By Melody Spurney

Jamie Bernard has found a community with more than 700 co-learners on Instagram after her second breast cancer diagnosis. She created the handle @cansurvivegal on the social media site after sharing some of her experiences on her personal page.

Jamie, 36, of Boston, shares food suggestions, favorite organic products, ideas, her survival story, and the occasional picture of her fiancé, Nick Constantine, and Charlie, her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

It took her almost a year before she went live with posts on @cansurvivegal because she wanted to be able to show that her anti-cancer approach is working for her. She said she began posting about the food she was eating on her personal Instagram, and she received a lot of responses from people wanting to know more. Jamie said she doesn’t provide any medical advice, but offers resources – often directing those interested to the Riordan Clinic.

She said her experiences at the Riordan Clinic helped her create a treatment protocol that is helping her health today.

“The Riordan Clinic was really a place that changed my life. It was the biggest pivotal thing we did that put me on the path to not only healing but being cured,” she said.

Round 1

Jamie’s initial stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis came in 2017 when she was 31. She said she thought she had noticed a lump in her breast but hadn’t thought much about it. While on a work trip to Orlando, she woke up to find spots of blood on her T-shirt that had come from her nipples. Her mom, Deanna Petersen, convinced her to fly home to Boston, where she worked in the biotech field. Jamie and her mom immediately made appointments with two well-known hospitals in Boston. She and her mom assumed Jamie would get the best possible care at either one of them.

Jamie had diagnostic testing done and consulted with doctors at both hospitals, who gave her similar treatment plans. Her conventional cancer treatment included a single mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. She also had eggs collected before her chemotherapy to help preserve the possibility of later having children.

“I was 31, single, and I definitely knew I wanted a family someday,” she said.

Her last radiation treatment was in March of 2018, and her cancer care team told her that it wouldn’t likely return.

Round 2 and Riordan

In June of 2020, Jamie’s back began to hurt, and she had no idea why. Because it was the early months of the covid pandemic, a friend who is a physical therapist came to Jamie’s apartment to provide massages and needling, but the pain didn’t improve. By December, she could barely walk or put on clothes by herself due to the extreme back pain, so she scheduled an MRI.

“It was the second time I got that call that said you need to come in, and you need to call your oncologist,” she said.

The cancer had spread to her spine, which caused a compression fracture and resulted in the pain she was experiencing. It had also spread to her ribs, pelvis, and possibly her liver – though that biopsy was inconclusive. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and her mom got busy.

“Of course my mom was like, ‘No. My daughter is too young. This is not going to happen. We are going to find a solution,’” she said.

Jamie returned to seeing conventional oncologists for the cancer, and the only treatment plan they could provide was to take medication every day in hopes to slow the growth. The plan did not involve the hope of being cured, but rather delaying the inevitable. She and her mom quickly looked for additional solutions because that prognosis was unacceptable. The family was familiar with the Riordan Clinic because her grandfather had high-dose vitamin C in Wichita, Kansas, while she was in college.

“It was one of the first moves my mom made,” she said about Deanna’s call to the Riordan Clinic.

Jamie had been diagnosed at Christmas time in 2020, and she, her mom, and Charlie were on a plane to see Dr. Lucas Tims, ND, FABNO, in Overland Park, Kansas, before the end of January.

“Once I was there, I felt like we were going to be able to figure this out. We were going to be able to find a plan to heal myself from cancer. We knew we couldn’t do what we did before because it didn’t work. I felt – and my mother did, too – like we could breathe again,” she said.

Jamie was at the Riordan Clinic for about five days while she received tests and treatments, including high-dose vitamin C, ozone treatments, and mistletoe injections. In-depth testing performed by Dr. Lucas’ team also showed she had one of the highest levels of mold that Dr. Lucas had ever seen. She said that learning about root causes of disease and that she could make choices to help herself get healthy were key. She was immediately put on a mold detox protocol, and Dr. Lucas taught her about the importance of eating a low-carb and anti-cancer diet. He gave her things to read, including homework assignments, that she said provided a lot of insight.

“Dr. Lucas said it would be like swimming upstream with ankle weights on trying to get cured if we didn’t address the root cause of my cancer, which was determined to be the mold,” she said.

Jamie said that she and her mom left Overland Park with information and a plan. They also left with a great affection for Dr. Lucas and the clinic staff.

“Quite frankly, we love him. We loved our time there and our ongoing Zoom sessions with him. The team there is so helpful and responsive,” she said, adding that they even allowed Charlie to accompany her to the clinic.

Moving Ahead

Jamie cleared the mold in about three months, which she said has given her the most energy she has ever had. Looking back, she said she was probably exposed to the mold years ago in an office building in Boston. She said she was one of 11 employees in her office, and in addition to her, three of them have serious health problems and her former boss has also tested positive for mold.

Her most recent scan in June showed just one tumor on her pelvis, but it is 75% smaller compared to the first scan. She has no other sign of disease except for sclerosis in her spine. She is currently taking high-dose vitamin C IVs and mistletoe injections coordinated by the Riordan Clinic.

Jamie told her conventional oncologists in Boston about taking high-dose vitamin C, which she said did not go well.

“Not only did they say no, they tried to scare us out of it. So we just decided we weren’t going to tell them. I’m the CEO of my health care. We’re not even going to give you the chance to talk us out of it – not that you could. So they just think I am miraculously responding to the standard treatments I am on,” she said. Jamie added that when she is cleared of all of her cancer, she and her mom plan to have a very long meeting with them.

In May of 2020, Jamie was hired as an Assistant Director of Investor Relations by a biotech company in Boston. She said the CEO and her supervisor allowed her a lot of flexibility to focus on her health. That company was bought in February of 2022, but she said that a generous severance package has allowed her time to continue focusing on her treatments and her new Instagram project. She said she hopes to have a new position with similar flexibility by Thanksgiving.

After the initial learning curve of lessons from Dr. Lucas and the Riordan Clinic, Jamie said that healthier living has involved her entire family.

“Now we feel like we are professionals, but there is still a lot to learn. The Riordan Clinic really set me on the path to being healthy and finding the root cause to get rid of this cancer,” she said, adding that the first time she and her mom went to the grocery store after returning to Boston, they spent two hours reading labels.

As for the family, her changes have been embraced by many of them, including Nick. Even Charlie’s diet has changed.

“My fiancé loves to cook. I don’t mind doing dishes,” she said.

Reflection

Jamie said she finds a lot of reasons to celebrate these days. Everything from improving scans and blood work, even making a chicken piccata for less than 10 net carbs, makes her happy. She also finds joy in helping people through her social media efforts. She said her goal isn’t to coach patients or to make money, simply to bring awareness and “take the legwork out for some people.”

“It’s been amazing, even if it is one person or a million, to be able to help people and point them in the right direction,” she said.

She has referred two friends to the Riordan Clinic, one for cancer and one for an autoimmune disease. Her grandfather, Dale Petersen, has also returned as a patient.

“If you have any concerns about your health, absolutely go to the Riordan Clinic. Normally, you are taught to go to the hospital or your doctor, but you have to do more. That’s the band-aid. That’s ‘treating’ the problem. If you don’t fix what’s causing the problem, it will never go away,” she said.

As for her own experience at the Riordan Clinic, Jamie called it lifesaving.

“It totally transformed our life. It is one of the reasons that I say that stage 4 breast cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me, because from Dr. Lucas I actually learned about being healthy, and I learned about what was going on in my body. So, quite literally, our decision to go there saved my life,” she said.