My name is James Templeton, and I am the founder of the Templeton Wellness Foundation. I’d like to introduce myself to you, because I have a story to share. You see, I am a 30 year survivor of Stage IV Melanoma cancer. I hear it’s pretty remarkable to beat cancer using natural therapies, and still be going strong over 30 years after the expiration date I was given. I want to share my personal story, to give you first-hand information on what I call the “universal keys to health” that I discovered during my personal battle with cancer, and inspire you to find your own healing path.

Getting Diagnosed

I was 32 years old and life was great. Married with a 2 year old daughter, living on a small farm in Texas, I owned a few businesses and was well on my way to becoming a millionaire. I was living what was considered a healthy lifestyle, because I have a strong family history of heart disease. My father died of a heart attack when I was only 17 years old, and his father also died young from heart disease. Based on books like “Eat to Win” and what I read in running magazines and learned at the health club, I ate a lot of salads and vegetables, very little meat, low fat dairy and whole grains. I ran at least 5 miles every day, many times up to 60 miles per week.

But it wasn’t long before I felt tired, pretty much all the time. Environmental allergies worsened. I was feeling generally unwell, and started to feel signs that something wasn’t right. All I knew about health at that time was when you get sick, you go to the doctor. So, I scheduled a checkup and a cardiac stress test with an Internal Medicine doctor. All my results looked great, the doctor said I ‘broke the record” on the treadmill stress test, but mentioned I had a mole on my back I needed to have looked at by a Dermatologist. I had previously been treated for a basal cell skin cancer on the top of my head when I was 24 years old, so I took his advice seriously and saw a Dermatologist a couple of weeks later.

The Dermatologist reacted dramatically to the mole on my back, insisting it was a melanoma, and I would need a large area on my back surgically removed. I was turned off by his bedside manner, and followed up instead with the doctor who helped me with the basal cell cancer. He felt it looked suspicious and sent me to his friend who was a world renowned Oncologist, specializing in Melanoma. In case you’re counting, this is the fourth doctor I saw for this mole, and I was concerned and anxious for what I might be dealing with. He took a large, deep biopsy from my back, and said he’d call with the pathology results. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep much and waited on pins and needles until the results came back about a week later. Stage IV Melanoma, pretty deep, but the initial surgery got it all, so there was no need for further treatment, just monitoring.

My whole life changed with this diagnosis. My personality went from relaxed and happy-go-lucky to serious and somewhat depressed. Friends and family were worried I wouldn’t live another year. My wife left with my daughter because the stress of it all was too much for her. I tried to put the cancer behind me and build a new life. I took a new job in a new city, and tried to focus on my career and on taking care of myself.

My 6 month checkup changed everything. The Melanoma was back.

Leaving Mainstream Medicine

My journey in natural healing from cancer started with major surgery. They found lumps in my right groin from swollen lymph nodes, and removed them in a painful and extensive surgery. I felt like I’d been gutted, in more ways than one.

The plan was 80 treatments of chemotherapy, plus the possibility of more surgeries and radiation therapy. It was all experimental. Chemotherapy treatments were 8-10 hours long, with 5 days in the hospital afterward. They did hyperthermia, getting my body temperature dangerously high, then they injected typhoid serum, and followed that up with the chemo immediately afterward. I was scheduled for a series of 5 treatments like this every 2 months. It took me almost 2 months to get over each series because of how sick and weak it made me feel.

All this misery and a whole lot of expense for only a 20% survival rate. I knew in my heart there had to be a better way, a healthier way. And after enduring 2 series of these chemo treatments, at 2 in the morning, I literally crawled out of that hospital and found it.

To Be Continued…

One of the things I’ve often heard said of people who get cancer is “he/she is so nice.” I believe it’s true. I was often described as laid back and very nice. And when this all started, I wanted someone else to fight this cancer for me. But I learned you have to get mean, down and dirty to fight cancer. You have to really push yourself. Imagine you are in the boxing ring with the world champion and fight hard, give it everything you’ve got. No one can fight this battle for you, you have to take control of your own health.

That’s what Templeton Wellness Foundation is all about, giving you the tools to take your health back. I started this foundation to help others find the resources needed to be healthy and live a long, enjoyable, fulfilling life.

Thank you for allowing me to share the beginning of my story. In part two, I’ll talk about diet and the role it played in my healing. Often times, the diet that gets you healthy is different from the one that keeps you healthy.

Read Part two>>