A former model who nearly died while trying to cure cancer with a juice diet has warned others not to “give up” on traditional medical advice and try to find alternative information online.
Irena Stoynova spent £2,000 on a juicer and spent three hours a day preparing liquid meals for the next day, believing it would remove water from her body. non-hodgkin lymphoma.
The 39-year-old was diagnosed in June 2021 when doctors recommended she undergo conventional treatments, but after “reading and watching many doctors and professors online talking about the success rates of alternative treatments” she “rejected them”.
Ms. Stoynova was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June 2021. Image: PA
Ms Stoinova, from Crondal, Hampshire, said she had been on a juice diet for two-and-a-half years but had also tried raw food diets, intermittent fasting, boiled herbs and special teas.
She said she was advised to start chemotherapy but she turned to the internet for alternative advice and “it all started from there”.
She said she listened to a man with hundreds of thousands of followers social media Claims that the body can “heal itself” through radical lifestyle and dietary changes.
Ms. Stoynova said she lost 20 kilograms thanks to a holistic approach to cancer treatment. Image: PA
Ms Stoinova said she became an “enthusiast” for the various diets and holistic therapies she followed, adding: “It was like tunnel vision.
“I didn’t stop, I was just too weak, sleep deprived and hallucinating. I didn’t even have the strength to open the door for the delivery man.
“I couldn’t breathe because there was fluid in my lungs and I had lost about 20kg because of the diet.”
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Doctors said Stoinova was on the verge of death when she was taken by ambulance to Frimley Park Hospital in May last year.
Doctors told her that if her cancer was in stage three, she could die if left untreated, but Ms. Stoinova refused chemotherapy for several days before finally agreeing to undergo it.
Medical staff described a “frustrating” conversation with her, but ultimately, after ten days in hospital, she agreed to start chemotherapy.
Ms. Stoinova is now in remission after receiving chemotherapy. Image: PA
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Ms Stoinova, who is now in remission, added: “I tell people now that the side effects of chemotherapy were nothing compared to the side effects I had of trying holistic treatments.”
She added: “What I’m saying is it’s good to have beliefs and if they’re backed by science that’s great and please don’t cut yourself off from your advisor.
“I cut off consultants and everything to do with standard medicine and I almost lost my life.”
Dr Clare Rees, consultant hematologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This was an extreme situation and indeed within the first 24 hours of Irena’s admission I was not sure if she would survive.
“But the thing is, misinformation tends to spread faster than the truth and obviously if someone can choose juice instead of pills or chemotherapy and injecting drugs into their body, you can see why they would be more willing to do some of these things if that’s okay Give them the benefit of the doubt. They get the same results – but the problem is it’s not evidence-based practice.
“We always encourage people to go to Lymphoma Action or Macmillan Cancer Support for factual information.”
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