Daughter Claims Her Breast Milk Gave Her Dad Extra Life

Helen Fitzsimmons, 40, revealed how her breast milk saved her dad, Arthur from dying early after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Mirror reports that the mother-of-two believes she gave her terminally ill father an extra year of life by feeding him with her one-year-old son’s milk.

Helen’s dad had already been fighting Myeloma Cancer which affects the bone marrow for 4 years when he was told he also had Prostate Cancer in October 2013.

Helen said: “It was absolutely crushing for us because dad was now dealing with two cancers. As a family we tried to stay clam but we were so worried.”

Out of desperation to help her dying dad, Helen started trawling the internet on treatments for her father’s cancer. She finally came across medical evidence which showed breast milk can boost the immune system. She was breastfeeding her son Cassius(1) at the time .

She told her mum, Jean about her findings. Arthur told Helen: ‘Anything is worth a go.’ From then on her father would regularly drink her breast milk.

Helen, of Cheltenham, said: “The first time dad tasted my milk from a glass he drank it down in one go. He looked at me and smiled, then said ‘this tastes fine’.”

“I know there are some people who may find this all a little strange but when someone you love is suffering you would do anything to help them.

I’d found a way to help my dad and I took it. It gave him hope and he lived 16 months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

That was a year longer than we expected after that and I’m sure it was my breast milk that helped.”

Helen said: “It wasn’t something I decided on a whim. There was clear medical evidence that giving dad my breast milk may help him.

“Cassius was only a year old and I was still feeding him so what harm could it do? I started expressing and freezing, then taking monthly supplies down to my dad in Devon.”

Helen’s dad battle with Prostrate cancer was proving tough but the family were astonished when doctors told them his protein levels, which kept increasing due to his Myeloma, had stopped increasing.

She said: “In January 2014 dad started drinking 2 fl. oz of breast milk a day and his protein levels stopped increasing almost straight away.

“I wanted him to drink more so asked a friend to start donating her milk too and he was soon taking 3fl oz. Incredibly, his protein levels then actually started falling.

“He even joked mine was sweeter after tasting both.

“There’s nothing to suggest that anything else other than the breast milk caused this to happen.

“In fact, when he later dropped to having just half an ounce of breast milk a day the levels raised again.”

Helen said Arthur’s Haematology doctors were “quite dismissive” of alternative therapies saying there was no proof any worked, but the family remain convinced the milk prolonged his life.

Helen said: “I truly believe that dad lived an extra 12 months because of the breast milk.

“Of course we can’t prove it medically but it gave him hope – and hope is so important in battling cancer.

“Dad had no qualms about taking it and knowing there were no side-effects was a bonus.

“He told me he was grateful and hoped that others would benefit from our story. That’s why I’ve decided to tell people about our experience.”

Sadly, Helen’s dad eventually lost his fight for life in Easter last year – 16 months after first drinking her milk.

She said: “My only regret is that I didn’t realize the benefits of breast milk earlier.

“My hope now is that one day doctors embrace alternative therapies and treat them with the legitimacy they deserve.”We are only starting to understand cancer and what may help fight it and I hope what happened to our family gives someone else hope.”It was a privilege to be able to offer Dad some hope.

“It was wonderful to be able to repay him in my own special way for all the love he’d given me.”