Neuroblastoma:Frankie's story

All feedback and questions welcome

Frankie was just 3 years old when he was diagnosed with a Neuroblastoma. He had secondaries throughout his tiny body. Contrary to medical advice his mum Amanda trusted her instinct and also immediately engaged her Naturopath. When standard oncology treatment was combined with holistic medicine young Frankie was the winner.

Episode Transcript

Amanda (00:16):
Today I'll be talking to Genevieve Mlotkowski and to her
client, Amanda, who is themother of young Frankie.
Welcome, guys. How are you?
Great, thanks. When Frankie wasvery little, he was diagnosed
with stage four neuroblastoma.
So for those of you that don'tknow what a Neuroblastoma is,
it's a type of cancer that growsin the cells of the body's

(00:39):
nerves, which are called neuroblasts. And 90% of all
neuroblastoma diagnoses happenin children under five often
affects their adrenal glands, orit can affect other side spinal
cord, neck, chest, abdomen,pelvis. Amanda, how did you know
that something was going on withFrankie.
Well, he hadn't been well forprobably, I'd say maybe three

(01:03):
months. But it was things thatlike that could be written off
as so many other things. He wascomplaining of neck pain. So we
took him to the physio and shesaid, do these exercises and
change his pillow. And we'd beenaway camping on a holiday up in
the air bar in November. So itwas quite hot, but he just been
very lethargic hadn't been well.
And we just thought, you know,maybe you need an ice block

(01:25):
because you've been runningaround too much. He was
complaining of abdominal pains,but we were trying to potty
train him because he was goingto preschool next year. So he
was just about to turn three inthe November and was diagnosed
in January of 2019. So justthings that didn't really stand
out. But he just hadn't beenwell, looking back. Now,

(01:46):
obviously, we, you know, figuredout what it was. But at the
time, we just, he just hadn'tbeen well
how did you eventually get tothe diagnosis?

Unknown (01:55):
So it was actually completely accidental. We had
taken him for abdominal X ray.
We thought he may have swalloweda coin in the night or a car
tire or something. And we justthought looking at me well
rushed you up to the hospital,we said we think you may have
swallowed something. They did aurine test. They did an x ray
and actually found the mass fromthe xray

Amanda (02:18):
And where was the mass?
It was growing from his adrenalgland. It was 11 centimeters
big, which is pretty big in atiny three year olds body.

Daniel Baden (02:27):
Most of them do start in the adrenal glands.
Yeah, yeah. It's a dauntingthought to have your child
diagnosed with any seriouscondition. How did you first
respond to that? How did youcope?

Amanda (02:38):
I mean, I don't know necessarily. If I remember so
much about those very, veryearly days, I have a few
memories. But a family memberwill say remember this, remember
this? And I'll be like, I haveno idea. So I think I just was
in survival mode fight orflight. We were really shocked.
You know, you know aboutpediatric cancers, but you never
ever think it's going to be yourkid.

(02:59):
Right. And did he have anysecondaries or was it just in

Unknown (03:03):
So he had soft tissue tumour, he did have one in his
the adrenal gland.
neck, which would explain theneck pain. He had one encasing
the optic nerve and his righteye. So he actually is now blind
in his right eye as a directresult of the tumor being
suffocating the nerve. He had acouple of soft tissue tumors in

(03:23):
the space between his skull andhis brain, so not actually on
the skull or the brain. And thenhe had a couple of lumps, I
think, maybe around the spinalarea, but the main solid tissue
one was the big one in theadrenal gland. Oh, and sorry, it
was in his bones as well.

Amanda (03:42):
So he had a fair cancer load going around his body.

Unknown (03:46):
It was massive. It was absolutely massive. It was to
the point where the doctors hadsaid, if we don't do treatment,
ASAP, he'll be gone within sixweeks.

Amanda (03:56):
Oh, geez, what I thing to hear. Panic. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, in the context of all ofthat, and the part that kind of
amazes me very soon after yougot the diagnosis, and I think
it was next day. Yeah. you wentto see Genevieve. Now, choosing
holistic medicine, together withmedicine is, you know,

(04:17):
especially in such a shortperiod of time is a big
decision. How did you come tothat decision so quickly?

Unknown (04:23):
So I had actually prior to having Frankie I was actually
undergoing a naturopathicdegree. I was about two years
in. So I was in that world. Iwas already we were taking
supplements, we would veryrarely go to the doctor. My kids
hadn't had antibiotics like Iwas in that world. If I had
something wrong, I went to thehealth food store to talk to

(04:44):
them. So to me, it was animmediate no brainer. What are
we getting? Who are we seeing?
What are we doing? We startedGoogling, we started joining
Facebook groups like we justdove straight in,

Amanda (04:56):
and this is something you discussed with the
oncologist or the pediatricianor the doctor, did you just do
it...
in our very first meeting wherewe after the oncology team had
had the scans and had formalizedtheir diagnosis, and basically
told us the news, I had actuallysaid to them, would you guys be
open to doing complementarytreatments alongside the basic,

(05:19):
you know, chemo protocol, and Iwas immediately shut down, we
did not recommend that it'sdangerous. It can it can, you
know, injure your son, it canconflict with medications, like
it was a flat out No, very firm.
No, and that book was shot. So Iwas, I was like, okay, got the
vibe, get it? And did it anyway,I wasn't gonna take their answer
of don't do it. I was like,Well, to me. It's madness. If I

(05:42):
don't you know what I mean,like, I know, which made me
sense.
Well, I understand that andgiven your background, I
understand it. But I still thinkyou're incredibly brave. Given
all the...
Yeah, there was a lot ofpressure. Yeah, a lot of
pressure and a lot of theparents that I'd spoken to,
because obviously, we spent alot of time on the ward there.
And I'd said, Hey, guys, like,do any of you, you know, like,

(06:04):
Would you be willing to trysomething different? I've got
this naturopath and the parents.
Basically 99% of the parents allsaid, No, we've been told not
to, we're gonna follow theoncologist advice. And I
respected that. Because that'severyone's on their own journey.
To me, I was like, No way. I'mthrowing everything at it.
Genevieve, from many years oftalking to you that you've got

(06:27):
some experience with supportingpatients with cancer. And I know
some of the amazing outcomesyou've had over that time. Have
you supported many children?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (06:37):
So just three, and the really
interesting thing, or three orfour actually probably four?
Well, I guess some of them areolder, some of them, it seems to
be, they're very common in thethree to five to eight years of
age. And then 18 is kind of so Iguess they're not technically a
child, if they're 18. But yeah,there was one other child with

(06:59):
the same type of cancer, who isalso now cancer free. So I mean,
I always think, like I said toher right at the beginning,
great cancer for your child tohave, because we've had really
good outcomes with this. And youknow, so I mean, there are
definitely better cancers tohave. If you've had a good
outcome with a child or an adultwho's had a cancer where they're

(07:21):
now cancer free. That's always agreat story to tell the

Amanda (07:24):
a child like Frankie, who comes in three years old,
and fairly advanced cancer, verylarge, primary, secondary is
everywhere. Hi, cancer load. Howdo you start? What do you think
about what you're processing?
You know, what's your thinkingprocess around that?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (07:43):
I guess my initial thought is, like, with
kids, they hit them really hard.
Like with Frankie, the doses,the like aggression, the way
they go about is so different toadults. And I do a lot of older
adults with cancer as well. Sosometimes I think the
oncologists are a bit crazyabout that, because they're

(08:04):
like, well, they're olderanyway, so we can kind of just
take our time. Obviously,cancers in kids grow very
aggressively, as well asprobably why they go in so
aggressively. So we're lookingat side effects with looking at
what are the major side effectsof chemo and I guess something
that is huge. And a reason why alot of patients have to stop
chemo is because the white cellcount the neutropenia. So then

(08:27):
they're prone to infection, thenthey need to be in isolation.
And so essentially, we want tokeep the white cells within a
normal range, and keep thoseratios nice and healthy. So then
he could continue going fromround to round of chemo and all
the other types of treatmentthat he did after chemo without

(08:47):
a break or too much of a break.
So I guess then we could get ontop of the cancer as soon as
possible. And yeah, appetitepreventing him from losing
weight, liver function, Amandacan probably tell the liver
story because, I mean, that wasvery exciting because a lot of

(09:12):
patients will they will stoptheir cancer treatment or they
will kind of give up I guess onthe patient to some degree, when
they get certain liver issues.
And Amanda was amazing, like thebest mom in the world. She
actually read every side effectof every Frankie was prescribed.
We saw the liver issues, likethe symptoms starting to develop

(09:34):
and told the nurses immediately.
So then, I guess I knew what totreat based on her research of
his particular drugs. So yeah.

Amanda (09:47):
Okay. And they also test liver enzymes regularly. Are you
just going on on symptoms?
No. So every day he would havebloods drawn at the hospital and
basically every day they wouldbe monitoring I would say he's
something something is higher issomething something is low. So
we were getting regular dailyupdates of what his bloods were

(10:08):
doing. So he could keep an eyeon all of that. But it was more
of a physical symptom. So he hada side effect from his double
stem cell transplant, it was aVR de vino occlusive disease
where basically, it was one daywhere his urinary output was
really low. And this was sort ofthe thing that triggered my

(10:28):
first thing, because it was oneof the things that I'd read was
urinary output. So I was like,he hasn't done many ways today.
And then over, I think thecourse of maybe the next two or
three days, he started to getthe abdominal bloating and the
swelling. And they said, Okay,we can see his liver enzymes
are, you know, going up, blah,blah, blah. So then I'd seen
that it's a drug calledDefibrotide. If it can be

(10:51):
administered really early, ithas very good outcomes. So he
was on Defibrotide. Reallyearly, I think, like within a
day or two of the abdominal kindof like, he went a funny color,
you know, like, we deliverproblems, you go funny colors.
So it was from a little bit ofthe Bloods, but also just
obviously noticing him as well.
He wasn't, you know, putting outas much weight and he was going
a funny color.

(11:13):
Yeah. I think it's just soimportant. And you are amazing,
Amanda, because it's soimportant. And you reminded me
of something that we should betelling everyone with every
serious disease is to have areally active and interest in
your family members conditions,sometimes hard when it's
yourself, because if you're notfeeling well, and you can't
research properly, yeah, but ifanyone's got a serious condition

(11:36):
and your family out there,people, it's so important that
someone takes an active interestin side effects, the drugs, the
disease process itself. And Ithink because you become almost
the manager of that person, youremind all the doctors, you
remind all the nurses, youremind all the naturopaths and
you just get better outcomes ifsomeone's taking, you know, that

(11:57):
active control. So well done onthat. Genevieve, you are able to
understand the side effects fromthe drugs. And a lot of the side
effects seem to have an impacton the liver. What do you do
about supporting liver?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (12:12):
Yeah, so I mean, it was interesting, when
Amanda mentioned about theoncologist having a fear of
naturopathic, I think, certainnaturopath to do specialized
levels of training in cancer. Sowe know what is safe and what
isn't safe to give inconjunction with whatever
mainstream treatment they'redoing. And I mean, I'm certainly

(12:35):
at some stage or another we hadhim on NAC to support his liver
function. Amanda and her husbandand family were doing lots of
phenomenal juicing, brainjuices, beetroot things that
were supporting liver functionin a food way. And men certainly
were able to get on to thingsbefore they became a great

(13:00):
issue. So I guess it was tradingside effects and issues on at
the first sign and Amanda wouldlet me know if there was
something new that happenedimmediately. Rather than waiting
for the next consult, she wouldjust email me or text me if
something new happened or callme. And so we were able to get
on to things prior to thembecoming a greater issue than

(13:20):
what they could potentially havebeen. And then Frankie had less
side effects and was able to getthrough it more smoothly. So

Amanda (13:29):
we and we didn't even actually you know how you said
sometimes people have to havegaps between their treatment. So
the doctor said to us Look,you're likely to have to have a
week of chemo or do this butFrankie absolutely smashed
through we did not have to havea gap for any treatment. We did
back to back chemo and I mean,the oncologist was shocked,

(13:49):
though, like he's that he's thewellness to sick kid on the
oncology ward. You know what Imean? Like we didn't have he
never dropped too low to get hischemo. He was well enough to
start a stem cell he he didn'teven get a nose tube or nasal
gastric tube. They said to us onday one, he's gonna have to have
a nasal gastric tube once andthen we got through the chemo
and he hadn't lost that 10% ofhis weight. Like they kept

(14:11):
saying when you hit it when youhit it, that's it. That's it.
Anyway, we got all the waythrough till the end and it
pretty much they said you cannothave immunotherapy if you don't
have a nose tube. So we kind ofwere forced into it because he
was so well during treatment. Hekept his appetite. He was you
know, being nourished. He was hewas being fair. And I think that

(14:31):
sort of shocked him as well thatwe didn't we weren't going down
the same route that kids usuallylike don't get me wrong, he was
very sick. He was not a wellkid, but not to the point where
it impeded his treatment. Youknow what I mean?
Yeah, I do. You know, weightloss is a very common feature
chemo. You know, it's hardenough in adults, but how do you

(14:51):
get a child to eat? I mean, Iguess Genevieve worked a diet
with you, but you had toimplement it. So between you.
What were the key The importantfacts in creating that sort of
diet and getting him to be wellnourished?
Well, I'll just start quickly.
We've always been a reallyhealthy eating family, we've
always had a very diverse dietmy kids have always eaten well.

(15:13):
So I think the thing is, is thatbecause he was such a well kid
to start with, we we weregetting knocked down from a high
tea or as we saw a lot of otherkids on the ward who were fussy
eaters, and their parentscouldn't get them to eat things.
I mean, don't get me wrong, hisabsolute favorite food to the
whole of his treatment washashbrowns, and fish and chips.

(15:33):
So we were just getting that aname and washing it down with an
apple juice and, you know, havesome grapes or some watermelon
in the afternoon, I think,because he kept his appetite up
so well. And I don't really knowif I'm allowed to say this, but
we actually had him on cannabisoils very early on in his
treatment journey. So that alsohelped with the nausea, the lack

(15:57):
of appetite, those things thatgo alongside with the
chemotherapy. So I think thatplayed a huge role of why he
stayed so well during thosefirst really rough days of
chemo.
And from a dietary point ofview, Genevieve was there, did
you have a plan?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (16:14):
They were just phenomenal. So I usually
with my cancer patients send outa list of all the fruit and veg
that have specific actives forcancer. And I think Amanda was
constantly juicing smoothies.
And I mean, the most ridiculousthing is that some of the staff
would actually joke and say, OhHa, ha, ha, you're giving him

(16:35):
the green juice as if it's notgoing to do anything but
beetroot green juices, the havespecific enzymes and actives for
cancer are just phenomenal.
Yeah. So they were big intodoing that for him. And then
supplement wise we had him onzinc right through and then I

(16:56):
mean, if we're looking at theAustralian population, 80% of
Australians are zinc deficient.
You know, if you have a childthat is does not have cancer,
but he's a fussy eater, perhapsis underweight, or, you know,
looks a bit on the ln sidecompared to other family members
doesn't look as robust andhealthy as they could. They're

(17:17):
probably zinc deficient. Andzinc is something that
certainly, you know, most peoplecan benefit from, in some way,
shape or form. But certainlythat would have been a big
factor with keeping his weightup is keeping him on that zinc
right through.

Amanda (17:31):
Agree, zinc is so important for at all any immune
condition, but particularly incancer. You know, one of the
most important things, ofcourse, is the outcome. And this
is the exciting part. I'mtempted to do a drum roll, but I
don't know how to do it. So Iwon't. But you were told that
Frankie would be on treatmentfor three years, I believe,

(17:52):
Amanda? Roughly two years. Yeah.
Two years. Okay. And whathappened? Well,
he was done in 18 months, orless actually. We started in
January of 2019. And he receivedhis last immunotherapy treatment
in April of 2020.
Yeah, wow. Just just walk methrough that. What happened? You

(18:14):
go in to the hospital, pediatriconcologist, presumably, yeah,
yeah, what happened and thenyou basically get your
diagnosis. And then from that,so in Australia, they follow the
COC protocol for pediatriccancer, which is pretty much the
same for everything. A realintensive 80 days of chemo,
closely followed by I think theydid the chemotherapy first to

(18:36):
shrink his tumor. So he got hismain tumor from 11 centimeters
down to six. So once he finishedchemotherapy, it was surgery to
remove the right adrenal gland.
And we were really lucky thetumor wasn't growing in on
anything through anything, a lotof oncology, a lot of the
neuroblastoma kids it's wrappedaround the arterial veins or the

(18:59):
heart or the lungs. We werereally, really lucky that his
was encased and then a softtissue tumors behind his eyes
and his head had also shrunkbasically down to nothing. But
he didn't regain vision back inhis eye, I'd say it was probably
just, you know, cut off fromcirculation for a little too
long. So after surgery, I thinkhe had surgery maybe in April.

(19:20):
And then after that, we startedthe stem cell transplant. So we
had to travel down to Sydney toharvest his healthy stem cells,
where they filter out everythingfrom the blood, put the stem
cells on ice, but then after hegot two really big, very toxic
load doses of chemo in the stemcell transplant. The first one

(19:44):
was I can't remember which wayhe had them. But there was one
particular type of chemo wherehe had to have a bath every six
hours I think on the dot like itlike every six hours day or
night. Had to get washed in thisspecific wash too. And then In
the second lot of stem cellchemo that they did, they said,

(20:04):
Oh, you know, he's probably notgoing to be well enough. Well,
but he was. So we got to do thesecond lot of the stem cell. And
that's when I think so he had,let's go back and fold. But he
actually got two side effectsfrom the stem cell. The first
one was the vino occlusivedisease. And a second one was a
pulmonary hemorrhage, whichvery, very early on, we'd spoken

(20:26):
to a lung lung specialist, andhe'd said, you know, be careful
of this particular side effect,blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the
oncologist said, Oh, it'll befine. You know, he won't get up
either. Anyway, he did. And thenso that was a few weeks in ICU,
and then a couple of weeks stillback down on the ward, but
finished that. And then I thinkin September, October, we

(20:47):
started radiation down at theChildren's Hospital at Randwick.
And that was, I think, every dayfor two weeks or something maybe
on his abdomen where theoriginal tumor was they sort of
shoot that whole area there. Andthen after that, we started
immunotherapy. So that was everymonth for I think, maybe six

(21:11):
months, maybe yeah, that wouldhave taken us through to April.
So had to be up in ICU for thatspecialty administered. And then
after immunotherapy, we startvitamin A therapy. So he took a
vitamin A capsule, which prettymuch just, I think it kills off
any lost cancer that's left orstops its growth or something
like that. And then that was it.
He was done clear by I think Ithink he was clear. I think the

(21:37):
only little bit of cancer thathe had left when he started
immunotherapy was the bones. Butapparently the bones are the
trickiest part to get thecancer, the very last of it out.
And then yeah, I got the news inApril of 2020, that there was no
evidence of disease anywhere,which was amazing.
Amazing. And what was thefeedback from the doctors? Were

(21:59):
they surprised?
I mean, they just had I mean, Ithink it's a happy outcome when
they can finish off a casedidn't say it was good, but I
think the thing I just wanted tosay to them, I want to be like,
by the way, I've been doing thisall along, but I kind of just
thought like you guys take itthank the chemo dude, all that
and I'll just silently step herebeing like, do we know which one

(22:21):
got rid of a cancer? No, do Icare? No. The fact of the matter
is, it's gone.
Yeah. Genevieve, when you'reworking with a patient with
cancer? Do you generally haveongoing communication with the
oncologist? Or do you just getshut down as well?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (22:37):
Um, I mean, look, if if the patients
kind of a shame because in themedical journals, there are many
want me to send a list of alltheir supplements and some info
to the oncologist, I'm happy todo that. But that's very rare
that we do that. Becausehonestly, most people do not
tell their oncologist, anythingthat they're doing. I feel like

(22:57):
as with Amanda and Frankie, theygot shut down immediately. Don't
do it. It's not safe. I guess alot of people do encounter that
experience. And so therefore,they just do not tell the
oncologist anything they'redoing. I guess, if we could work
together, that would befantastic. I'm never going to

(23:18):
give something that's not safe,or that's going to stop the
medical treatment from havingany effects whatsoever. But I
guess there is that fear. Andone of my mentors actually said
to me, once the fear comes fromthe fact of they don't want to
be sued. So if they just sayacross the board, nothing

(23:40):
natural is safe, then they can'tbe sued if there is some kind of
a side effect from an naturalmedicine, or an interaction
because I guess, and that fearof being sued is probably a big
driver of why they just sayacross the board, nothing's safe

(24:01):
articles and studies supportingthe synergistic use of
supplements or herbs togetherwith medical treatments for
better outcomes for thepatients. I mean, that comes
from the medical journals, andfor some reason they just don't
get picked up. Genevieve whenyou work with adults, you talk
about emotional drivers orgratitude practice or, you know,

(24:25):
hypnosis or long term goals. Isany of that adapted to small
children? Is there anything youcan take into this for children?
Amanda naturally like herpersonality, she's a real
optimist. And at no point well,I think there was like one point

(24:46):
all the way through. Shebelieved that Frankie would be
well so I guess she was alwaysgiving him positive feedback and
like always coming from a placeof positivity and from a place
Have we got this? And you'regonna come through the other
side? And you're gonna be? Well,there was one point I think she
met someone, Amanda, that youmet someone who had their child

(25:10):
had the same type of cancer asFrankie. And unfortunately, that
child had passed. And you were abit emotional about that, which
is fair enough. But I just said,Look, you don't know what that
other family was doing? Werethey seeing a naturopath? Were
they doing all these otherthings? You just we don't know.
And another thing that AmandaDiddy took bait was really good.
So there was a temple like not atemple, but like a church kind

(25:33):
of area at the hospital. And yousaid to me that every day you go
there, and you just have yourmeditation time, and you're
like, you know, come on, gotthis. And you just like, your
faith was really strong that hewas always going to come out the
other side. So I guess thatwould have been impacted
Frankie, because if you see yourmum or dad crying all the time,

(25:58):
or being negative, or likeletting the cancer win, then the
child would do that as well. SoI guess from an optimistic point
of view, they were, like, veryoptimistic in the family, a lot
of family support. Anddefinitely, Amanda and her
husband and her whole family,just all came together. And I

(26:20):
guess when I say really positiveoutcomes, like there's, it is a
real family event, and everyonecomes together. And it's not,
you know, one parent or theother parent, or it's just
everyone.

Amanda (26:34):
Amanda, how do you manifest those sorts of the
right sort of vibe in the familyto support Frankie? Is there a
conscious effort to havediscussions with other children
and cousins and grandparents andyour husband? And how do you you
know, what's the thought patternaround all of that?
So we were just straight fromthe get go, we weren't trying to

(26:58):
cotton wool wrap anything forFrankie, we were using the word
cancer, we were being verydirect. This is what happened.
This is what you've got. Wereferred to his cancer as a bad
guy in his body. And the drugsthat we and supplements that we
were taking with the good guys.
So we tried to make himunderstand I know this
medicines, yucky, but you got totake it. It's full of the good
guys. And we you know, somepeople don't like to say the

(27:20):
word cancer around those kids.
My thing was, I'm just going tobled out. We bought some books
about kids with cancer as well,some resources so he could
understand about his centralline and why he's bald. And you
know what I mean? Like it kindof just makes it an age
appropriate level. But myhusband's family is very, very

(27:40):
close. So it was just naturalthat they were we actually had
my two year old son at the time,Leo, he would stay with us
sometimes at the Ronald McDonaldHouse there because we live on
the Central Coast and Johnhunters about an hour up the
freeway. So he would havesleepovers at the family's house
and then come back, people willcooking food for us people were

(28:00):
coming to visit us at the RonaldMcDonald House. And in terms of
keeping my optimism, I just,it's like I just had this
feeling inside that I justcouldn't actually imagine in my
mind him not coming out theother end, it was like just this
weird knowing and then I wouldkeep myself and be like, am I
optimistically crazy, am I butthen we had a few little I call

(28:24):
them whispers from the universe.
So I used to donate to an animalcharity. And during that
Christmas period, my card haddeclined. And one of the
representatives had called meand said, You know, I'm just
trying to catch up. And youknow, if you'd like to continue
donating, and I just said Look,right now I'm really in the
thick of it. I just I can'tanyway, so I explained what had
happened. And this particularcall or she said my day job is

(28:47):
I'm a pediatric oncology nurse.
And she said the families that Ihave come across in I know
weird, right? I've got chillsthinking about it. The families
that I've seen through my careerthat have remained the most
positive and the mostoptimistic, had better outcomes.
And that just stuck with me Ithought of all the people to
call me and had to be that nursethat day job you know me it was

(29:10):
just like a little confirmationfrom the universe you're on the
right track, you know what Imean? And it was just these a
couple of little situationalthings like that. I just thought
things just felt right. And Idon't know I just had an Yeah,
generally was right there was afew really bad moments there
where I was really low and Ithought oh my god, is this the
like, are we going to make itafter all, and she really just

(29:32):
kind of like helped pick me backup and you know, my husband, I
leaned on each other a lotduring that time as well. And,
you know, just, you know, we'dhave our bad days but then we
would just be like, Look, that'sthat's not our journey out
everyone is on their ownjourney. And that's not what's
in store for us.
Frankie got his all clearprognosis three years ago,
roughly, yeah. Well, how is henow? How's the family now?

(29:56):
Right. We've gone on to have twomore kids since then. And we
have just we really live life tothe fullest in terms of, you
know, we always try and sneakaway and go on family holidays.
We're always doing fun thingswith our kids. We're always just
living. It's like, we've kind oflooked at this cancer diagnosis,
in a weird way, as a gift ofwhat's the good that has come

(30:21):
from this like since Frankie'sdiagnosis. I can't even tell you
how many people I've referred onto Genevieve people come to me
and have a problem. I'm like,I've got a lady you need to see
her. So my best friend's motheractually, has just finished her
cancer riddled with lung cancer.
And first thing we did straightto Genevieve. So I'm looking at
all these positive things thathave come from such a negative

(30:43):
thing that happened to us. AndI'm just thinking like, I guess
it was given to us for a reason,because of what we've been able
to achieve and help and, youknow, refer on from being in
this journey ourselves.
Yeah. What a wonderful outlook.
Thank you. Hey, Genevieve, youtalked about giving Frankie
zinc? And presumably, that'sstandard treatment for many

(31:05):
cancer patients. Did you use anyother supplements or herbs?

Genevieve Mlotkowski (31:11):
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So we're used the
the RBAC, which is the shitakiextract that's been created by a
Japanese company in Japan,actually. You brought them to
our to Australia, and I got tomeet them. And I actually

(31:31):
brought one of my cancerpatients to the house that day
to meet them because I thought,well, you know, these guys are
phenomenal researchers. Andthey've got this incredible
product that, you know, hashelped so many people and even
some of the studies on SATs,this particular extract the RBAC

(31:52):
is that people who don't respondto chemotherapy, then take this
product and respond really well.
So like some people are on areally big dose, like Frankie
was on and off a really big doseof that particular product. And
then this like family member,you're like, is your cousin's
mom who I'm saying at themoment, she was on like six
sachets a day. And she's now atthe point where she's so well,

(32:17):
that she did get a side effectfrom the treatment. But they
said, even if she didn't havethat side effect, they wouldn't
even be treating her right now,because the cancer is so small
than those small. And she, likepeople can't even believe she's
still alive. So she keeps seeingpeople, they're like, I can't
explain, you're still alive. Soreally good outcomes, you know,

(32:38):
lots of B vitamins and thehospital did do supplements as
well. I had Frankie on low goalsduring the radiotherapy because
obviously radiotherapy can causea lot of side effects, but it
strips the body of ideas. Sohospital actually had him on low
goals to them. We kept him onlow goals for some time after

(32:59):
that, the high dose iodine,which is you know, in a natural
japanese diet, they would begetting these mega doses of
iodine based on all the seaweedthey're consuming, but in our
diet. We don't have seaweed forbreakfast, lunch and dinner. So
we generally Australians, about50% Australians are iodine

(33:20):
deficient. While I'm sure we hadhim on vitamin A, after he
finished the vitamin A therapy.
Yeah, we want to do stuff. Sostuff that the doctors and
oncologist did that wassupplemental, then we thought
well, How fantastic is this?
We'll continue this with him fora bit longer just to get like
bump up those doses of whateverparticular nutrients they did

(33:41):
have him on. Well, after theoncology team had stopped the
supplements we just kept themgoing kind of thing. So yeah,
there was lots of bits andpieces that we've had him on and
he was phenomenal with takingstuff. I think you were sneaking
it into the juices or Oh

Amanda (33:58):
my god. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So we would bribe him wewould be like alright, if you
have this, I'll let you havelike an ice cream in the freezer
like we will like get it in anyway we can. Reward System
bit of creativity. Okay, allguys want an amazing story. I
want an amazing outcome and I'mjust so happy I love these

(34:21):
stories. You know, there's suchfeel goods and we need lots of
feel goods. So that's wonderful.
Thank you so much. Genevievehelp people get in touch with
you.

Genevieve Mlotkowski (34:31):
They can look at my website, which is
getwellwithgen.com and spelt Genjust to confuse people and yeah,
so I love seeing cancer peoplebut the best outcomes with
cancer is as Amanda did the dayafter they got the official

(34:52):
diagnosis was the first day westarted supportive treatment
with alongside his medicaltreatment and so Yeah, ideally
in a perfect world, if everyonecould see a naturopath who
specializes in cancer at thefirst sign of cancer, rather
than I do see people end stage,which, obviously, we are just

(35:15):
supporting them with symptoms,quality of life breathing, that
kind of thing. Pain Relief,yeah, in a perfect world effect
could come right from the get gorather than doing medical
treatment for a couple of years.
And then the outcomes aren'tgreat. And then they come when
things are quite aggressive. Soyeah,

Amanda (35:32):
Jen, that is so well said and so true, and reflects
the opinion of manypractitioners who look at cancer
as well. So thank you so much.
And the website is get well withgen.com. Amanda, once again,
thank you so much for sharingtheir story. And I you know, if
we can make a difference, just acouple of kids from your story,
or attitudes towards workingtogether with medicine, that's

(35:53):
just, it's just a win foreveryone. So thank you so much,
and really appreciate it.
Thank you. No worries, okay,

Genevieve Mlotkowski (36:40):
thanks.