this book, and I started talking about it, she was like “Oh, I know all about that. Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of books about the raw food diet and juicing, and people healing cancer and all.” I’m like “You do?” Stacks of books. She had books by—every Paul Bragg book, had all the Bragg books, Pablo Areola. She had Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. She had that book, which in hindsight, wasn’t a great book.

But she had amassed this collection, this library of books on natural health and healing, since like the early 1970s, right, for 30 years, and just had stacks of them. My mom is just an avid reader and loves to learn. And so I had this sort of like treasure trove, this library. Like what? This is crazy. I can’t believe she’s been saving all these up for me, right? Not knowing it. Like yeah. Like she’s either a pack rat or maybe divine intervention? I don’t know.

So, I discovered Dr. Lorraine Day and Dr. Richard Schulze, and Anne Frahm, A Cancer Battle Plan. So, I started going from book to book to book. Back then, the internet sucked. You don’t remember, but in 2004, there was no Facebook, there was no YouTube. It started in 2005. And there were no videos on the internet. It was like every website had like little dancing cats on it and that was all, right? And so, I didn’t find any help on the internet. And I was so desperate to find people who had healed and I couldn’t find them. I couldn’t find them. There’s a handful of books, and that was like it.

And now, looking back, I realize it was a blessing in disguise, right? Because everything I found was confirmatory. And it kept me on a very tight and narrow path. And today, we have the opposite problem. Right? You’ve got too much information, right? Information is power. I’m so glad we have a lot of information, but you can get really confused. Right? There’s all these websites about cancer and alternative therapies and healing, and… you know? I get it. Right?

But I do want to say there’s never been a better time to get cancer. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

There really has never been a better time because, thanks to the information superhighway, the information age that we’re in, like, we can share all these amazing healing stories. You can find these healing testimonials online. I’m constantly sharing them.

I’ve interviewed four or five people at least at this conference with absolutely amazing cancer healing stories—long-term survival, terminal cancer healing stories. You’ll see them soon on the blog. Okay?

So many people are coming up to me telling me that they’re healing, they’re getting well, they’ve already healed. I’m like “Okay, get out of here. Boring.” Right? That’s exciting. It’s amazing what’s happening.

But back then I didn’t have any of that. And so, it was tough. It was tough because I wanted more, and I only had a little. But it forced me to just stay the course, just to keep doing what I was doing. And so, I converted to raw food diet overnight. Tons of fruits and vegetables. I bought a Champion juicer, started juicing carrots, 64 ounces a day, overdosing on nutrition. That was this idea I had. I’m going to overdose on nutrition. If I’m not going to put chemo in my body, I’m going to overdose on nutrition. I’m going to see how many carrots it takes to kill me. I didn’t find that answer, but I did find out how many it takes to turn my skin orange. And it was 64 ounces a day. That’s how much it takes.

Now back to the family pressure. So, I made this instantaneous change, but people were still saying like “Well, you’ve got to go talk to the doctor. You’ve got to—will you please go hear what they have to say? Maybe they have some alternative therapies available.” I’m like “Okay…”

So, in order to appease family pressure—

[Waving] Hi. I’m right here. I know it’s fun on the screen though. I’m like so much bigger. You can see my muscles really good.

So, in order to appease—this is the part of the story that’s supposed to be serious. In order to appease the family pressure, right, I agreed to go. Many of you know that feeling, right? Everybody’s like bugging you and won’t leave you alone, and you’re like you know what you want to do, your instincts, your intuition, your heart, you know deep down what you need to do, what you should do, or what you shouldn’t be doing. Right? But everyone else is telling you like “You’ve got to go to the doctor. You’ve got to get this. You’ve got to get that.”

And so, I’m like “Okay, okay.” I just wanted to alleviate the pressure. And so, we go to the cancer clinic, the parking lot is packed. The waiting room is full. And I walk in, it’s kind of like first day at a new school, you know? Like maybe in the lunchroom or whatever. Like you’re kind of walking in, like “Who do I sit by? Any cool people in here?”

No. I didn’t see any cool people. They were all old. Like really old. I was 26, handlebar mustache, shaggy hair, rock and roll dude. And everybody else in there was like 50, 60, 70, 80. There might have been a 100 year-old person in there. Alright? It was like gray hair, no offense, gray hair and then me. And I was just like “What am I doing here? I don’t belong here. This is so strange.”

We sit down and the TV’s on, and it’s the morning show. And we’re waiting to go back. And out comes Jack LaLanne on this morning show. Jack LaLanne comes out and he’s like going off! “The reason we’re all sick is because we’re eating all this processed food and manmade food and junk food and too much meat and dairy. And if man made it, don’t eat it.” And I’m like “This is so weird. This is so weird. So weird. Why is this happening in the cancer clinic right now? This is unbelievable.”

And then we go back and see the oncologist and he gives me the standard thing, you know? He looks at my chart, “There is this guy, Chris. Chris with the colon cancer. Chris. Colon cancer.” Comes in, you’ve got “Chris, you have colon cancer.” Right? “Stage 3C. You’ve got about a 60% chance of living five years with treatment.”

I went “Well, that’s not very encouraging. 60%? That’s kind of close to 50, which is like a coin toss basically. Well, that’s not inspiring any confidence at all, doc.” And he said some other stuff that was boring. And then I said, “What about the raw food diet?” I’d been on it for a week. And he said “No, you can’t do that. It will fight the chemo.”

That’s what he said. That’s what he said. I asked him if there were any alternative therapies available. And at that point, he started to get irritated and his demeanor changed like pretty much just like that. And he became very arrogant and condescending. And he said “No, if you don’t do chemotherapy, you’re insane.”

And in that moment in time, the fear just was like [exploding sound] right? The wave of fear just smashed me. And I got the deer in the headlights, right? The tunnel vision. Like I just went into a panic. And he’s talking to me sternly about stuff that I don’t want to hear about, and telling me if I don’t do what he says, I’m going to die.

That’s what you all heard, right? Has anybody in here not heard that? That’s the message. Do this or die. There’s no third option. There’s no second option. And as he’s talking, and I’m just like wanting to run out of there, he said something that just cuts through the “Wah-wah-wah” you know, kind of Peanuts-sounding talking. And he’s like “…. And I’m not saying this because I need your business.” Yeah.

And I was like “Wait a minute. Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s back up.” I’m in sales. And one of the first things they taught me in sales is this technique called the push-away. Yeah, the push-away. “You’re doing the push-away right now.” “I know what you’re up to and I wasn’t even talking about business. What does business even have to do with it?” Right? “Business? I thought this was like a charity thing or something. Isn’t that what doctors do? They just like care for everyone magically or whatever. Isn’t that what they do?” He thought that was funny. He thought it was funny. I never thought about the business of cancer treatment. At all. You know what’s crazy?

There’s a brand-new study out in the BMJ this week: 2/3, right under nearly 2/3 of the cancer drugs approved between 2009 and 2013 show no benefit, no survival benefit and no quality of life benefit. How in God’s name did these drugs get approved showing no benefit at all? Tell me.

Audience: Money.

It’s money. It’s money. They’re all approved before they even show a benefit. They’re like “We’ve got a new drug.” And the FDA’s like “Okay, here you go. I’ll stamp it.” Right? “You start selling that thing.”

So, I didn’t know anything about the business of cancer back then, but I know now that private practice oncologists make up to 2/3 of their income from the profit of chemotherapy drugs. Isn’t that great? Let’s all clap for that. Way to go, guys! Way to go! You’re just raking it in. Yeah, can I stay at your beach house, by the way?

So, you know, even though I had Jack LaLanne talking to me in the waiting room, and then he said the weird stuff in our appointment. The fear was so strong and so powerful that I got up out of our appointment like a robot, and went to the desk and made an appointment to get a port put in, in a couple weeks when it was like my time or whatever.

And then we walked out to the car and we sat in my wife’s car and we cried. Because it was like one of the worst days, another really bad day. Right? And we prayed. And I was so defeated. I was so deflated. And all my faith and my courage and my enthusiasm and optimism was just shattered by that appointment. And you’ve been there, right? Right? It’s a fear factory. I’m not saying all oncologists are bad or they all do this. But this happens a lot. This happens a lot. There are good and bad people in the world, right? There are liars, thieves, murderers, drug addicts. Some of them are doctors.

I’m just saying. They are. A medical degree does not make you a good person. Sorry. It’s the truth. But we treat them like they are, right? We treat them like they’re a priest in the white robe.

For part 3 of Chris’ story, click here.