Renee Maguire refuses to be tested for breast cancer

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Renee Maguire, 39, believes a raw food diet will stave off breast cancer
She has a 40 to 50 per cent risk of developing it
She won't even go for regular mammograms as her doctors have advised
Believes cooking food destroys live enzymes in the gut that aid digestion

Published: 19:20 EST, 21 September 2015 | Updated: 20:34 EST, 21 September 2015

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Having lost her sister to breast cancer at 30 and watched her mother and two aunts develop the disease in their 50s, you would think it natural, even sensible, for Renee Maguire to turn to modern medicine to find out whether she, too, is at risk.

In an age when genetic tests become ever more sophisticated, families with strong hereditary patterns of disease are often encouraged to have screening to evaluate their risk.

In the case of breast cancer, if there is a strong family history - defined as having at least one close relative, such as a sister or mother, who has had the disease - it's possible to have a blood test, as Angelina Jolie did, to check for faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. These raise a person's risk of the disease by up to 80 per cent, and around 8,000 women are tested for the genes every year.

Renee Maguire, 39, believes a raw food diet will stave off breast cancer

Yet despite her family history, Renee, 39, has no intention of taking the gene test, or even going for regular mammograms, as her doctors want her to.

Instead, she is putting her faith in diet - eating only raw foods in the belief this will protect her against the disease.

She's been determinedly stuck in this position for the past four years, even though she had a breast cancer scare two years ago - finding a lump in the exact same position where her mother and sister's cancer was diagnosed, the upper part of the left breast.

'Naturally I panicked, and was so relieved when tests confirmed it was a cyst. But two weeks after I had it drained, the lump returned in exactly the same place. In my mind, as the draining had demonstrated, medicine doesn't have the answers.

'Even though it was just a cyst, my surgeon urged me, because of my family history, to have a double mastectomy. I remember he used the encouraging words: “I can give you a nice pair.”

'I just thought, this is ridiculous. I don't have cancer.'

After the cyst returned, as well as maintaining her raw food diet, Renee packed her breast area every day with bentonite clay, purported to be an alternative cancer treatment that draws 'impurities' from the breasts.

She also meditated daily, 'asking the lump to leave'.

When she returned to the surgeon to drain the cyst four weeks later, there was, she says, 'nothing to drain'.

Renee, right, at 18 with sister Nicola, 22. Nicola died from breast cancer aged 30 in September 2002

'I'd rather do my best to eat the kinds of food that will protect me and lessen my chances of making my body vulnerable to the disease,' she says.

The surgeon still pushed Renee to have a gene test, but she continued to refuse.

Professor Gareth Evans, a consultant in genetic medicine at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, and a specialist in hereditary breast cancer, questions her decision.

'In this case, with a sister who died at 30 and a mother and two maternal aunts having had the disease, there is clearly a hereditary risk factor.

'Renee has a 50/50 chance of carrying the defective genes linked to breast cancer, so she is already at a 40 to 50 per cent risk of developing it.

Renee has a 50/50 chance of carrying the defective genes linked to breast cancer, so she is already at a 40 to 50 per cent risk of developing it

'If she had the test and it was discovered she had the genes, that would rise to 80 per cent.'

Gene testing 'is not for everybody', admits Lester Barr, a consultant breast cancer surgeon and chairman of the Genesis breast cancer charity.

'You have to be clear about what you do with that information. Around half of the women who come to our clinic who are found to carry the defective genes prefer to have regular scans and adopt a healthy diet and exercise plan, rather than have, say, a pre-emptive mastectomy.

'But though exercise and diet will help reduce risk - as excess weight is a risk factor - if a woman carries the defective genes, it won't reduce her chance of getting breast cancer altogether.'

So why is Renee so emphatically against testing and screening, and so convinced by the raw food approach?

The former chef from Cheshire first came across the diet after her sister, Nicola, was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in 2001.

'There were days when I just couldn't bear to see what she had to go through: losing her gorgeous, long chestnut hair and feeling so sick and weak as she went through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a lumpectomy,' recalls Renee.

Renee believes that cooking food destroys the live enzymes in the gut that aid digestion and health

'But what made me feel even more helpless was the fact that Nicola turned to me and asked if, as a chef, I knew about the kind of food she could eat to help clean up her body and fight the cancer. Frankly, I didn't have a clue.'

Nicola was 30 when she died in September 2002.

Following her death, Renee put on 3st in weight and ended up taking antidepressants.

'I was in total despair,' she recalls. In a bid to try to cope with her loss, she travelled around South- East Asia and, while in Thailand living on a diet of fresh vegetables and non-processed foods, she felt her strength returning, while the pounds began to drop off.

Researching the subject, Renee learnt more about a raw food approach - proponents believe that heating food above 48c (118f) triggers chemical changes that create 'acidic toxins', including the carcinogens and free-radical molecules associated with diseases such as type 2 diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

Raw foodists believe that heating food above 48c (118f) triggers chemical changes that create 'acidic toxins'

They also believe that cooking destroys the live enzymes in the gut that aid digestion and health.

Raw foodies are defined as those who live on 75 to 100 per cent uncooked and unprocessed foods - with pasta made from courgettes, for instance, or bread made of nuts and seeds.

Reading about this 'was a lightbulb moment', says Renee.

'I just felt this was a way I could heal myself from the grief and keep my body healthy.' But she didn't embrace the raw food approach fully until her mother, Patricia, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2011.

Until then, she had regarded her sister's disease as a 'horrible twist of fate', and continued to believe so even when her mother's two sisters were diagnosed in their mid-50s, in 2008 and 2009.

But when her mother was diagnosed with an early-stage tumour in her left breast at the age of 64, Renee realised a horrible pattern was forming.

'I just could not believe our family had been hit again. Now Mum had cancer, too. And in the exact same spot as Nicola.'

Renee made raw food mixes and smoothies for her mum using ingredients such as goji berries, cacao and pumpkin seeds.

She also, controversially, gave her mother apricot kernels.

The inner part of the fruit's seed contains a toxic chemical known as amygdalin. In the body, this chemical is converted to cyanide, which is poisonous.

The thinking among advocates is that the cyanide would poison the cancer cells - though many doctors have warned the kernels can be harmful to the whole body.

Six weeks after her mother's lump was found - during which time she hadn't had cancer treatment - it had reduced in size from 18mm to 12mm.

'Mum and I were elated. I was absolutely convinced the diet had reduced the size of the lump.'

However, Mr Barr says measuring lumps is not a precise science.

'They can be measured with a ruler, a mammogram or through ultrasound - all of which could give different results.' Although her lump had 'shrunk', Renee's mother decided to have conventional treatment - a lumpectomy, followed by six months of chemotherapy and three weeks of radiotherapy.

She also continued to use her daughter's anti-cancer raw mixes and smoothies, and has now been in remission for two years.

Although no alternative therapies have been scientifically proven to cure cancer or slow its growth, as many as six in ten people with cancer use herbal remedies alongside conventional treatments, according to Cancer Research UK.

Yet medical experts are far from convinced. 'Many times I've seen patients who want to try alternative therapies or special diets to help beat their cancer,' says Tony Howell, a professor of oncology and medical director of the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Trust.

'But the only way diet has an impact on breast cancer risk is if it helps you to cut calories and keep your weight down. Weight gain is a significant risk factor.'

It's a view echoed by Dr Michelle Harvie, a research dietitian at the Genesis centre. 'There is simply no evidence that a raw food diet will protect from breast cancer.'

But Renee is resolute. 'I self-examine every couple of weeks and am working on the law of attraction. I want to attract health and happiness, so I eat the foods that will do that and repel cancer. It's good enough for me.'

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