Tess's Story

For all my life, I have been extremely fit and active. I never suffered with aches and pains or back problems until 2 years ago. I remember taking my Ma out to lunch for her birthday, I felt fine but suddenly during the meal I lost my voice. The next day feeling really unwell I took to my bed, this lasted for a week and gradually I returned to normal only to go down with the same virus a couple of weeks later. This happened three times in a very short period, each time the symptoms grew progressively worse. My body was racked with pain, all the strength had left my arms. I was suffering with chronic fatigue and it was now impossible to get out of a chair without immense will power. I kept putting off going to the Doctor, but eventually as the pain was taking me over I decided the time had come.

After blood tests and a visit to the Rheumatoid arthritis consultant, I was told I had Polymyalgia, my Doctor rang me and said it was easy to cure ,I would start off on a high dosage of steroids and gradually reduce them….. that was like a red rag to a bull, I knew there and then that there was no way I was going to take steroids. So having told the Doctor I would go and see her the next day, but knowing full well I was not going to go, I decided I had to cure myself.

Not knowing anything about raw food, I decided this was the way to go! I am convinced when times are tough you are guided and I am convinced this is what was happening to me.
I decided I had to read and equip myself with as much knowledge as I could . I joined up for classes, I visited experts both here in the UK and New York. The defining moment came when Denise who runs a clinic in NY told me you don't catch viruses! but I had just caught 3 , one after the other. It was then she taught me about your inner terrain. If you are in an alkaline state , there is no way viruses and diseases can survive, however if your body is in an acid state , which obviously mine was then it is the prime condition for you to become sick. Wow ! and there was I thinking I was eating a healthy diet. I also learnt that there are four main reasons why we become sick. 1. There are too many toxins in the body 2.There are nutritional deficiencies 3. Exposure to electromagnetic chaos and finally stress.

I started to juice every day, eat salads and smoothies, the more raw I ate the better my body felt. I could actually feel the nutrients seeping back into my body. I learnt from another raw food teacher about the importance of drinking 1 and 1/2 litres of green juice every day. I found it fascinating and I was loving my food. I learnt about live foods, dead foods, the importance of enzymes. I just felt everything was falling into place, for the first time in my life, I was actually understanding about food.

Big problems however arose with my friends, they were horrified that I was eating like this and also refusing pain killers or medication, At first I felt embarrassed telling them but once I could feel the difference in my body, I decided to ignore the comments.
As the months passed I could see and feel amazing changes in my body. I was having Rolfing massage every week, to help ease the pain, I was sticking with my raw food and juicing, gradually I started to feel normal again. It has taken me about 18 months to feel totally cured, but I knew it wasn't going to be a quick fix.

So today looking back on my journey, I feel really privileged that I was ill, which seems a very strange thing to say, but I now really understand why we get sick and how we can cure ourselves without resorting to prescriptive or over-the-counter drugs and surgery.

My friends who initially thought I was completely out with the fairies are now coming to my classes and investing in vita-mixes and juicers. They see the changes in me and want to know what I'm up to.

I have invested huge amounts both in time and money to educate myself, and I now feel passionate about helping others take responsibility for their own health. I truly believe you can only be healthy when you take responsibility for yourself, no pill, doctor, friend can cure you of disease, only your own understanding and body can do that.