My name is Frank. I'm 51 years old and live in Nottingham. I've been a musician and sound engineer my whole life, playing lead guitar in rock bands or working as soundman. I was born in Italy and moved to the UK 16 years ago to pursue my musical career. I'm best known in the British music scene as Frank Joe Perry, as for the past 10 years I've been impersonating Joe Perry with the Toxic Twins, UK based Aerosmith tribute band.
My history with cancer started at the end of 2010. I began suffering from a very acute toothache and went to see a dentist. I was treated for an apparent infection and even had 2 teeth extracted, but the pain just wouldn't go. In August 2011 I started to develop a swelling on my right cheek, very close to the nose, but it was only in December the same year that I was referred to a specialist and found out the swelling was in fact a tumor. This was only days after my father passed away, and my father in law had also passed away weeks before.
In January 2012 the final diagnosis came, I was affected by a malignant myofibroblastic sarcoma that extended from the right upper jaw to the cheek, meaning that the swelling on my face was only part of the tumor, which had first developed inside the jaw and palate. In the meanwhile the swelling kept growing until my face was almost unrecognizable. I was first referred to a Head and Neck specialist team with a view to surgically remove the tumor, but the MRI scan I had done showed that the tumor itself was too big to operate right away and I was also told about some worrisome "dots" on my lungs, which were apparently too small to be assessed. I was referred to an oncologist and underwent 7 weeks of radical radiotherapy, hoping that this treatment would shrink the tumor down to an operable size. The 2 months of radiotherapy have been the worst time of my life. I was in so much pain that I had to take strong doses of morphine everyday just to keep going, I was constantly exhausted, lost a lot of weight and rarely left the bed other than for going to the hospital to get treatment. I've risked losing my right eye, which had become extremely itchy and sore and my eyesight had also been affected. My girlfriend Terri had to quit her job too to look after me. It's been an incredibly tough time for both of us. The medication I was on had turned me into a ghost, a shadow of my former self.
At the end of the treatment the swelling on my cheek had gone right down, which made me hopeful about upcoming surgery and moving towards the solution of this problem. They let me rest for 4 weeks and then took a second head and chest CT scan. A week later I went to hear about the CT scan result from my oncologist. I was a bit nervous but also quite confident that the treatment had worked, but the world was about to come crashing down on me and Terri. The oncologist came in the consultation room, sat down and told us that the "dots" on the lungs had grown in size and new ones had appeared which meant the tumor was now metastatic and therefore they would not put me forward for surgery. She gave me a prognosis of 6 to 18 months to live and offered chemotherapy or clinical trials as the only thing they could do for me.
Needless to say Terri and I were totally devastated by the news, we just went home and cried. But then something happened. Up to that point we had told only a few people about my disease, so we started to tell our friend and look at alternative cancer cures online. The response we got has been amazing, friends from all over the world started to email us tons of links about nutrition, herbal remedies, complementary therapies and videos with stories of people who had been successful at beating cancer. I realized that I needed to take back control over my own health rather than just listening to the doctors. I decided to refuse chemotherapy. I threw away all my medications and got started on a new diet and supplement program plus some complementary therapies, which includes hyperbaric oxygen sessions, Iscador, acupuncture, exercise and meditation. A totally new regime that has given some amazing results in the sense of my wellbeing and recovery. I'm looking to start soon on High Dose vitamin C and hyperthermia treatment.
The best solution for me would be a treatment offered by a Mexican Hospital called Oasis of Hope. They've dealt with many cases of metastatic sarcoma and have an extremely good rate of success, with most patients still alive and well after more than 5 years. This is the reason why I'm appealing for your help. The treatment in Mexico would be based on 4 cycles with a month rest in between the basic cost is $40,000 plus any extra scan, lab work and therapy to be paid on top of that. Realistically I will need at least $60,000 (around £40,000) put aside to pay the hospital plus pay for 4 return flights from the UK to Mexico to complete the treatment, which is way over my budget.
My new diet and complementary therapies regime is already costing me over £1,200 per month, and I need to put together the money to go to Mexico. I'm selling everything I can of my musical equipment, but even by doing that I will only raise a fraction of the amount needed. I'm appealing to all of you to please donate whatever you can to help me to go to Mexico, as my life depends on it. I will be hugely grateful of any donations, no matter how small.
I don't want to give up,…I'm going to fight this disease with my whole being, and I hope that my message can bring some hope to everybody else out there that is fighting a similar battle.
http://www.toxictwins.net/franksappeal.html
Love and Hope
Frank xxx
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