Helen Fitzsimmons gave her father breast milk intended for her one year old, after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Helen’s father Arthur had been fighting myeloma cancer for four years, before being told he also had prostate cancer in October 2013.
Trying to find any possible treatments to help her father, Helen came across medical evidence that showed breast milk boosted the immune system.
Helen, 40, approached her parents, and Arthur said: “Anything is worth a go”.
Arthur then regularly drank Helen’s breast milk.
“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,” Helen told The Mirror.
"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.”
After drinking Helen’s milk regularly, Arthur lived another 16 months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was a year longer than they expected.
Helen, who was also breastfeeding her son Cassius at the time, said she is ‘sure’ that her milk helped her father.
She explained in the interview with the newspaper: "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."
The family were amazed when the doctors told them Arthur’s protein levels – which were rising due to his myeloma – had stopped increasing.
Helen explained that she wanted her dad to drink more, so she asked a friend to donate her breast milk too.
Arthur’s haematology doctors were “quite dismissive” of the alternate therapy Helen said, but her family are still convinced that the milk prolonged his life.
"Of course we can't prove it medically but it gave him hope - and hope is so important in battling cancer,” Helen defended.
"Dad had no qualms about taking it and knowing there were no side-effects was a bonus.”
Sadly, Arthur passed away around Easter 2015, but Helen feels that she was able to “repay [her father] in [her] own special way for all the love he’d given [me]”.
Would you give a loved one your breast milk if you think it could help them?
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