By: Kent Gardiner
In 1974 I proposed to my wife, and we went to pick out a ring. She had her heart set on one with six small diamonds around a central diamond. She would always tell people that the six diamonds represented the children she wanted and that I was her center diamond.
While Suzanne was pregnant with our sixth child, she discovered a lump in her breast. We were not too concerned because we didn’t think she had any of the risk factors for cancer, but after the biopsy, we learned she had 13 cancerous lymph nodes. We went to UCLA to find out how she got cancer and what we should do.
When we asked Suzanne’s oncologist, Dr. Glasby, how she got cancer, he told us it was too many pizzas, meaning too much fat. I thought a lot about his statement and later when we sat down to our usual pork chop meal, I looked at her and said, “It seems to me that we are eating the same foods that got us into this mess; let’s change.” That was all well and good, but change to what? Neither of us had a clue.
Suzanne had a bone marrow transplant at UCLA and bravely fought the cancer. After the normal cancer therapy she became aware of the Gerson diet. We invited an expert on the diet into our home, and she helped us prepare some meals and taught us how to juice carrots and green drinks. The diet was so intense Suzanne’s eyes turned orange. Unfortunately by that time the disease had progressed too far, and in September of 1994 she died.
