Not Kate’s time: Kate Malvenan’s controversial plan to beat cancer twice
A simple cough and a pinprick of blood were the first signs this Burleigh mum’s cancer had returned - now she’s vowed to beat it again using a controversial method.
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It was just a simple cough.
Five weeks ago, Kate Malvenan was sitting in her blissful Burleigh home, reflecting gratefully on her brilliant business, her amazing daughter and the new relationship started with a wonderful man.
After all, given she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer five years ago, none of this was promised. In fact, the only assurance she was given back in 2018 was that she would not live to see 2020.
Instead, the single mother became a medical miracle.
Within one year of diagnosis there was no evidence of disease in her body. Kate not only survived but thrived, living to watch both her business and her baby grow.
Then, on that Saturday afternoon five weeks ago, she coughed … and on her thumb was the tiniest pinprick of blood. Just 48 hours later she had the news: the cancer was back.
It was in both her lungs, in her liver and in more than a dozen tumours in her brain.
But Kate, who owns Maison and Maison homewares in Burleigh and Southport, has two reasons why she knows she will beat the disease.
One is because she has done it before; the other is her almost eight-year-old daughter Annabelle.
And both these reasons are why, less than one week after that fateful cough, Kate was on a plane bound for Mexico’s Hope4Cancer Treatment Centre.
“I first came here five years ago, after I was told that I had six to 18 months to live … at best,” said Kate, speaking from Cancun.
“I was told by one doctor to go home, drink wine and spend what little time I had with my daughter. I was told my chance of survival was zero per cent.
“But one of the medics at the Gold Coast University Hospital told me there was another way, and then I saw an integrative oncologist who told me the same thing … they both told me about Hope4Cancer.
“People did warn me it could be a hoax or that there was no evidence and I would lose my money … but as a single mother with a prognosis so horribly awful, what did I have to lose?
“The way I saw it, it was my only option for hope. Either I could extend my life, or at least I would get to live, seeing a new country and receiving treatment that would make me at least feel better, not worse.”
While the Hope4Cancer centre has been the subject of controversy, given its use of non-traditional treatments, some of which are illegal in Australia and the USA, Kate said it worked for her.
However, she also described it as complementary rather than alternative treatment, as she used traditional medicine’s targeted therapies alongside laser, heat, emotional and nutritional therapies.
After her initial three-week treatment at Hope4Cancer in 2018, her standard PET scans back on the Gold Coast showed her primary tumour had shrunk by 75 per cent.
With two more three-week stints in Mexico over the course of the year, Kate was given the all-clear: an official declaration of ‘no evidence of disease’.
Having outlived her official expiry date, she never wavered from her new way of living: regular intravenous therapy, infra-red saunas, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, juicing, clean eating, pilates and more.
But she also ensured she simply enjoyed life … building her business, spending time with her daughter and giving back to her community.
Just last December she travelled to her home country of the UK, as well as India and Morocco and only weeks before that fateful cough she had received the script of her life story, after a US production team bought the rights.
Now she must write the next chapter of her story, although she is determined this will not be an ending – especially for her daughter’s sake.
Having separated soon after Annabelle’s birth, Kate said her former partner was no longer part of her life, nor his family’s. She said while her former in-laws were extremely supportive, they were not in a position to care for her daughter long-term if necessary.
With no other blood relatives in Australia, Kate recently had to ask a friend the hardest question of her life: to be Annabelle’s guardian if she died.
Despite the positive assurance, Kate is determined they will never need to fulfil that obligation.
“I am going to be here for my daughter. There is no question. I will be,” she said.
“Without me she would be an orphan, and there is just no way I can leave her. I have to survive and I will be cancer free by the end of the year … I have five months to work really hard.
“This isn’t my first barbecue, I beat cancer once. I will beat it again.
“The difference this time is that I am on the front foot. With my first diagnosis I was very much grieving the end of my marriage, I had so much trauma inside of me and I wasn’t living the way I should.
“This time, I look and feel so good on the inside and out. While that puts me on the front foot in this battle, it just doesn’t feel fair this time. Last time, I wasn’t feeling good … I was in pain, I wasn’t right. The diagnosis was a shock but, in some ways, I suppose not a surprise.
“This time, my whole world turned upside down. I am just so thankful that I saw that pinprick of blood on my thumb when I coughed. That was the tiniest warning sign that alerted me, and I feel like we are on to this as early as possible.
“My last scans in late October were clear … it came on so fast.”
Kate said as well as the treatment in Mexico, she was also again using targeted therapies prescribed by her oncologists.
While she said she feels battle-ready for this round of cancer, the financial fight has been more difficult.
Back in 2018, when doctors determined her chance of survival was zero, she was able to access her life insurance which, combined with her savings, paid for her treatment.
This time, she said, she didn’t have that option.
“I’ve had to set up a crowd-funding campaign, which has been so difficult for me,” said Kate, who has vowed that any additional funds raised will be paid forward to the next person who needs treatment at Hope4Cancer.
“I’m a proud woman, everything I’ve done I have done for myself. I built up my business and looked after my daughter as single mother, I bought my house and paid for my mortgage … it’s hard for me to ask for help. But I have to, for my daughter.
“I have no life insurance left, but I’m trying to get my super out. I will sell my house if I have to. I’ll do whatever it takes.
“The clinic in Mexico costs $65,000 for three weeks, and I’m planning on staying for eight. I need to get on top of this fast.
“Already the donations I’ve received have reached $60,000, which is just so incredible. Even through this economic downturn, people have been supporting my stores and supporting me and my daughter. I feel so lucky … even with this unlucky diagnosis.
“There is so much hope, though. My oncologists are really excited about the targeted therapies, it’s not palliative this time, they’re expecting it to work really well, especially on the brain tumours.”
Kate said she was looking forward to sharing good news with her more than 35,000 followers on Instagram, under her account its_not_kates_time, as her journey unfolds.
She said she believes that perhaps she has received this new challenge because she still had more to deliver.
“I do know that I have positively affected tens of thousands of people, the messages that I receive are incredible. I know I have had an impact, maybe I need to have even more,” she said.
“If this is what it takes to be that inspiration, challenge accepted.”
Meanwhile, Kate and daughter Annabelle have just been reunited in Mexico, after the two had to spend weeks apart.
Kate said while her daughter never knew of her first cancer battle, she finally shared the truth just months before the return of the disease.
“I hid it from her the first time, but just a few months ago, when the script of my life arrived, I told her that Mummy had beat cancer when she was very little.
“It really helped both of us I think when this diagnosis came, she had some context.
“I just said to her: ‘Oh no, I’ve got a little bit of cancer in my body and it looks like you’re going to have a week off school to come visit me in Mexico!’
“It worked very well, we both feel very positive about this. When I get home, she’s old enough now to help me, she can understand the treatments and work with me to beat it. I want to give her that sense of empowerment.
“My plan is to be alive when I’m 90 … I’ll be pissed off if I’m not.”
If anyone can achieve that, surely it’s this miracle mother.
You can donate towards Kate’s treatment at: www.mycause.com.au/p/318597/
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