My Dad first noticed the headaches whilst on holiday in June 2000; headaches are something that he had never suffered from. On his return from holiday, the headaches continued, so in July that year he made an appointment to see his GP. He has numerous visits to the Surgery during July, August, September and October and saw 2 or 3 different doctors in the practice and all gave a different diagnosis, varying from high blood pressure to shingles in the head. His symptoms were getting worse and he started taking time off work. The headaches focussed around his left eye and he had a lot of numbness around the left side of his face. Feeling he wasn't getting anyway with the doctors, he asked them if they could refer him to a Consultant. They said that it would take at least 6 months to get a Consultant appointment, so he decided to pay for a private appointment, which he got in about 3 weeks. The Consultant thought he might be suffering from 'Cluster' headaches, but he was concerned about the numbness and said he wanted to arrange for a MRI scan to be done.

By October he was spending more and more time in bed, his left eye had started to protrude and his eyelid was closing. During another visit to the surgery in October, the doctor at last showed concern at the appearance of Dad's eye; this was by then all but closed up. He contacted the local hospital and asked them to see him immediately.

During his 2 week stay in hospital, an MRI scan was done, which showed what the hospital termed as a 'mass' in his head. We were told not to worry as often a 'mass' turns out to be benign. However an appointment was made for him to have a biopsy at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Fulham. On the 3rd November 2000, Dad was told the result of the biopsy, he had a Nasal Pharyngeal Carcinoma, a malignant tumour that was quite rare in the Western World. He was told that Surgery wasn't an option, but that they thought it might respond well to Radiotherapy.

He received Radiotherapy treatment for 5 days a week, every week from the end of November until the middle of January 2001. On Friday 9 February he had an appointment with the Consultant to find out how things had gone. He was told there was still a small amount of 'something' there, but they were not sure whether it was still part of the tumour or scar tissue, because there was still a lot of swelling from the radiotherapy. They said they would see him again in a month's time when the swelling would have gone down and they could get a clearer picture.

However they did tell him that a nerve to his left eye had been permanently damaged something they had realised back in November, which meant that his eye would always be facing slightly inwards, leaving him with distorted and double vision. An appointment was made for him to see the eye specialist the following week. Then suddenly 2 days later on Sunday 11 February something amazing happened ~ on waking up and opening his eyes, he realised he was seeing things in single vision, his eye was moving virtually all the way to the left. So they were wrong, the nerve hadn't been permanently damaged. At last it was all over, the tumour had gone, the headaches had gone and he felt pretty good. He decided to keep the appointment with the eye specialist anyway, as he would probably be interested to see what had happened, he then talked about returning to work.

The following day, Monday 12 February he got up and said he felt really well. He went downstairs and made breakfast, without wearing the 'pirate' eye patch, which he had worn daily for months. By 9:30am that morning he started to feel ill and took himself off to bed. Apart from 2 trips to the Marsden, he remained in bed for 2 weeks; he would not eat and lost a stone in weight. He also lost his hearing and the sight in his left eye.

The Royal Marsden were marvellous, they got his hearing back after a small operation to put grommets in and sent him for all sorts of tests and scans. The vision in his left eye returned to about 70% and he was feeling quite fit and well again, which is why it came as a bigger shock to be told the tumour is still there at the back of his nose and spreading up under his left eye.

The Marsden explained to him about Chemotherapy and he had to make the decision if he wanted to go ahead with it. Obviously his answer was yes. The chemo was to start on the 14th March. The planned treatment, assuming everything was going well, was to be 3 sessions of 5 days in hospital followed by 2 weeks at home. After that a CT scan would be done and if there were no problems another 3 sessions would follow.

He started the first course of chemo, and everything was fine, no side effects. Three weeks later when he started the second course of chemo, he started getting pains in his stomach. He was kept me in hospital an extra week. He only had a week at home before he was due back for the 3rd course of chemo. However that week he went steadily downhill, his weight dropping to 9 stone, culminating in a week which thankfully he doesn't remember, but one that Mum and I will remember all too well.

He was still ill when he went back into hospital on the 26th April and they wouldn't start the 3rd course of chemo, until his stomach problem had cleared up. He had another CT scan and the report showed the cancer was growing. Things got worse; he collapsed a couple of times and was losing blood on going to the toilet. Everyday for 4 days, he was taken by ambulance to the Chelsea & Westminster hospital before being transferred there as an inpatient. He had by this time become so frail and weak. Mum & I were helpless to do anything. Then one evening I sat at the computer and trawled the Internet for cures, many of which cost many thousands of pounds, but an amount you are willing to pay in your desperation. I chanced across a herbal remedy for Cancer called Essiac. There were many places charging large sums for this product, but then I found some sites detailing how to make it. I told Mum about it but we both agreed that Dad wouldn't entertain taking anything like that. Thankfully though a few weeks later his stomach bleeding stopped and he finally got discharged from hospital on 21st May, but he never started his 3rd course of chemo.

After coming out of hospital he went to see one of the Consultants at the Marsden. However in view of how ill he had been, they were not keen to restart the chemotherapy. Basically it was a case of nature taking its course. Dad said he would be willing to give it another go. They advised him to have a break from hospitals for a couple of weeks, then come back and have another CT scan done. A decision would then be made whether or not to continue Chemotherapy. The decision depended on what the new scan showed compared to the scan done 26th April, when it showed that the tumour was spreading.

I kept thinking about this Essiac tea recipe and went about sourcing the herbs, I decided despite what I thought Dad would say, I was going to make it.

On Saturday 2nd June, Mum and I decided to start making the Essiac tea, which takes around 12 hours to brew. Dad hadn't felt that well and had gone to bed. Around teatime he started acting very strangely, he didn't seem to know us. We called the Doctor and Dad was admitted to hospital with what they thought was be meningitis, a condition that can occur as a result of the tumour. Everybody was at a loss what to do, he was in so much pain, he had become completely uncontrollable thrashing his arms and legs about, it was frightening. Mum and I never said anything to each other at the time but we both thought that Dad would not see the night out. Thank god he did.

When Mum and I returned home for a few hours sleep on Sunday morning, I finished bottling the Essiac Tea. A few days on and Dad started looking a little better. I went to see Dad on my own and took a bottle of the Tea into the hospital with me. I told him what it was and how we had made it and asked him to drink it. To my surprise, Dad said he would. What we saw over the following couple of days was completely amazing. Dad started to come back to being himself again, vaguely realising weird things had been happening, but the past week was really a blur in his mind.

The following week after being discharged from hospital he went to have the CT scan done. A week later he went to find out the results, he went there knowing that they were going to tell him that there was nothing further that they could do. He couldn't have been more wrong; instead they told Dad that the tumour had got smaller. As a result of this good news, Dad was offered the chance to restart the Chemo and went on to the have the remaining 4 sessions of chemo as originally planned.

I know my Dad was not receiving any other treatment at the time, his last session of Chemo had been in the first week of April and we had witnessed him getting worse and worse, until he started drinking the Essiac Tea. It is now 3 months on and Dad is still drinking 6 ounces of the tea a day, he has had 2 further CT scans in August and September, both of which showed a reduction of the tumour. He now doesn't have to go back to the hospital until January 2002. Although he is no longer working, he is feeling like his old self again, capable of doing jobs around the house, cooking food (a passion of his) and visiting friends.

I am not saying Essiac Tea will cure Cancer, because I have no scientific proof of this. There are hundreds of documented case studies which talk of similar experiences, and even some scientific data detailing how the herbs may work to cure cancer. All I know is that since he started drinking it, things have been put in reverse and I have got my Dad back.

I am a web designer, and I wanted to create somewhere on the net where I could sing the virtues of Essiac Tea. The original recipe for the tea was devised by Canadian Indians, but it is a woman by the name of Caisse (Essiac in reverse) who pioneered using it as a cancer treatment in Canada during the 1930's until her death in the late 1980's. One thing that she stipulated was the "Tea" should be available to the masses. In my searches for the Tea I found many companies selling the "Tea" for rip off prices, which in my mind is exploiting people when they are at their most vulnerable (I know from the feelings I had when looking around). For this reason I have published all the details of how to make the Tea on this site, along with the best places I have found to get the raw ingredients from.
We are also selling ready made "Tea" direct from the website, at a price which is representative of the cost of making it, just covering the costs of the ingredients and bottling. Every bottle of Tea is hand made, and the ingredients measured exactly just like the original recipe stipulates, unlike some of these big companies making Essiac.
I have found since, that Essiac can be useful for a whole list of ailments. For more information, please visit our Essiac section.

Over the last few months I have realised just how powerful natural remedies can be, and have expanded the site to include info on other natural remedies, which I will gradually expand.