Jeff Charles Bobbleheads To Support Mistletoe Therapy

By Joe Corley
ECUPirates.com

Jeff Charles knows the grim diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, and he knows all the emotions that follow.

Having been through seven surgeries, 612 hours of chemotherapy and 43 nights in the hospital during his two bouts with cancer, he continued to search for answers, and that search led him to explore avenues outside of conventional medicine. Charles found something that's working for him – mistletoe therapy – and now, as he enters his 30th year as The Voice of the Pirates, he is helping to raise funds with the goal of making mistletoe therapy much more widely accessible.

Beginning today, Aug. 31, Jeff Charles Bobbleheads are available for purchase through their exclusive distributor, UBE (516 Cotanche St., Greenville), and its online partner, Piratewear.com. The bobbleheads, a limited one-time edition with corporate sponsorship from UBE, IMG and Coca-Cola, cost $20 at the store and $25 online, and all proceeds will go toward the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine mistletoe clinical research trial, with the goal of getting FDA approval for the mistletoe therapy.

"This job transcends being a play-by-play announcer," Charles said. "It provides me with a platform to bring awareness to causes I feel strongly about, and mistletoe therapy for cancer patients is something I'm very passionate about."

Charles received his first diagnosis of colon cancer Dec. 3, 2012. He fought it, and it eventually went into remission. But 20 months after it went into remission, the cancer came back in February 2016.

Becoming frustrated with western conventional medicine, he decided to go with a natural, holistic approach. That led him to try mistletoe therapy at Namaste Health Center in Durango, Colo. He was there for three weeks, then came home and still gives himself injections every other day.

"When I went out there a year ago last February, I wasn't well at all," Charles said. "I knew I had to try something else. I was going to get on that airplane come hell or high water."

His mistletoe comes from an oak tree in Germany, though it's actually manufactured in Switzerland. It is shipped to Canada – it can't be ordered from the United States – and then is brought into the U.S. Charles described it as "kind of like chemotherapy," with different strains and different strengths. His doctor at Namaste assessed his situation and matched him up with the mistletoe he needs. Charles also has a doctor in Germany who prescribes.

"This has been a Godsend for me," he said. "This has been used for 100 years in Europe to treat cancer patients, going back to 1920. We know virtually nothing about it in this country."

And that's something Charles is trying to change.

"The way all this came about, I'm just an average guy who didn't know much about cancer, but I've learned a lot over the years," he said. "When I got frustrated, I went online and came across an organization, a non-profit, in Baltimore called BelieveBig.org, and what they are doing is raising funds to continue this clinical trial at Johns Hopkins and the goal is to get mistletoe approved by the FDA. Then we can get it into the hands of people.

"I get calls on a regular basis from people who, quite honestly, are where I was, down to their last bullet. I have probably over the last year sent a half dozen people out to Durango. We're taking tiny, tiny baby steps here."

The mistletoe therapy is the most important part of a regimen that also includes diet, supplements and other natural products. Charles said he's living proof that it works, and he feels a responsibility to get the word out.

"It breaks my heart to see people go down the same path I was on," he said. "Before I got sick, I was 60 years old but I felt like I was 30. I worked out constantly. I was the picture of health, but all of a sudden out of nowhere, I got deathly sick. I never smoked, never drank, always tried to get the sleep I needed. I had no cancer history in my family.

"It hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't care who you are or what kind of shape you're in, it can strike you down in a heartbeat."

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