Episode 461: Cancer Free After Being Given 10 Months to Live a Year Ago

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Welcome to Cannabis Health Radio, where we share powerful real life stories from people around the world who are using cannabis as medicine. The goal of this podcast is to raise awareness of the healing potential of cannabis and is not intended as medical advice. And now, here's your host, Ian Jessup.

Welcome to the Cannabis Health Radio podcast. I'm Ian Jessup. It's estimated worldwide that more than half a million people die each year from esophageal cancer. And the mortality rate is two to three times higher in males than females. Today we have the extraordinary privilege of speaking with a man who was given just 10 months to live in 2024 after being diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer that had spread to both his heart and his stomach. And now, against all odds, he's completely cancer free. And joining us from England is Tony Harrison, whose remarkable story, I'm sure will inspire many others around the world. Tony, welcome to the podcast and thank you so much for being here.

Yeah, I'm pleased to be with you here on the show.

Yeah, for a guy who looks like he should have been dead, you look amazingly well and fit. How do you feel?

To be honest, I'm afraid I'm positive. I never give up, but I'm getting there. My operation was in March, my major operation. Well, we get to that a bit later on. But I think it's just the medication what just makes me tired about this time of night. But other than that, I'm fighting fit. I'm working, I'm doing different things. I'm in the garden and I feel healthy, back to normal.

Now, when you, prior to being diagnosed, what were some of the health Issues you were experiencing that prompted you to go to seek medical help?

Yeah, it was early 24, around about February, March. I was having trouble drinking and swallowing food. It was getting stuck in my throat. So if I'd have some cake or have some dinner, I couldn't digest it. It wouldn't go down. And if I grabbed some water to try and swill it down, even that wouldn't go down. And eventually I ended up going to the gp. He referred me then to Burton Hospital in Staffordshire, where they put a scope down and obviously and checked. Checked down in my throat and stomach and I actually looked on the screen when it was. When they was. When they were doing that and they came to see me after they did all the tests and everything and said it could be something easy, something not important, or it could be something nasty. So about two weeks down the line, I got a call to go into the hospital and see the consultant and it was cancer, stage four. And this time it was looking quite bad, as it had spread quite a lot.

That must have been a hell of a psychological shock to you.

It was. You know, I've kept myself healthy through my life and fit, and none of my family has suffered from any of this. What I've suffered from as the youngest one of our family, it was a shock, to be fair. And when they tell you to make a will and put everything in place for your children in my business, I think that's when it kicked in with me. But I'll be honest with you, I didn't shed a tear. I was strong within myself and I thought, I'm going to battle through this one way or the other. And it wasn't for two people who put me onto the cannabis, which. The thc, which I got in touch with the guy, the natural products and Charlie, and then he was. He guided me in the right way and I've took it since. And it's just absolutely remarkable how I am today, to be fair.

Now, after you were diagnosed, what sort of. Did they. Before we get into that, did the cancer spread to your heart and your stomach?

Yes, it was around my back and up by the heart, by the aorta. Aorta, I think they call it. Right, I've got one there, tumour, quite a big one, and one in my stomach and three in my esophagus. That's where obviously I had the camera. I thought that they said, I've got hiatus earlier as well and they've took the flap out, but. Yeah, that's right.

Now, when you were diagnosed and they Told you your prognosis. What did they say?

Well, there's four in the room and they told me the term, the name of the cancer, which was an aggressive cancer. They said there's nothing they can do. It's gone too far. It looks like you've carried it for a good 18 months. We can't do an MRI scan. We will do another CT scan, but not mri. And definitely an operation is out the question. It's too dangerous at this stage.

Oh, the operation was out of the question?

Yes, definitely out of the question. There's no operation. They put me on palliative care and gave me 10 months to live. That says put everything in place. You, you. It's spread. You've got it everywhere. That was the exact words that tell me.

So what did you say? Piss off. I'm gonna beat this.

You know something I. I did in my head, I didn't tell him, I didn't say anything to them, but in my head, this ain't gonna take over me. No way in the world is it going to take over me. And the first thing I did when I got home, I got in touch with the Royal Marsden local charity company and I had a Christmas period, January. I did 82 miles in January where I should have done 30. I did it through the snow, the frost, the rain. I got up at 5 o'. Clock, I bought a treadmill when it was too wet to go out and I did. I raised just over a thousand pound in that one month for charity. And I'm still doing it now. And keeping fit and keeping healthy.

Yeah, fantastic. Now, with the esophageal cancer, your weight must have dropped a lot.

It did, yeah.

Yeah. And so when you walked out of the hospital, you told yourself, this isn't going to beat me. What sort of protocols, what sort of treatments did you undergo?

Yeah, obviously I was put on a plan, obviously. I was diagnosed in July 24, and by August, I was having chemotherapy in August, all through August, end of August into September, and a couple of sessions in October. And during that period of time, I was taking the THC as well, the drops, and keeping healthy and fit and strong all the way through. He was knocking me about. Yeah, Sorry.

I was saying, how much were you taking of thc?

I was using the depositories and I was using the. The drops. So I was probably only doing about four or five drops out of the small bottles, which you can just measure as just, you know, what you put in your eye drops. Yeah.

And you were doing the suppositories which are extremely beneficial.

Yeah, well, I had a bit of a panic during the. When I was having chemo and I was taking the suppositories, I became violently ill. This is before I had my operation and asked well told I can have the operation. I had a leak in appendix and I didn't know and I was in so such pain. I had a rapid response telephone number to ring the hospital if, for an ambulance, if anything for emergency purposes. Everything happened to me or didn't feel very well or I needed emergency quickly and they, they rushed, they rushed me in with me appendix and high blood pressure and temperatures and that. And after scans I've got me my lungs, they ended up with an infection and then two of my valves in my heart was leaking the wrong way around. So I was in hospital two weeks before the Christmas period before I was asked to have the operation.

So did you have the operation for your appendix or for your cancer?

For the cancer. For the cancer. I just rushed in hospital because I had a bit of a downfall with my internals and I thought maybe it's just the chemotherapies affecting me organs or affecting things but they repaired that, they repaired the appendix that they did something with treatments and stuff while I was in there and then I came back out and obviously started carrying on with my treatments with the hospital.

So when, right when they, when they did the operation for your, for your cancer, they got, they corrected the esophageal cancer. I mean they cut that out.

Yeah. What they did for the operation when they accepted me because what, what happened was they sent me for a CT scan coming up to, to the operation, they did a CT scan and the consultant said we've got some good news, it's reduced dramatically and we're sending you for an MRI scan now. They sent me for an MRI scan and they gave me more in depth scan of my organs and internals came back. When I went back in for results they said it's absolutely remarkable it's reduced that much. We're going to offer you an operation and this is where the ball got rolling and I had a CPET test, a fitness test, I passed that and then I had the operation in March to take all the esophagus out and that cut part of my stomach out and built a new esophagus and took out the rest of the stomach, small tumors, what was left round and about. And then obviously I was in rehabilitation after that, which up to this point today, this present day.

So the operation was in March of This year?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah. How did you feel after the Coming out of the operation? How did you feel?

I'm glad I had that. I wanted that. An operation. I wanted it. Yeah, I was. I really wanted it. But up to that point of the opera, I had a double whammy. If you, if. If you think that it was melting, it was going away, it was disappearing, something was working. The cannabis, chemo, I don't know which. I'm convinced cannabis, it's done me, I really do. But I've had to choose the two to balance it out, because one way or the other, how it had gone, I would have wished I took one or the other, but this is how it's all ended up. At the. At the minute that I was in pain, I was. I was in quite bad pain because I had drains in me when I came out of it, but I was absolutely glad. I'm here, I'm alive, I'm awake. And it wasn't till the surgeon came, two, three hours later after I woke up to say, everything's successful, everything looks good, everything went well, it's a success. And that even made me even feel even better. And the good news was just good news from there onwards. To be honest with you, up to this date.

Yeah. In listening to your story, I would have to suspect that the cannabis was the result of your tumors shrinking, allowing them to operate.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Definitely. 100%. Yeah.

Yeah.

That.

Boy, you must have been the happiest guy in the world after that.

Oh, it was a massive relief. It was. I mean, I've got a family, I've got a lot to live for, I've got a lot to do in my life. I'm still looking after my two grandchildren as well as my business and my house. But I'm an hard worker and I'm determined. I'm positive and these things can be overcome and it's been proven.

Were there moments going through all that you've been through, Tony, that you doubted whether you'd make it?

Yeah. Do you know something? How that worked with me was every visit I had to the hospital when they asked me to come in, the consultant wants to speak to you. That's where I felt there's going to be bad news. Each time I went, it's bad news. I thought, oh, God, I don't really want to go. I think it's going to be bad news.

Yeah.

And it was. Every time I went, it was good news. Everything was good news each time I went. And it was just unbelievable to walk out There with a smile on my face, you know, there's a lot of people suffering out there and there's me being told 10 months to live and here I am being told that I'm clear, I'm normal and it's drunk, it's gone, it's melted it cancer free, you know.

Given the restrictions on cannabis in the uk, were your doctors aware that you were taking it?

No, there wasn't. The chemo team was aware and they said to me, there's a lot of patients who do take it and I've got no problem with it, she says, and the rest of them says, be kept confidential, do what you feel. A lot of other people can't afford to, to purchase it, a lot of people can't not aware of it and what it does. Not educated enough on it. But yeah, I'm absolutely glad I took it, I really am.

Yeah.

But I've kept it away from GPs doctors and that and obviously kept it private. Really?

Yeah. Sometimes that's the best thing to do, isn't it? Just to just do what you have to do in order to be healthy in the hell with the doctors. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah. I interviewed a young fellow in Edmonton, Alberta last week who had stage three rectal cancer and he underwent chemo as well. But he took cannabis oil during his chemo treatments, suppositories like, like you. And he said the, it reduced his negative impacts from chemo by about 75%. And I've heard that from a number of people who say, you know, I took chemotherapy, I didn't experience the, the side effects that a lot of other people experienced. Was that the same with you?

I think it, that I think the cannabis got me through. It kept me calm, it kept me into a nice calm position in myself and in my mind. It kept my mind relaxed and now it's, it's, it didn't affect me in the way it's going to affect me, you know, in a way that. Or can't take any more sort of thing. I was taking it because I knew it was doing something. I believed within myself that it's doing something for me. It was, it was doing something for me and I believe it up to this present date and I recommend it to anybody who's going through the same. Same sort of situation.

Yeah. You've said one thing which I always like to point out when I talk to people who have gone through traumatic illnesses like you have that to a person, the people who are successful really believe that the cannabis oil is helping them. They really believe it in their heart. And Corrie was one of those people. When she had anal canal cancer and was given four to six months to live, she knew nothing about cannabis oil, started taking it, friends made it for her, took it. And she's. The first thing she says is, this black tar is going to save my life. And it did. It saved her life and it saved thousands of other lives that she's dealt with over the years. But it's that internal belief that you have and your body starts to respond to that positivity. And I think that's what happened to you.

Yeah, definitely, 100%. It's no good giving up on it and just thinking after a week, oh, it's done nothing for me. Like, that's the end of it. You've got to battle on with it and continue on with the course and carry on with what you set out to do. Otherwise you're never gonna know. And the journey's been a long journey for me. But at the end of the tunnel, there was light. And I'm here today and I'm. I'm thankful for it, I really am. And I will recommend it. I recommend it, I really do.

Would you say that you're in better health now than you were, let's say, before you realized that you had cancer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm more active. I'm more active. My mind's more switched on, more positive in myself. It's changed me as well, be honest with you. It's just made me more of a sort of. I can talk to people a lot better now, deal with things a lot better. I'm more upfront with things, ahead of things, rather than leaving things to the last, you know, last minute. I'm more punctual, if you. If you know what I mean. I'll get on with things. I have to do things now and, you know.

Yeah.

Rather than leaving things till later. I'm more punctual and my attitude's a lot better.

Yeah. When you. When you. When you're close to death, your perspective on life changes, doesn't it?

Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, I wake up every morning, I think I'm just blessed I'm here and I'm alive and I can continue on doing what I did of 12 months ago, which is fantastic. And it would have been a shame to have, you know, lost my life and not been able to have anything on offer, to have took and not been educated on it prior to it. And I'm thankful for who guided me down that route and I really do thank him very much for it. I really do.

So you take it every day, take the cannabis oil every day?

I do, yes, I do, yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like I'll take. I'll take it at night before I get to bed and I'll take my medication earlier and then I'll just take some cannabis all before I get to bed. Only a couple of drops or a drop? Yeah, definitely. I just believe in it. I do miss a day or two now and again, but it all depends on my schedules. But it's my lifeline. It's there, it's with me and I'm on top of it. I'll keep a bottle there for any drops when I need it, so I'm not going to run out, but I'm just going to take it as and when and continue with it. I believe in it.

Do you get high? Do you get high at all?

No, I don't, no. No, I just get tired. That's why I take it at night. I think my body's adapted to it now. I think it has adapted to it. If somebody fresh was to take a couple of drops, they'd probably know about it. But no, it doesn't affect me at all. Luckily, when I was having my chemo, as I was being transported to the hospitals and back and I started taking it then, it was affecting me, obviously, it was unbalancing myself. It never sent me high, but it, not me unbalanced and knocked me a bit off my feet. But as time went on, it doesn't affect me at all. I just. It's just. It's like a medicine to me now. It's a medicine and it's cured me and I'm going to respect what it's done for me.

Tony, sometimes it's. It's fun to get high.

Yeah. Well, he has sent me some stronger stuff. Yes, send some stronger stuff. He said, be careful with that.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I've done everything you shouldn't do and regretted it later. I think I've told this story in a podcast previously, but I took some cannabis oil, very strong, and I took way too much. I was high for two days, but you know what? I just laid on the couch, listened to music, had some fun.

It has. It has bit me on the bum a couple of times where I've been so happy with all the results I've had and everything. And I've just took a little bit too much. But I know how far to push it. I know how to treat it. And regulate it properly. But, yeah, it did trip me up a couple of times.

It shows the absurdity of the correlation between alcohol and cannabis. I mean, you can drink too much, you can get sick, you can go to a pub, you can get into a fight, you can get arrested with cannabis. You don't want to do that. You just want to stay home, lay on the couch and be yourself.

Yeah.

And yet governments around the world, in UK particularly, is just totally opposed to the legalization of it.

Yeah, yeah. It's ridiculous. It's. I don't know. It's been going on for years, hasn't it? Years. I don't know. They've got the wrong policies. They should look into it in depth more, especially on the health side, really, to be honest with you. And they should be speaking to a lot of people like myself, who's experienced it and used it and what it's done and take it serious and put a percentage of that together and start to legalize it, to be honest with you. Needs to be done.

How did members of your family feel about you taking it?

Oh, absolutely supportive on it. I've got. Our son is 41, Ashley's 36. My other son, my daughter's 32. They're fully behind. When I told them I'm taking cannabis, that was absolutely out of the moon. There was half the moon. I was unexpecting it, to be honest with you. I thought, oh, I'm gonna. Are my drugs meal? No, I'm not. It's a medical. It's gonna help me. But now there's absolutely supportive, the dirt stories. They've had friends around them who took cannabis with cancers and cured and sorted this out. Sorted them out. I've been involved with a few who've been taking cannabis bit cannabis oils and that, and they're cured and they're healthy to this day. So they knew and I knew and we've cracked on and done it all together. So good support from the kids.

Yeah. It's an educational process and that takes a long time for it to sink into the mindset of the general population. And, I mean, it's been illegal even before you and I were alive, Tony.

Yeah.

And not kids.

No, no, no.

I mean, I can remember, you know, smoking a joint in the 60s, 60s and 70s, and it, you know, you get high, but it's nothing like the cannabis they have today. But I, you know, before I started interviewing Corey on the radio show, I had. I had no, no idea that there were medical benefits to it. And I thought it was just, oh, let's get buzz, let's get high and have some fun. But no, there's far more to it.

It's very powerful.

Very powerful.

It's very powerful. It's very intelligent plant. Very intelligent.

Yep. Tony, have you changed your nutritional mindset since your health issues?

Yeah, me eating? Well, I've just had the dietitian on the farm from the hospital about an hour before I logged on. Yeah, I'm eating dinner times now. I wasn't before. So I'll have a snack or some pasta or some, some chicken and nothing too heavy, but I've got to baste it out small portions per day. But I have increased my appetite. Yeah, yeah, I've increased it a bit. It's getting better.

That must have been so nice for you to be able to swallow once you got that all cleared up.

Unbelievable. Obviously, I was on mushed up food in hospital, but the soon got me onto some solids, introduced the solids and I was panicking, to be honest with you, you know, cutting into some, some meat, what they served me or some cottage pie and stuff. I thought, I'm gonna have problems swallowing, but it just went down so smooth, so easy. It was unbelievable. Yeah, it was a big surprise.

Yeah. I mean, when we started the podcast and you were talking about how food was getting caught in your throat, I mean, God, that is scary as hell. I mean, even the water wouldn't wash it down.

It wouldn't? No, it came, came straight at me as I poured it in, it was overflowing back at my lips and it was a terrible situation and it was only a small portion, but I'd got a tumour stuck down there and it was not allowing it to go down. So it must have accelerated quite quick within a week that tumour to got to where it was to stop because I was eating a week prior to that, but I could still feel I was having to use my muscles to swallow and that was getting harder and harder towards the end of the week and that's where it started to get stuck. So it's a good job I went.

Tony, this, this may sound like a ridiculous question, but when they cut the tumor out of your throat, do they show you what it was? No, they just dispose.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they, they dispose of them.

Did they show you pictures of it?

Yeah, I've seen the pictures. Yeah, it's, it's, it's like if you was to look through. I can explain this. You know when you look at the full moon at night.

Yeah.

And you. Or like a street light and you get a round sort of glare off it. You know, if you get some, some. Some rain on your glasses or you get something and you get like an overexposed light, then like a, like a web, like a spider's web, and in the center of it is like a bright, white, round circle. That's what it looks like. Oh, it looks like. It looks like a spider web growing off a round, white, bright circle. Yeah, like a golf ball with, with.

Webs coming off it, with tentacles on it. Yeah. Starting to spread. Starting to grow. Starting to get bigger.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm lucky. I'm lucky. It's because it wasn't far off me lungs. Wasn't far off me lungs. If I hadn't gone on the treatments and the cannabis oils, definitely the cannabis oils, I think it would have spread.

Tony, what would you like to tell people who are listening to the podcast who may be skeptical of cannabis use? What would you like to tell them about using cannabis to help them in terms of their health?

Well, if you use it sensibly, it's. It's no problem whatsoever to take it. If you can afford to take it. If you've got a medical problem I've had, I highly recommend it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's done me absolutely wonders, to be honest with you. But I definitely recommend everybody to educate themselves, read into it, speak to people who have took it and add that experience and then take it from there and make a decision. But I'm really glad I took it. I am.

Tony, you have an absolutely remarkable story. I think it's fantastic and I appreciate you sharing this. If I ever get to the uk, I'm going to head up near Birmingham and stop by and see you.

Yeah, you're more than welcome. I'll pop the kettle on.

Perfect. Thanks so much for doing this. I appreciate it.

Okay, Ian, thank you very much, Ian. Cheers. Thank you.

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Sa.