When I first started on my trip from Virginia to Arizona, I believed that I was helping my dad make his last stand. His last real (true) attempt at life. I have been with him to his oncologist appointments where they were offering him no hope. He was holding on to life by just a strain. His health was progressively getting worse and worse. He was spending all day in bed. He had no meat on his bones (he is 6’2” and weighed 125 lbs.), no teeth in his mouth, and sadly no spirit in his body. He would struggle from one event to the next (events included meals, using the bathroom, and just getting out of bed). He had all of his kids petitioning and researching clinical trials that he could go to in order for to try to hold on to life just a little bit longer. He would say it could buy him a “few more weeks.” Most of the trials we researched said that he had done it before. He had been on chemo/radiation for the past 3 ½ years, stopping only for the surgeries in between. My personal outlook was grim. I truly believed that New Hope would offer him no reprieve either. I believed that maybe it would make him more comfortable for a short period of time, and that was enough for me and my family. In essence, I thought he was dead.

In fact, his stay at New Hope has proved to make him notably much more comfortable, but not only is he more comfortable. It has renewed his spirit. He believes that he has more life to live. He is a whole new person. He is ready to live, eat correctly, drink, meditate, and study (some of the lectures given at New Hope). He is excited to take his medicine and supplements. He is feeling much better, he says that he is thinking clearly now. He has pep in his step. He is ready, ready for the rest of his life.

But truthfully, he is not the only person affected here. I, too, have gained a vast array of knowledge that I plan on teaching and employing in my home. I will not limit my new found knowledge to only my home. I want to educate others of what I have learned here. I want to further study alternative medicine, eating properly, exercising your mind and body, and the other topics discussed at New Hope. Initially, I thought that there was nothing I could do for my father (or anyone else with cancer) other than pray. I didn’t truly care to understand the disease or how it affected my father (other than the ways I could see). Now, I have a better understanding of the disease, its’ patients and even the doctors treating it.

Everyone at the clinic has been more than understanding, more than accommodating, more than loving. It is amazing, they truly want and believe that they (with the help of God) can cure the disease. Dr. Branyon takes the time to get to know each patient personally and intimately. She’ll lecture with her patients, laugh with you, dance with you, meditate with her patients, and pray with her patients. I have never been to such a rewarding place. I pray that others will visit and give New Hope a chance.