Pictured from left: Kym Gold, JVF Board member Dr. Janet Hranicky and JVF Founder Dianne Burnett

“We don’t want to wait until everyone in this room has cancer.”

Those were the words JVF Founder Dianne Burnett told the energetic and enthusiastic group of more than 30 men and women who gathered at her home Sunday to discuss plans for the inaugural Angel Heart Gala that will take place later this year to raise money for Joan Valentine – A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc.

The gala will feature a dinner, silent and live auctions and live entertainment. Burnett, Founder of the charity named after her mother who succumbed to esophageal cancer in 2010, announced that JVF will partner with Florida-based Hippocrates Health Institute and a portion of funds from the gala will go toward the two forces opening a holistic healing center on the Westside. The center, the name and scope of it to be announced later, will give Hippocrates a permanent presence on the West Coast.

Cindy Landon (left), Bobi Leonard and Rod Summers

Hippocrates has been the preeminent leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education since 1956. Under the direction of Drs. Brian Clement and Anna Maria-Gahns-Clement, Hippocrates follows the philosophy that a vegan, living, enzyme-rich diet — complemented by exercise, positive thinking and non-invasive therapies — are integral to optimum health.

“After a year’s research for cancer wellness and preventative, I felt that Brian Clement and his team were the closest to my philosophy,” Burnett said later. “It’s more about the way you feel about yourself. It’s what you’re putting into your body without taking pharmaceutical drugs. I don’t think we always need to do that. For cardiovascular, diabetes and cancer we can reverse it with our nutrition and our mind, body and spirit.”

Dr. Sharyn Winters talks about being diagnosed with cancer 40 years ago and surviving.

JVF stresses that positive thinking is one of the keys to fighting diseases and illnesses. “Unfortunately the medical community does not appreciate how the person is feeling mentally has everything to do with the outcome,” Dr. Janet Hranicky, a member of the JVF Board, said to her fellow committee members.

JVF Board member Sharyn Wynters, ND, who has traveled to China multiple times, spoke about how doctors in that country are paid to keep people well. If too many residents in a village become ill, the doctor is asked to leave. It was the apropos lead-in to a Chinese proverb read by Burnett to the group:

“The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats actual sickness.”

Guests feasted on a vegan buffet by Monrose Catering Company

That’s the message: don’t wait until you’re sick to take care of yourself. Instead, take care of yourself everyday to avoid illness. Another way of doing that is by eating healthy. To show JVF practices what it preaches, guests at the luncheon feasted on a delectable vegan buffet consisting of eggplant stuffed with artichoke, quinoa, Israeli cous cous, risotto cakes topped with mushrooms and onion, fresh seasonal vegetables and mixed greens with walnuts from Monrose Catering Company.

Check back soon to learn more about the Angel Heart Gala, which promises to be memorable event.

Vibrant health is the most valuable asset we can ever have. Yet, we all know that good health does not just happen. Like all things of great value, it needs to be nurtured and cultivated with care. This process can be both confusing and intimidating — especially to those who rely solely on hearsay and public information. The Hippocrates Health Institute was created over five decades ago in response to this need. Over the years, we have developed the Life Transformation Program into the definitive blueprint for transitioning to a healthier lifestyle. Our doors are wide open to guests with a wide array of intentions, whether it be curing themselves of devastating disease or simply learning to take their good health to an uplifted level. Hippocrates guests come to realize that excellent health is not only possible, but also definite and achievable!

Who was Hippocrates?

Photos by Austin  Daniels Photography

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

When Kathryn Tatchell of Victoria, British Columbia was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2007, she underwent surgery then turned to InspireHealth, a world leader in cancer care that uses an integrated approach combining nutrition, exercise, emotional and spiritual support with standard cancer treatments.
The cancer went away for three and a half years then resurfaced in her lungs. She opted for chemotherapy as she continued her complementary treatments through InspireHealth.

She and her daughter Georgia Graham, 24, recently traveled to Malibu to attend a week-long program put on by Hippocrates Health Institute, a leader in the field of natural and complementary health care and education, headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., and run by Brian Clement PhD, LNC and Anna Maria Gahns-Clement, PhD, LNC.

Kathryn shares her journey:

Five months after I had surgery in June 2007 to remove the tumor from the colon, I went to InspireHealth. I changed my diet and they put me on a regime of supplements and vitamins, which I took for well over a year. There was a little bit of spreading to the lymph nodes, maybe after a year and a half, but nothing that anybody felt had to be treated.

It wasn’t until last year, about three and a half years later, that it spread to the lungs. I had one six-month session of chemo last year but continued going to InspireHealth and taking lots of supplements and vitamins. I had acupuncture andmassages. I found the massages to be incredibly helpful with pain and overall wellness.

I was so healthy the whole time I was on chemo. I know I was exposed to so many bugs with four kids in the house. I never once got sick and I was the one with the compromised system.

I had heard about Hippocrates a few years ago. When I returned from Malibu I took the vitamins I bought from Hippocrates to InspireHealth and received approval from my doctor to take them. I’ve been taking more of the vitamins that Hippocrates recommend and phased my other ones out.  I had followed the program of what supplements to take while you’re on chemo from the book Life over Cancer written by by Dr. Keith I. Block of the Block Center.

One of the things they tell you at BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre is you are not allowed to take any vitamins or anything that is going to support your immune system. And you’re supposed to bring everything in and have the pharmacist approve it. It’s pretty upsetting for a lot of people who have been on a program of immune system support.

I took a lot of things to reduce inflammation. All of these things, which had been your friends, are suddenly your foe. It messes with your brain. At the same time, if you’re going to be on chemo, you don’t want to take something that is less effective. It’s very confusing for people and that’s why I followed the program from the Block Center. And I took multi-vitamins, which the pharmacists at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Island Centre wouldn’t have approved of anyway. It was a liquid one that was absorbed from the mucous membranes in your mouth.

Going raw and sticking to it

Hippocrates wanted me to go 100 percent raw. When I returned and told my oncologist I was expecting a bit of a fight because before I left she wanted to put me on chemo. But she was OK with me going raw. She said, “Let’s give it three months.”

Going 100 percent raw is quite a challenge to do and a lot to learn how to do it properly. I’ve stuck with juicing twice a day. I joined the local raw food group here and they have a monthly potluck dinner. I discovered there was no one doing 100 percent. They were doing 50 percent. I found it difficult to find support because it is challenging to be 100 percent raw.

I’m glad my daughter attending Hippocrates’ week-long program with me. She can understand what I’m trying to do. She’s eating a vegetarian diet and about 50 percent raw. She’s juicing once a day. But she’s about to move back to Vancouver.

On the bright side, I just connected with a woman, Samantha Young, whose son-in-law was the person who told me about Hippocrates a few years ago. She just moved here and she’s one of Hippocrates’ biggest success stories. It will be quite helpful for me to talk to someone who had cancer, who went to Hippocrates and followed their program and their cancer went away and stayed away.

Keeping the faith

Part of my challenge is holding the faith that it works. To come home and be in isolation, it’s hard to hold the faith.

My cancer has gotten worse despite all of my best efforts. I thought I was going to be better. I know I haven’t been as strict with the Hippocrates program, for example, as if I went to Florida for three weeks and followed the program.

I’m still taking in everything I learned from the week in Malibu. There was so much information in such a short amount of time. It takes a while to absorb it all. My daughter and I have been going back to our binders and reading things and listening to the lecturers that were recorded. When you’re changing habits, some of them you do right away and some you forget about.

One of the big hurdles is sourcing your vegetables. Juicing that much is a lot. I was lucky I was able to find a good source for the sprouts. I’ve tried a couple of times to grow sprouts and I haven’t been too successful. I think I can do some of the broccoli, radishes and alfalfa in a jar.

I’ve had some struggles on the raw food diet because I’m so small. I’m 5-foot-3 and was about 112 pounds. My weight dropped down to 90 lbs. I couldn’t afford to lose any weight. I was so worried about it and called Anna Maria at Hippocrates. She told me I should start eating some cooked food and get some weight back on. I’ve gained three pounds.

In addition to the diet, I’m going to have to look at doing some other things because I can’t let it get out of control. I don’t plan to go back to chemo. Over the weekend we had a mastermind session with my parents, fiancé and kids — my support group. We wrote down things that we could do. Everyone feels more of a part of it. It’s good for them to know where I’m at and what I’m thinking.

My daughter Georgia felt very frustrated because she moved back to Victoria from Vancouver last year when I went on chemo. She wanted to be here to help me. Now my numbers are back to where they were a year ago. I said, “You can’t just stay here feeling like you have to look after me. You have to get on with your life. You don’t have to stay here.” I love having her here and having the support. But I don’t want her to feel tied down. She’s 24. It was an emotional time.

Last month InspireHealth opened an office in Victoria where I live so I no longer have to make the journey to Vancouver.  It will have yoga classes and meditation. There’s a kitchen so it will have a nutrition component as well. InspireHealth is funded by the Canadian government and they’re going to be opening more around the country. It’s fantastic that the government is supporting integrative cancer care and that they’re realizing that there isn’t just one way of looking at things.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.