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People need Hope
A Journey Through Stage 4 Cancer — And Back to Life
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because when you’re facing cancer, information and encouragement can be life-changing.
In November 2017, Todd St John was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma. Tumors had spread throughout his body — brain, lungs, abdomen — and the outlook was bleak. Today, he is cancer free.
This website exists to share Todd’s story and introduce his book, People Need Hope – A Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis and My Path to Health. His book is a one-of-a-kind companion for patients, families, and caregivers navigating the world of cancer, treatment, and naturopathic healing. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, unsure where to turn, or just searching for clarity, this book is for you.
Todd’s Story
If you’ve just heard the words “you have cancer” — I’ve been there.
In November 2017, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma. The cancer had spread to my brain, lungs, and abdomen. There were so many tumors in my lungs that the radiologist called them “innumerable.” It felt like everything stopped. I didn’t know where to turn or what came next.
But here I am today — cancer free.
This site and my book, People Need Hope – A Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis and My Path to Health, exists for people like you. For the patients, the families, and the caregivers trying to make sense of a life-altering diagnosis. I wrote this book because I could not find a book out there like this when I was first diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
Todd
About the Book
People Need Hope — Real Answers From Someone Who’s Been There
When I was first diagnosed, I couldn’t find a single source to answer the multitude of questions I had:
Where do I start? What’s normal? What are people saying about nutrition or cannabis or immunotherapy? How can I make informed decisions in a world I’ve just been thrown into?
So, I started writing.
People Need Hope – A Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis and My Path to Health brings together everything I’ve learned — through research, trial, treatment, and remission. I’ve written it to help you find clarity, confidence, and yes — hope.
Inside, I cover:
What to expect when first diagnosed with cancer
My experiences with immunotherapy and the world of oncology
Nutrition, naturopathy, and how I changed my diet
The supplements I used and why
What I discovered about cannabis and medical marijuana
Being your own patient advocate – and why you should too
Introduction
When you or someone you love is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, or any stage of cancer for that matter, it’s downright frightening. Starting your journey with unanswered questions makes the situation even more difficult. After you’ve had time to process the dreadful news, the difficulty of your situation is magnified by the lack of basic knowledge on where to begin. “People Need Hope” is written for those folks, like Todd St John who found himself in this same predicament in November 2017.
In “People Need Hope”, Todd St John shares his personal journey of being a Stage 4 cancer patient and everything he encountered on the topic of cancer, including FDA and non-FDA therapies. His ideas, suggestions, perspectives, and personal experiences may provide readers with answers to present and future questions amidst their diagnosis and treatment. Todd wrote from his own personal experience in the hope of giving readers some comfort from the knowledge of what may lie ahead.
As you read through this book, at times you will feel like you are reading a personal essay of Todd’s experiences and at other times you will feel like you are reading a science book. You will hear an intimate description of what Todd encountered from his first diagnosis up through today. Today he is cancer free or as the oncologists prefer to call this “No Evidence of Disease”. You should walk away with a good foundational explanation of the various naturopathic therapies in which Todd investigated in his desire to be cancer free.
Todd put this book together in a way that he could not find himself in a single book about cancer. Most books he found strictly covered one topic in detail and other cancer books were largely only from the personal perspective of the cancer patient. What Todd could not find was a book as he captured here for you. Todd’s wish is that his book will give you hope.
People Need Hope will inform you:
- What you can most likely expect when you are first diagnosed with cancer
- What Todd wished he had known when first diagnosed Stage 4
- Suggestions, perspectives, and personal experiences from Todd’s cancer diagnosis
- The world of oncology, FDA-approved treatments and the cost of pharmaceuticals
- The reality of cancer and chemotherapy statistics
- Melanoma in-depth details for the melanoma patients reading this book
- Character traits of and the importance of being your own patient advocate
- Let food be your medicine – nutrition, naturopath and an integrative medicine practitioner
- Todd’s 3-month “Target Cancer Diet” and his diet today using an orthomolecular medicine-like approach as his prophylactic measure against cancer
- Healthy food choices, Budwig diet, Gerson therapy and diet, Mediterranean diet, juicing and fasting
- Supplements and supplement usages
- Cannabis, medical marijuana and cancer – answering the questions “What is Rick Simpson Oil (RSO)? What is hemp? What kinds of marijuana are out there? How do you read the cannabis oil and product labels? How much should I take? What is the difference between 1 gram and 1 ml of cannabis oil?”
- Making cannabis oil capsules and suppositories
- Immunotherapy – the cutting edge of cancer treatment
- Other sources of knowledge
Coming Soon
I’m building more resources to go alongside the book, including:
Downloadable prayer list
Video explainers and how-to guides
Chapter previews on key topics like immunotherapy and nutrition
A FAQ page based on real reader questions