A CANCER sufferer who has gone from ‘death row to life again’ will attempt an eight mile walk to his hospital appointment after experiencing a miraculous improvement in his condition.
Weymouth pensioner Mike Furness, 69, felt like his ‘time had come’ just eight weeks ago after finding out that on top of his incurable kidney and bowel cancer he was riddled with secondary cancers which had invaded his lungs and liver.
As the cancer doubled in size he became extremely ill and was having coughing fits all day every day.
He said: “Suddenly only 15 days ago a miracle regression began to happen and I feel I have been released from death row to life.
“After hearing about the secondary cancers I was expected to die a quick death but now I feel like a new man that’s ready to live this world.”
To celebrate his new found health Mr Furness is planning to walk from Weymouth Marina to his next hospital appointment at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester on Thursday in order to mark his achievement and raise substantial funds for the cancer unit – the Fortuneswell ward.
He added: My fitness has returned so rapidly that I went from coughing 24 hours a day to nothing and this happened virtually overnight.
“I am so overjoyed that I’m planning this walk.”
In preparation for the long walk Mr Furness walked nine miles on Thursday and acheived his ‘personal relief’ walking up the relief road and through along Radipole Nature reserve.
He said that it was the shock of his life to be diagnosed with the fateful cancers two years ago when previously he had led a healthy, active life.
After a treatment of chemotherapy he went through stem cell harvesting but was unable to go through with further treatment due to a sudden deteriation of his health earlier this year.
Although unable to credit his recovery to anything specific Mr Furness said he started consuming bicarbonate of soda, eating flak seed, lots of cottage cheese along with tablets from his consultant that slows down the progress of the cancer.
He said his consultant at DCH has remarked on how his recent x-rays showed that his cancer is in fact now in remission.
Nurse Julia Frater from Cancer Research UK said that patients can sometimes feel remarkably better for unexplained reasons.
She said: “Sometimes people go into remission or show symptoms or spontaneous remission and sometimes people can feel phenomenally good.
“It is hard to say from case to case but it can happen.”
Former RAF sergeant Mr Furness is engaged to a Russian woman called Irina and has two daughters – Jackie, who lives in Australia, and Helen who lives in east Dorset.
During the walk on Thursday Mr Furness is expecting friends to accompany him and hopes to finish the walk in five hours.
• To donate money for the extraordinary fundraising mission you can donate cash to the Dorset Echo offices either at Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 9XD or the Dorchester office at Antelope Walk, Dorchester, DT1 1BE.
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