New Video Series Celebrates 22 Late-Stage Cancer Survivors
Last September, 22 people made history as they joined together to celebrate accomplishing the impossible: surviving late-stage cancer.
Traveling back to the place where their healing journeys began — CHIPSA Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico — the cancer survivors had the chance to share their stories, meet other patients, and converse with world-renowned doctors, scientists, coaches, and advocates. The weekend was truly “A Celebration of Life,” as the survivors commemorated their feats and the community of researchers shared the groundbreaking research that aims to save more lives in the future.
“It’s not every day that you meet another stage-4 or late stage-3 cancer survivor,” said Bailey O’Brien, a 22-year-old melanoma survivor. She described the experience of meeting the fellow survivors as “humbling.” It’s rare enough to be a late-stage cancer survivor, let alone meet another– or twenty-one others. It’s certainly not something that happens every day.
But what if it could?
What if we could live in a world where meeting late-stage cancer survivors wasn’t so unusual?
That’s the kind of future that we at CHIPSA Hospital envision. One where a late-stage cancer diagnosis does not have to equal a death sentence. One where a grandmother can meet her first grandchild, a father can walk his daughter down the aisle, and a husband can grow old with his wife. One where people can survive.
“Everything you hear about cancer is negative,” says one patient. “Death, death, death. That’s not CHIPSA’s story. CHIPSA’s story is about survival.”
So what is CHIPSA doing differently to treat cancer?
Following the lead of some of the world’s most distinguished scientists, including Dr. Franco Marincola, Dr. Vijay Mahant, and Dr. Phillip Kim, CHIPSA focuses on healing cancer with the aid of the body’s own, powerful, immune system. Its cutting-edge integrative treatments include methods like the Gerson Therapy, Coley’s Therapy, low-dose chemotherapy, and immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and dendritic cell treatments. Patients at CHIPSA work to nurture their bodies instead of poison them.
These long-criticized therapies are only recently being celebrated by the public, and some are even being approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. But it’s hospitals like CHIPSA, and the research community who bolsters it, that are doing the work to make cancer survival a reality.
“Every single day it is a fight to bring these types of solutions to help people like you,” says Amir Jafri, CEO and Founder of Immunicom, Inc. “That’s why they do it.“
The “A Celebration of Life” event painted a picture of a world where curing cancer doesn’t seem so impossible. But that world can’t exist if this knowledge and research stays bottled up within a small community. There’s a bigger picture at stake.
“This is huge,” says one survivor. “It’s not about the hospital. It’s not just about us. It’s about getting it out to a larger part of the world.”
That’s what we CHIPSA want to do. Later this year, we will be releasing a video package of this historic event, and the survivors’ powerful stories will be heard. The remarkable research that’s creating new avenues for healing cancer will be shared. Viewers will learn about cutting-edge cancer treatments from the mouths of people who aren’t even supposed to be alive.
Take part in this crucial moment as the world becomes educated about revolutionary treatments that offer new hope for a hopeless disease.