JOHANNESBURG SOUTH: Philanthropist and Oakdene resident, Deva Naidoo (70) continues his battle with cancer one day at a time.
Naidoo is the chairperson of LICO, a charity organisation that helps to feed the elderly, mentally and physically disabled residents at homes around the South and Vereeniging.
In January last year Naidoo received devastating news from his doctor when he was diagnosed with stage one colon cancer and spots were discovered on his liver.
“The doctor did seven MRI scans and I’ve had 23 chemotherapy treatments, and they also put me on Zolada and Stigava tablets. The chemo made me so sick I couldn’t drive for six months and I lost a lot of weight. My wife was strong, she took care of me and forced me to eat when I didn’t want to and helped to keep me thinking positively,” says Naidoo.
Naidoo’s doctors did not decline his request for an operation to remove the cancer spots in the colon.
“After the 23 chemo treatments I felt like the chemo wasn’t working because I still didn’t feel well so I requested homeopathic ozone treatment. Since I’ve been on ozone treatment I feel a lot better because the treatment feeds oxygen into my body after chemo damaged a lot of good cells in my body,” explained Naidoo.
Naidoo says that a positive mindset is the first step towards getting better and that incorporated with a healthy diet, exercise and relevant treatment, cancer patients could see positive results.
“I focused on the positive things in my life, while I was going through treatment fighting the cancer, I never stopped doing social work for the community, it motivated me and really kept me going. Another thing that helped me is the good support system that I have in my life, my wife and our daughter are my pillars of strength and the good people I have around me who donated food hampers which we gave to the needy, really gave me strength,” added Naidoo.
Naidoo calls himself a gym freak and encourages other people going through treatment to do a lot of walking or cycling to get air into their lungs and body.
