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My cancer healed itself
A CANCER sufferer was amazed when he was told the disease was in remission before he had been given any treatment.
Retired teacher Peter Crane had been diagnosed with a form of leukaemia 18 months ago and was told that while it can be treated, it can't usually be cured.
But, after blood tests at Newcastle's Freeman hostpial last week and before any treatment was given, Mr Crane was told his cancer had gone into spontaneous remission and there was no trace of it.
Mr Crane, who is married to Mary, 58, said: "I was in shock, to be honest, when they told me.
"My blood counts had been normal for about 12 months, so it had disappeared naturally without treatment. The doctors said to go into spontaneous remission is very rare but it's not unique and I am not saying it won't come back but, for now, it's a huge weight off my mind."
Mr Crane had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, CLL – one of the most common forms of the disease – which normally requires medical intervention to keep under control.
Ken Campbell, chief information specialist for Leukaemia and Lymphoma research, said: "Mr Crane has been very lucky. Spontaneous remission like this has happened before but it is certainly not commonplace. It is very, very rare."
And Vanda Taylor, a senior cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK said: "We are pleased to hear about this case, CLL is a complex disease and similar cases like this have been known, although we would stress they are incredibly rare."
Mr Crane is about to begin a 450-mile bike ride through France and to highlight his situation to give hope to others.
The ride will take them from the French coast near Arcachon to Bordeaux, Agen, Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Beziers before reaching the Mediterranean near Narbonne nine days later.
Now he and Mary are hoping people will sponsor them to raise money for the charity. You can make a donation at justgiving.com/petercrane2.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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