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Kurt Wallace: This is Kurt Wallace and our guest today on Rare is Shannon Knight, founder of Angels for Shannon. Thanks for being with us today on Rare.
Shannon Knight: Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure
Kurt Wallace: Now you’re a cancer survivor?
Shannon Knight: Yes I am, twice.
Kurt Wallace: And you had stage four cancer, you went to doctors and got sicker and the cancer spread. Then you went to an alternative route and now you’re cancer free?
Shannon Knight: Yes and it’s pretty exciting as more time passes. You can only imagine because I’m in remission still. I don’t even call it remission, I’m cured! And I’m just gonna call it like it is.
Kurt Wallace: Well, tell us your story how you went to doctors and then what made you decide to go in a different direction?
Shannon Knight: First time I got cancer was in 2006. So, I started going the normal route because I was naive just following the rules. You get into a university in Washington and they do the lumpectomy. They tell you to do the mastectomy, you do the bilateral mastectomy they take your lymph nodes. They tell you what’s next – radiation, three types of chemo and you get staff infection and everything is at a halt. And I actually got so sick that the medicine that they had me on Hydromorphone I was taking 16 a day. I couldn’t eat I was in danger of getting cachexia where you body just wastes away. I had no appetite, I had nausea and went into the emergency. It was getting to the point where I couldn’t even drink broth.
Kurt Wallace: What made you decide to go into the alternative route and try these other methods and what are the methods?
Shannon Knight: The other methods that I wanted to try were because I could not I was not a candidate for chemotherapy. I did high dose vitamin C intravenous. I did Layatryl. I did dendritic cell cancer vaccine which was made with my own blood. I did enzyme therapy. I did far infrared hyperthermia. I did colloidal silver. I backed off on antibiotics and wrote a letter because the insurance company I was on medicare said they were going to consider me non-compliant if I stopped taking the antibiotics. And I wrote a letter telling the that i couldn’t take prophylactic antibiotics any longer, I was on them for six months and I was like I said my body was so skinny and wasting away. I was not getting enough nutrition.
Kurt Wallace: How are you doing today?
Shannon Knight: I am so healthy. I’m healthier now than I was before I ever got cancer the first time. I am able to jump rope, exercise, swim, hike. I’ve never been this healthy in my life. There’s no sign of cancer.
Kurt Wallace: Well congratulations on this miraculous recovery and being cancer free. Tell us about Angels for Shannon?
Shannon Knight: Angels for Shannon was inspired when I got sick with cancer the second time. When I got cancer the second time and the doctor told me that if I did not take any of the recommended treatments that he didn’t give me a chance of more than three months to a year. I knew then that it was going to be hopeless but I knew that I didn’t want to give up. And we ended up my girlfriend started a non-profit organization to raise money called ‘Angels for Shannon’ to raise the money to get me to a hospital to save my life. With all of these same treatments that I used before and even more. We succeeded and raised the money and I said if I beat this I want to use Angels for Shannon to raise money for these same naturopathic treatments that other cancer patients are going to want to use that refuse chemo and allopathic treatments. I want to be able to help those that can’t afford it and that’s how it happened.
Kurt Wallace: Well another question in terms of Obamacare. How does Obamacare play a part in what your organization does and does it hinder or does it help in any way?
Shannon Knight: It doesn’t help at all unfortunately. It’s actually hindering even more so right now because just the basics getting imaging done. There used to be standard imaging, just the PET scan, the normal CAT scan, MRI’s the cancer patient could get to see where they’re at in their stage of cancer. They’re not standard anymore. So, this is a change that we’ve noticed taking place. You can’t say can I see your most recent PET scan? They say what are you talking about? It used to be a year and a half ago standard protocol to get a PET scan stage three, stage four – not anymore.
Kurt Wallace: What is a PET scan?
Shannon Knight: A PET scan is if I’ve got stage – if they find out that I’ve got cancer, breast cancer and it’s going to my lymph nodes. A lymph node is an easy access to get into your blood stream so that means it could have easily gotten into my liver, could have gotten into my lungs. A PET scan is a full body scan and it shows exactly where your entire body that the cancer’s metastasized to. So without that PET scan I mean it lights up, its bright neon green. Without that PET scan you can’t see where it’s metastasized to.
Kurt Wallace: And Obamacare doesn’t allow for this?
Shannon Knight: No! They’ve done a cut in cost to save money and it’s something that is very frightening for patients now because they have to site there and wonder where their cancer is. They’re walking around not knowing where it’s spread.
Kurt Wallace: So Angels for Shannon actually can help pay for
Shannon Knight: Pay for that.
Kurt Wallace: Pay for that, i see, since Obamacare isn’t helping with that and cancer patients need to know where the cancer is.
Shannon Knight: Absolutely, we have to have that. I’m relying on that. Back when I was in the hospital this last time, at university. They told me I had cancer, they said it spread to my liver and I was in there a week crying begging for a PET scan. They never gave it to me while I was there. They said you’re in denial. You need to accept the fact that you have cancer yet a third time. I didn’t want to even call my family because I thought how could I have cancer again. I failed yet again. I said please do this PET scan. Just let me see if it’s actually in my liver. How do you know? And doctor after doctor, day after day, came into my room telling me that they were going to send in a shrink for me. I pushed and pushed and pushed – I even threatened to put it in the newspaper what they were doing to me. I mean I had to become radical to get this PET scan. PET scan came back negative for cancer.
Kurt Wallace: I see so Obamacare in some ways keeping people from being able to get these tests?
Shannon Knight: Yes at the advanced stage.
Kurt Wallace: So, Angels for Shannon actually can help pay for that.
Shannon Knight: Pay for that.
Kurt Wallace: I see since Obamacare isn’t helping pay for that.
Shannon Knight: People need to start reading and learning what Obamacare is. We need to understand what’s happening with our healthcare or we’re going to lose it all.
Kurt Wallace: It’s AngelsforShannon.com. You have an incredible story. Shannon Knight thanks for being with us today on Rare.
Shannon Knight: You’re very welcome.