For my mum — and for this community
I never imagined I would be writing this. My mum passed away, and I don’t yet have the words to describe the emptiness she’s left behind. She wasn’t just my mother — she was my best friend, my anchor, my reason for fighting, and the heart behind everything we built here. This community was created for her. She carried more than most people ever see. She lived with bipolar disorder. She carried childhood trauma. She endured a painful divorce, the loss of both her parents, a cancer diagnosis, the death of Pepper — our family boxer — and the loss of Albert, our family’s closest friend. All of this happened within the last seven years. And yet — she kept going. She walked at least 10,000 steps a day. She swam three times a week. She went to church every Sunday. She worked tirelessly on the house. She quit smoking after her diagnosis. She tried carnivore. She cut out sugar. And most importantly: She kept our family together. She fought. She cared. She loved. Even when depression weighed heavily on her will to live, she chose to fight — not because it was easy, but because she loved us. She fought for us when her mind told her to give up. That is courage. We were hopeful. So hopeful. She had just started the Astron Health protocol — only one week in — and we believed we had time. Previous scans had been relatively reassuring, showing stable, very slow-growing, localised disease in the peritoneum and a coeliac lymph node, with no organ spread. Her CRP was 4 — within the normal range. Then everything changed — fast. She developed sudden, severe gastrointestinal pain, vomiting, and diarrhoea. We rushed to the hospital. A CT scan showed ischemic colitis. A mouth swab also confirmed COVID. She was put on palliative care, given fluids and heparin. Her circulation improved. Lactate came down. Symptoms improved. Objectively, things were getting better. But the narrative never changed. Despite improving vitals, improving markers, and improving symptoms, they continued to insist on bowel necrosis — even when the evidence did not clearly support it. At the same time, her CRP (an inflammation marker) rose rapidly from 4 (normal) just weeks earlier, to 14 on admission, to 150 the following day, and eventually to 455 at its peak. She developed rising oxygen requirements, hypoxia, and what appeared to be a clear systemic inflammatory storm — yet COVID pneumonitis was repeatedly dismissed.