In 2011 Baltimore native, Ivelisse Page, launched an organization called Believe Big, a non-profit foundation committed to helping patients and their families through a cancer diagnosis. Page, a stage 4 colon cancer survivor, has a mission to educate the cancer community about using a combination of modern medicine and complementary, less mainstream therapies.
Page praises the alternative therapy that she says saved her and is working hard to make sure it is available for everyone suffering from cancer. Page’s magical therapy has been widely used in Europe as a cancer treatment; mistletoe extract. Believe Big is now the primary backer for a clinical trail on mistletoe extract at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Page’s doctor, Peter Hinderberger, is a Maryland doctor who is well versed in the mistletoe extract treatment that is otherwise unknown in the U.S. Dr. Hinderberger is only 1 of 50 physicians in the U.S. licensed to prescribe mistletoe extract. Hinderberger learned of the benefits of the extract while working at a cancer clinic in Switzerland in the 1970’s.
“Hinderberger describes mistletoe extract as the “backbone” of his cancer protocol, the specifics depending on the patient’s kind of cancer, current stage and treatment — surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.” (source)
Mistletoe extract contains viscotoxin, a poison that attacks and destroys cancer cells and enhances a patients cancer-fighting immune system. Mistletoe also prevents new blood vessels from forming in cancers and promotes natural cell death. When Ivelisse Page was told she had an 8% survival rate and that receiving chemotherapy treatment would only increase her chance by 10%, Page decided to jump right into her mistletoe therapy with Dr. Hinderberger. She said, “Why would I want to destroy everything in my body for just a 10 percent chance?” According to Dr. Hinderberger, “mistletoe prolongs survival time and improves the quality of life.”
After over 3 years of being cancer-free, Page hopes the clinical trials can achieve FDA approval, making mistletoe extract a standard of care. Believe Big has raised $100,000 of the $300,000 needed for the first phase of the three-phase trial. Learn more about Believe Big and how you can support the mission.
