I know there might not be a cure, but whatever I can do, I will

Glenford Xavier

Glenford had been treated at the Middlesex Hospital in London since September 1999. He had just finished a masters degree when his cancer was diagnosed.

The documentary picks up his story a year later.

He had already undergone chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy is a bid to control his cancer.

Search

"I know there might not be a cure, but whatever I can do, I will," Glenford tells the documentary team.

His mother, Toni, says she will support her son's approach to the disease - whatever that entails.

"Obviously I would encourage him 'don't give up', but if he decides 'that's it, I don't want to do that', that's fine by me.

Glenford's mother Toni says she trusts her son to make his own decisions about treatment

"He's an intelligent young man and he knows what he wants."

Glenford's drive to get on with life is shown by his dream to set up a free lifestyle magazine for London, for which he received a �5,000 loan from the Prince's Trust.

He said: "I don't want to be a cancer sufferer. I want to be a business entrepreneur."

Cancer is, he says, his most difficult challenge yet. "I've never before come across something that I can't get over with a little bit of effort."

By October, X-rays show the tumours in his lungs have grown, and he is in increasing discomfort.

His doctor, oncologist Jeremy Whelan said: "Glenford has the belief that there must be something out there that's somehow going to be better for him.

"But I see him becoming more and more frightened as he goes further and further in this."

Glenford wants Dr Whelan to tell him if there is any other treatment he can try.

Options

His cancer cannot be cured, but it 's progress could, he hopes, be slowed.

They consider a new chemotherapy drug called docetaxol, which can have strong side effects.

Winnie Wansloe: advocates alternative medicine to treat cancer

But after Glenford learns it has not yet been successful in people with his kind of cancer, he decides not to go ahead with the treatment.

He also considers a drug, only recently brought to the UK, called ET743.

But he decides again not to take the medication, and instead decides to look to alternative medicine for treatments.

In January, Glenford chooses to begin a natural diet and detoxification regime called the Plaskett therapy, advocated by the Nutritional Cancer Therapy Trust.

He hopes it will boost his immune system and help it fight the cancer.

Toni says: "He knows there's no cure but he believes that whatever nutritional diet he goes on, that might abate the cancer in his lungs."

Nutritionist Winnie Wansloe is overseeing his treatment.

She says: "Most of the benefits to the patient comes from taking high-cost nutritional supplements, which cost �400 a month. Organic food costs �50 - 80 per week."

The therapy forbids Glenford to use any conventional medicines, so he has stopped taking the morphine he used for pain relief - and the homeopathic version has not yet been delivered.

Days later and still in pain, he says: "It's getting worse. I can feel my spine collapsing."

His mother is worried: "I'm a little bit concerned he's on the diet and not anything else."

Choices

In February, Glenford goes to see his doctor to tell him the homeopathic pills are not helping relief the pain.

Dr Whelan tells him: "Don't you think you should just be going down one route. You've got two different lots of people advising you, two lots of drugs.

Glenford in the latter stages of his illness

"Don't you think you're creating more problems than you need to be having?"

Glenford was admitted for treatment for a week, and agreed to take morphine for pain relief.

In April, he said he had no regrets about choosing alternative treatment: "I made a decision about a kind of treatment and I haven't seen anything to make me unhappy with that."

Glenford died at home just a few weeks later with friends and families around him.

Living With Cancer is on BBC 1 on Monday November 5 at 22.35GMT.