Sally Moores of thehappysage: I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It

An Interview With Savio P. Clemente

ACCEPTANCE — You have cancer. Nobody wants to hear those words but understand that cancer is just one chapter in your life story. Try to accept your diagnosis and instead of looking for the negatives in the situation, try to find and focus on some positives, however hard that can be sometimes! Appreciation is like a magnet. Keep looking for reasons to be appreciative and you will be surprised at what beneficial situations and people show up in your life.

Cancer is a horrible and terrifying disease. Yet millions of people have beaten the odds and beat cancer. Authority Magazine started a new series called “I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It”. In this interview series, we are talking to cancer survivors to share their stories, in order to offer hope and provide strength to people who are being impacted by cancer today. As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sally Moores.

As a young child growing up in rural Yorkshire, Sally Moores witnessed first-hand how successful natural remedies could be for healing, both in animals and humans. Sally survived an aggressive stage 4 blood cancer and this only served to strengthen and broaden her life-long interest in all aspects of health and healing. She currently lives in North Somerset, UK where she runs thehappysage.co.uk, writing articles on well-being, natural beauty and lifestyle.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! We really appreciate the courage it takes to publicly share your story. Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?

Thank you for inviting me to take part and for giving me the opportunity to give hope and positivity to those with a late stage cancer diagnosis.

When I was nine we moved to a small-holding in Yorkshire, which has to be one of the most fabulous places for a child to live and grow up in. I could roam anywhere I liked and had total freedom. My mother always knew I would be somewhere nearby and that I would be home when I was hungry!

I was quite a feral child who adored animals and was constantly rescuing waifs and strays. I rescued a piglet that a farmer was going to kill because his back legs were paralysed, and he lived in the kitchen for six months until he regained the use of his legs. I also adopted a lamb whose mother had died that grew into a rather large and mischievous ram! I once found what I thought was a dead cat in a drain, but it turned out it was still alive and a few weeks after smuggling it home, I found a litter of kittens in my wardrobe. If anything was lost, sick, injured or unwanted it came home with me. Luckily my mother was a saint and wasn’t fazed by any of our new guests. She kept a lame duck in the bathroom for a while which took a great interest when you had a bath, so she could hardly protest at my adoption habit!

In rural farming areas veterinary treatment was expensive and considered a last resort. I saw first-hand how successful natural remedies could be for healing and I think it was this that sparked a life-long interest in health, both in animals and humans. That passion has only increased over time and I’m still at it. I’ve always got a health book or research paper on the go and I have personally tested and investigated many therapies, remedies and products over the decades. I’m still excited to get up in a morning as there is so much out there I haven’t even scraped the surface of and there is always new science being published. You are never too old to learn something new.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Keep your body strong, your heart wild and your spirit free”. I can’t even remember when or where I heard it but it just resonated with me. It’s what I strive for because I think it is a simple recipe for a balanced life and I often reference situations and decisions against it to see if they fit in with my mantra.

If you have your health, everything else is achievable. Without your health your life can be restricted in so many ways. I have always tried to be as healthy as possible and I think this is what helped me survive a late stage cancer, so keep your body strong.

I try to keep my heart as wild as possible even as I age, the same as it was when I was a child before it was exposed to all the negative life experiences you gain as an adult. It’s exciting to stay curious, take chances with that childish excitement and anticipation and go with your gut instincts. When you are young you tend to just go with the flow but I think you lose this over the years, so keep your heart wild.

Sometimes I have to try really hard not to let my spirit be crushed by other people and their expectations of how I should act, what I should be like and how I should live my life. This gets a lot easier as you get older, so keep your spirit free.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about surviving cancer. Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the story surrounding how you found out that you had cancer?

I have always been in touch with my body and was rarely ill. I knew that something was wrong with me but it was just small things to begin with. I had minor ear infections, a cough and a cold that seemed to be dragging on and muscle aches and pains. I also started to feel unbelievably tired, which certainly wasn’t normal for me. I went to my doctor on numerous occasions and they ran blood tests but said they were all fine.

Over the next few months I got steadily worse and started losing a lot of weight. My appetite decreased and I was in a lot of pain. I just knew something was very wrong. I went back to the doctor and this time she told me to go home and that she would call for an ambulance. In hospital the Admitting Consultant found my calcium levels were over double what they should be and thought I had a thyroid problem, but the test came back negative. The only way they could get my calcium levels down was to put me on dialysis.

They suspected that I had cancer and I had every scan going but they couldn’t locate it. I had been in hospital for about two weeks when the Admitting Consultant came and held my hand and said that sometimes people get cancer but they never do find out where it is. He said I was an unusual presentation so I replied that I would be an unusual recovery. My blood tests were all normal (apart from the calcium) and he wondered if I could have some form of blood cancer and wanted me to have a bone marrow biopsy. The haematology department rejected this idea because I had none of the standard symptoms of lumps, bumps, rashes or night sweats. By this time some people were basically writing me off as a cancer case with no primary source identified and a probable secondary. Luckily for me my Consultant didn’t give up and kept pushing, even contacting specialists in America for help, and then insisted on the bone marrow biopsy for me. The biopsy came back positive for stage 4 aggressive diffuse large B cell lymphoma, basically a cancer of part of my immune system.

At this point I was transferred to the oncology department and didn’t see my Admitting Consultant again. There is no doubt in my mind that this man saved my life by refusing to give up on me. Some years later I managed to track him down and wrote to him to tell him I was alive and to thank him for what he had done for me. He wrote back to say how pleased he was to hear from me, and how eerie the timing was. Just a few weeks previously he had been on shift when a woman came in with the same symptoms I had been admitted with (luckily she had an issue that was much easier to resolve). He explained to his Registrars about my admission and they wanted to know what happened to me after diagnosis but he couldn’t tell them, now he could go back and finish the story. I like to think that there are quite a few qualified haematology consultants out there now who know that it is possible to have a blood cancer without any of the traditional symptoms.

What was the scariest part of that event? What did you think was the worst thing that could happen to you?

A few days before I received my diagnosis I was told that I was being put under palliative care. I was deteriorating rapidly in hospital, was in a wheelchair and having to be mechanically hoisted in and out of the bath. For me this was the scariest part, I felt like most people were giving up on finding the primary cause of my cancer and that I was just expected to die shortly. I know at one point, after a particularly bad night, my family were told I had about 48 hours to live.

To my everlasting shame, I was extremely rude to the lovely palliative care lady who came to see me. I did apologise afterwards and agreed to go on continuous slow release morphine for pain relief so that I would feel more comfortable, but as a compromise she was banned from using the word palliative!

I was also told that I was five months in to a six month terminal illness and the outlook was not good as I had a fast growing and aggressive blood cancer. My absolute worst fear was that I was so ill that I would never get to go home again and that I would die in hospital.

How did you react in the short term?

I felt weirdly elated when I got my diagnosis. After all I had been through I was just glad to know what was wrong with me. Then I realised how serious my situation was, my odds of surviving were low, and I coped by going in to massive organisation and research mode. This was all about me wanting to take control back from a situation where I had been powerless and it felt good to actually be doing something proactive.

I wanted to know absolutely everything about my illness, my treatment, the drugs, the side effects and how it all worked. I must have been a right pain. One Registrar told me he used to try to get me as his patient because he had exams coming up and I was asking really difficult, medical questions that he ought to know the answers to. He was using me for revision practice!

After the dust settled, what coping mechanisms did you use? What did you do to cope physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?

As my treatment started I was warned it was going to be hard for me given the state I was in. I had high dose chemotherapy, monoclonal antibody infusions, chemotherapy injections in the spine and blood transfusions. I also had a stem cell collection. Physically it was the most demanding thing I have ever done, but I just trusted my body would be able to cope with it and I loved it even more for hanging on long enough for me to have treatment. I just tried to give my body the optimum conditions to cope with what was being thrown at it.

Mentally I am quite strong but all the drugs had a really bad effect on me. I started to get auditory hallucinations when I closed my eyes, which was absolutely terrifying. I could hear voices talking to me even when there was no-one there. I also got involuntary muscle spasms where suddenly my head or leg would uncontrollably turn the other way. Luckily, because I had asked so many questions, I knew that this could be a rare side effect of too much morphine. This was good in one respect because it meant that the chemotherapy was killing off a lot of cancer cells, but if I hadn’t asked those questions I think I would truly have thought I was having a breakdown or dying. As I see it, the only reason I coped mentally was because of the knowledge I had from asking all those questions!

Emotionally it was really tough. I wasn’t allowed to see my three children most of the time because they usually had sniffles and colds and I had no immune system. My youngest child, who was four, used to sit on the other side of the bedroom door and cry because he couldn’t see me. My daughter was taking important school exams and said that her exam paper had tears on it. It broke my heart but made me even more determined to recover so I could be a proper mum and get my life back again. My youngest was just about to start school and I wanted to take him on his first day, as I had done with my other two children. Too often we take ‘normal’ for granted and just don’t realise how special it really is.

One way I coped with the physical, mental and emotional turmoil was through my spiritual practice. I’m a 2nd degree Reiki practitioner and treated myself twice a day, an hour in the morning and an hour at night. It kept me grounded and I always felt serene and calm afterwards with less anxiety. I also did a lot of visualisations. I have a really vivid imagination and find it easy to transport myself mentally to a different environment, for instance a forest or a beach. I used this tool a lot when I was in hospital having chemotherapy and amplified it by listening to birdsong or wave sounds.

Is there a particular person you are grateful towards who helped you learn to cope and heal? Can you share a story about that?

The palliative care team asked me if I would like to see a psychologist but I didn’t want to spend time talking about all my fears. I understand that some people find this approach very helpful, but it wasn’t for me. I personally feel that by constantly repeating negative thoughts you just give them more power and cement them in your mind. I wanted to clear my mind of these and only think about and reinforce positive thoughts and outcomes.

I have always loved Dr Wayne Dyer and felt called to visit his teachings again. I re-read all his books that I had and listened to his CD’s. I found his voice calming and his words full of sense and positivity. I got so much hope and strength from listening to him and it gave me an inner calm, almost a knowing, that everything was going to be all right in the end.

In my own cancer struggle, I sometimes used the idea of embodiment to help me cope. Let’s take a minute to look at cancer from an embodiment perspective. If your cancer had a message for you, what do you think it would want or say?

Cancer definitely has a message; it’s whether we take the time to hear it. I felt mine was saying, “Just slow down and take time to reflect”.

From such a low point in my life where cancer had taken just about everything from me, I think it wanted me to take a good look at my nearly blank life canvas and decide how I was going to re-paint it for my future.

What did you learn about yourself from this very difficult experience? How has cancer shaped your worldview? What has it taught you that you might never have considered before? Can you please explain with a story or example?

I learnt that I am so much more resilient and positive in the face of adversity than I thought I would be. I faced my worst fears and my mortality and came through, and I am only stronger in all manner of ways from the experience.

I realised how much time I had wasted worrying about things happening in the world that I couldn’t control. I saw that I can’t help everyone or fix everything I don’t like, and to just let it go. Looking back I felt strongly that I had neglected myself and my needs in the process of trying to be everything to everyone. I don’t think I would have seen this before cancer.

I had always wanted a dog and I made a promise to myself that when I recovered I would get a puppy. This was so exciting because not only was this a focus for my future but I was also doing something just for myself which would make me happy and give me joy. It was a very liberating moment.

How have you used your experience to bring goodness to the world?

One of the biggest side effects I had with chemotherapy was chemo skin, where the skin is so dry it constantly itches and feels like it might split. Strong scents made me feel ill and I had extremely sensitive skin and all I wanted was an unscented organic body oil, but I couldn’t find one. I decided to use my knowledge and blend my own and it worked like a dream.

My family had been using my body oil throughout my treatment and after I recovered, friends wanted to try it as it was really good for dry skin and eczema. Word spread and more people were asking if I could make them some. I eventually set up a small business developing and producing organic skin care products. I kept my original unscented body oil as part of the range and it won an award! I also won a place to exhibit my products at the Business Design Centre in London in a competition. I like to think that my products made a difference to someone somewhere at a time when they needed it.

I am now planning to use my experience to help others who want to start a natural skin care business and I am currently developing a whole new section on my website with information, advice and recipes.

What are a few of the biggest misconceptions and myths out there about fighting cancer that you would like to dispel?

That you have to fight cancer. What I think you need to do is accept cancer. Once you do that you’ve started the first part of your healing journey. The body naturally wants to be healthy and it spends a huge amount of time repairing, cleaning and defending you on a daily basis. Love it, treat it gently and realise the power that lies within you.

I also felt that there was no ‘going back to normal’ when I recovered as I had been told by many people. I was changed unbelievably as a person, but life was so much richer in my appreciation for everything that was my ‘normal’, and I had so much more clarity about absolutely everything. I don’t think you can go through an experience like cancer and not come out the other side a little different.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experiences and knowledge, what advice would you give to others who have recently been diagnosed with cancer? What are your “5 Things You Need To Beat Cancer? Please share a story or example for each.

1. ACCEPTANCE — You have cancer. Nobody wants to hear those words but understand that cancer is just one chapter in your life story. Try to accept your diagnosis and instead of looking for the negatives in the situation, try to find and focus on some positives, however hard that can be sometimes! Appreciation is like a magnet. Keep looking for reasons to be appreciative and you will be surprised at what beneficial situations and people show up in your life.
2. TRUST — Trust your medical team, yourself and your body and take everything you read on the internet with a pinch of salt. I looked up survival rates for my stage 4 cancer and according to the internet I didn’t have a chance! I completely freaked out with my oncology consultant. He told me studies are meaningless if you don’t know the age of the participants, their state of health or any underlying medical conditions. Trust the doctor who is treating you. Save yourself a lot of anguish and don’t believe everything you read on Google, you are an individual not a statistic.
3. POSITIVITY — You need to try and keep a positive mindset but you can’t keep it up every day and that’s OK. You will have days when things go wrong or tests results are not what you wanted. On days like this I had what I used to call a ‘Pity Party’. This was where I gave myself 24 hours to be totally miserable and let it all out. I’d rage at the world, throw stuff about and shout at the Universe and tell it how unfair my life was. I always felt better afterwards. Sometimes you just need to open a release valve for a day or two. One bad day is just that. One day.
4. A FOCUS ON THE FUTURE — It is all too easy to get caught up in what is happening on a daily basis and forget the future. Make time to visualise your future in a positive manner. I just used to settle myself down, usually lying on the bed or sitting in a comfy chair with a blanket. You can have some gentle music playing if you want, but silence is good too. Picture yourself fully recovered and doing whatever you want to be doing in the future. This could be playing with your kids, running a woodland trail, or lying on a beach with a cocktail in your hand! Visualise absolutely anything that you want to do that would make you joyous and happy. Try to feel the emotions that you will get when you actually do this. Once you find this happy spot, go back to it on a frequent basis.
5. PATIENCE — People get really excited for you when you finish your treatment and it is a massive milestone to be celebrated. However, without those daily or weekly tests for reassurance you may start to feel anxious and perhaps feel that every twitch, pain or unusual feeling is cancer coming back again. I certainly did and this is completely normal, as is starting to get anxiety or panic attacks for absolutely no reason at all. Your body has been running on high stress for a long time and now it doesn’t seem to be able to switch off. Just be patient. You have been through a lot and your mind, body and spirit just need a little time to rebalance. I carried on with my visualisations and started to walk more in the woods — I had a puppy! Creative pursuits and personal projects also help at a time like this. Just remember that finishing your treatment can be as stressful as your diagnosis.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be?

I’d love to provide a course on positivity and spiritual strengthening for people who have any form of serious or long term illness. Many wonderful organisations and charities have helplines for money worries and benefits, treatment options and advice. Some even have counselling services but they tend to be a standard type of counselling (I tried one). I think you need to look after your mind and spirit as well as your body when you are seriously ill and all too often they seem to be neglected. To me they are just as important as the body. Activities to increase positivity and strengthen the spirit made such a huge difference to me when I was ill and I just want everyone to have the knowledge so that they can benefit from them!

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

Professor Karol Sikora — I’ve followed him on Twitter for ages. He’s an ex Director of the WHO Cancer program and is currently working on the UK’s 1st Proton Beam Therapy Network. I’d love to sit down with him and find out more about how proton beam therapy works and how effective it is for lymphoma and other cancers.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I’ve recently launched a website where I have started to write articles on all aspects of natural health and well-being. I also review products and am currently setting up a section to help people who want to develop, market and sell their own natural skincare products.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!