Pale and hunched over in a wheelchair, her face hidden by dark glasses and a red woolly hat, Farah Fawcett was unrecognisable as the once sexy Angel. Despite putting on a brave face, she looked to be in pain as she was wheeled out of the airport after returning home to LA.
Having battled intestinal cancer for three years, Fawcett has spent March in Germany, where she has been having experimental stem-cell treatment to beat the illness she has dubbed her ‘terrorist’.
She has been staying in the Leonardis Clinic in Bad Heilbrunn, in the shadow of the Bavarian Alps. American politician Edward Kennedy, who has a brain tumour, has also stayed there.
Farrah sought the treatment in Germany with the help of her friend, Cher, and she has also been to other nearby centres.
According to The Daily Mail, in the University Clinic of Frankfurt, she has been treated by Professor Thomas Vogl, 50, who is one of the world’s leading cancer experts. He treated her with a catheter filled with chemotherapy drugs. Another of her specialists is Dr Ursula Jacob, of the Alpenpark Clinic in Bad Wiessee, 40 miles from the Leonardis. Dr Jacob uses vitamin preparations that she says boost the immune system. A third specialist is Dr Norbert Pfuetzenreuter, of Mednord centre in Munich. One of Germany’s best-known specialists, his approach is more mainstream.
The Leonardis clinic claims to have one of the highest success rates in Germany. On admission, Farrah’s blood was analysed as part of a ’special chemo sensitivity test’. ‘This involves using DNA to detect your sensitivity not only to chemos, but also to various herbal and nutritional therapies,’ a clinic source said.
According to sources, Farrah was given liquid shark cartilage to stop angiogenisis (the process by which tumours develop their own blood supply), injections of the mineral selenium, injections of vitamin D and calcium and an amino acid mix to protect her liver from chemotherapy.
A clinic source said: ‘She has been having conventional and alternative treatments, and she remains positive, which is the main thing.But it is a serious cancer and an aggressive one. She will have to come to terms with the reality of her situation sooner or later.’
Those close to Farrah insist that suggestions of her impending death are untrue. But as the latest pictures reveal the scale of her illness, the rest of us can only hope they are right.
