I’ll never forget the day my brother told me my mother had only 2 years to live.

The year was 2002, and my mother had just been diagnosed with Leukaemia after going through a bone marrow biopsy.

This news came only months after my father passed away; in fact, we believe it was this event that precipitated my mother’s cancer.

I was devastated by the news, as one might imagine. Having had to deal with losing my father not long ago due to diabetes, the thought of losing my mother as well was too awful to bear.

After being diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia, my mother went through the standard chemotherapy cancer treatment, taking the drugs Fludara and Ciclofosfamida, which consumed much of her life’s savings, as these medicines were very expensive and were not covered by her Argentinian health insurance at the time.

She did not feel well after chemotherapy, and her overall health deteriorated due to her weakened immune system.

She also started gaining weight, partly as consequence of feeling lonely and having had to cope with no longer having my father around.

Her weight went from 56 kilos (123 lb) to 63 kilos (139 lb), which is a significant change for a woman who is 1.54 meters (61 inches) tall.

The pictures below were taken during this time and you can see how overweight my mother was. My mother was eating what we often call the standard American diet: high in fat, not enough fruit, if any, oily processed foods, etc.

I discovered the science of Natural Hygiene and the Raw Food Diet around 2007, so I was able to help my mother improve her diet.

After following my advice to remove all animal products from her diet and increase the amount of ‘whole’ fresh raw fruit and vegetables, my mother began to lose weight and feel revitalised.

In 2012, my mum’s doctors told her that she no longer needed the biannual tests as she was now cancer free – and she remains so to this day.

Other aspects of my mother’s health also improved. She had her gallbladder removed when she was younger and used to get sick when she ate most cooked foods, often resorting to medication to deal with the stomach pain.

Her stomach problems vanished after she changed her diet to high raw foods, showing how a low-fat, plant-based diet can improve overall digestion.

Other aspects of my mother’s health also improved, including her high blood pressure, which is common in post-menopausal women.

Statistically speaking, the chances of a woman of 65 years of age surviving leukaemia and going on to live for five years are only 33%. Would my mother have survived cancer if she had not changed her diet? I don’t think so.

In fact, when I interviewed Dr Keki Sidhwa in 2013, the then 87-year-old hygienist from Nottingham, England, I told him the story of how my mother beat cancer. Dr Sidhwa told me categorically that my mother’s diet was the main reason she beat leukaemia for good. And that if my mother went back to eating junk food and animal products, the cancer would definitely return. And I think he was correct, because my mother has not changed her diet in all this time and fortunately she has been cancer free for more than 20 years.

The pictures below show my mum’s transformation. The picture on the right was taken in California in 2008 and the picture on the left was taken when she visited China in 2013.

Since her recovery, my mother has been able to finally fulfil her long-held dream of travelling the world. She has visited 31 countries (she and I counted recently).

The picture below shows my mother visiting Israel and Jordan in 2023 at the age of 87 (she actually celebrated her birthday there). Everyone who meets her tells her how agile she is and no one can believe how well she is doing for her age.

My mother achieved this remarkable transformation by adopting the principles of the science of Natural Hygiene, which I obviously also live by. It is a plant based diet high in carbohydrates, around 70-80% of total calories, and low in fat – only 10 to 15% of total calories.

Just to be clear, when I say carbohydrates, I don’t mean pizza, breakfast cereals, cakes, bread and pasta (in other words, grains). I mean a diet high in fibre from whole fresh fruit and vegetables.

My mother eats a lot of fruit and vegetables (some cooked, but mostly steamed and oil-free). I would say that 80% of my mother’s diet (as percentage of calories) is fruit and vegetables, which, when you think about it, is a very different diet compared to what most people eat. My mother also applies basic food combining rules to optimise digestion.

So to all the uninformed people out there who are ranting about the dangers of a high carbohydrate diet, I say: do your research, study natural health nutrition, and stop being so dangerously ignorant! To put it politely.

Some people reading this are probably thinking, what is natural health nutrition? It’s the nutrition that Mother Nature intended for humans. It’s our natural diet. As opposed to “mainstream nutrition”, which is the diet designed by the processed food industry to suit their profit motives, which is the same diet adopted by food standards agencies everywhere; and the same courses that mainstream nutritionists and dieticians study and graduate from.

Before changing her diet to a high raw plant-based, my mother’s visits to the doctor always brought bad news. There were always issues, whether it was her white blood cell count or problems stemming from a weakened immune system: colds, catarrh, bronchitis, and many other illnesses.

In contrast, and for the last 15 years of eating high raw vegan, there is never bad news when my mother comes back from the doctor. In fact, the doctors themselves advise my mother to continue with her diet and the way she’s behaving.

I am so proud of the way I was able to help my mother. If I had been a different person, a more ignorant person, or worse, a narrow-minded person who thought that everything outside the realm of medicine was pseudoscience, then I would never have found the science of Natural Hygiene, and my mother would have died many years ago; not to mention I would probably not be alive today either. Or, if I had survived, I’d be suffering from terrible diseases, like so many people my age, which (I’m sorry to say) are often the result of the actions of very narrow-minded people.

I didn’t learn natural health and nutrition overnight, it took me 10 years of my life studying the vast areas of health from hundreds of books, but it was worth every ounce of effort.