Helen Fitzsimmons, age 40, pumped her breast milk and gave it to her father Arthur after he was diagnosed with cancer.
According to Mirror Online, the mother-of-two believes she gave her terminally ill father an extra year of life by feeding him with breast milk.
Her father, Arthur had already been fighting myeloma cancer – which affects bone marrow – for four years when he was told he also had prostate cancer in October 2013.
Desperate to help, Helen started researching treatments and came across medical evidence which showed breast milk can boost the immune system .
After tentatively approaching the subject with mum Jean Arthur told Helen: ‘Anything is worth a go.’
From then on her father would regularly drink her 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.”
Arthur was diagnosed with myeloma cancer aged 68 in 2009, a slow-moving but terminal cancer which raises protein levels, in turn lowering the immune system and weakening the bones.
He was undergoing treatment with chemotherapy drugs when he was diagnosed with 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.”
It was then Helen, who was breastfeeding her son Cassius was just a year old, starting trawling the Internet for treatment and found ground-breaking research into the power of breast milk.
Research has shown that it boosts the immune systems and babies that are breast-fed have lower blood pressure and are less likely to be obese in later life.
Swedish scientists discovered in 1995 that a protein in the milk appeared to destroy cancer cells in the laboratory.
Another study found a different compound also destroyed skin warts triggered by the human papiloma virus and suggested it could have implications for treating cervical cancer.
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.”
Arthur’s battle with prostate cancer was proving tough, but the family were left amazed when doctors told them his protein levels – which kept rising due to his myeloma – had stopped increasing.
Helen said: “In January 2014 dad started drinking 2fl. 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.”
