A Window Cleaners Fight Against Cancer

‘Amazing, upbeat attitude’ helps in battle with cancer: Doris Clayton was giddy. Giddy as in giggly, talking so fast she had to pull her car off to the side of the road. She was on her way to her chiropractor when we first connected. But it was her oncologist who had just called with some pretty exciting news. Blood tests showed her cancer level was down a tad. Which is great news, as this was the second time the numbers had decreased since Clayton had to stop conventional treatment a couple months ago after becoming allergic to the chemo.

Clayton has been battling “a very aggressive form of breast cancer” since 2004. She’s been through chemo three times in the past six years. And each time the cancer came back, “it did so with a vengeance, starting with a small lump in my breast and metastasizing later to lymph nodes, liver, chest cavity, bones and the fluid around my brain.” Without treatment, Clayton, a Sandwich resident who owns a window-washing business, figured it was a matter of time before the cancer finally won. Then a couple months ago, Yorkville chiropractor Dr. Nathan Thompson “gave me a book to read ...”

Clayton figures Thompson knew she had cancer since she’s bald and doesn’t wear a wig. But the chiropractor told me later “so many people know Doris and her amazing, upbeat attitude” as she fights cancer. Thompson offered her a book called “Cruise Ship or Nursing Home,” which touts fighting disease through a natural approach that includes a no sugar low carb diet. With her oncologist’s blessing, Clayton started seeing Thompson at his center. The chiropractor adjusted her spine, which he said must be aligned properly in order for the central nervous system to do its part in healing, and put her on the strict no-sugar diet.

“We don’t treat cancer,” Thompson was quick to point out. “But we work on getting the body healthy.” And part of that process, he said, is building a better relationship between the brain and the body and getting rid of toxins that can feed the tumor. One month later, Clayton said her cancer cell count went from 66.9 to 64. And on this day, she’s positively ecstatic because it dropped a few more points. She’s not out of the woods by any means. “But you can see it’s definitely headed in the right direction.” Plus, she feels wonderful, said husband Jim, her staunchest supporter. She’s not only dropped 25 pounds, but her hair, even her eyelashes are growing back. “Girls don’t know how much we love eyelashes until we don’t have any,” Clayton quips.

Dr. Mohammed Raheem, Clayton’s oncologist at Dreyer Medical Clinic and an integral part of her ongoing fight with cancer, is thrilled his patient is feeling well. But that’s not necessarily surprising, he noted. When patients take breaks from chemo, as can be necessary in long battles with the disease, they inevitably feel better. Nor is it uncommon for the cancer cells to stabilize for a time. But he is far from convinced a no-sugar diet and spinal adjustments are going to make a difference in the long run. And his greatest concern is that patients will turn away from more conventional medical treatments.

Clayton understands these concerns but doesn’t let them rain on her parade. Curing cancer has a lot to do with attitude, she says. And neither of her doctors disagrees. Clayton, a musician who sits on the board of directors for the Northern Illinois Bluegrass Association, said when she was first diagnosed, she named her tumor “Tina Tumor … because Tina (Turner) never did nuthin’ nice and easy.” Then she went about trying to live each day with the same spunk and determination. A couple weekends after her mastectomy, Clayton was playing her upright bass at a festival. And today she’s leading a bluegrass jam at Dickson-Murst Farm in Montgomery.

“When Dr. Thompson handed me that book, it was meant to be,” she said. “Until today I thought about dying every day of my life for the last six years. Today, I’m thinking about living.”

Doris loved all things musical at a very early age. At the age of nine, she started singing with the family on the front porch of their home while her mother accompanied them on the accordion. While attending high school in Southern Missouri she did cross the line to rock music but in her twenties, she returned to the bluegrass music that she loved. Doris once attended a bluegrass festival in Norway, IL where she saw Bill Monroe. From then on she attended every bluegrass festival she could. At that point she was not aware that besides listening to the music, there were jam sessions taking place as well. She would listen to the music and then go home!

Another milestone for Doris was through hammer dulcimer player Bill Robinson. She loved the sound and the looks of those beautiful instruments so she purchased an experimental dulcimer made from plywood with the proviso that if they wanted to sell it, they would sell it back to Bill. Doris played that instrument for a little while before graduating to other instruments, but the dulcimer still hangs on her wall as a reminder of her musical passion.

Doris has an interesting musical life, having played in several bands including “The Bottom Line”,“End Of The Road” and ”Smokey Mountain Haze”. The most recent band she played with was “Truman’s Ridge” . Doris states that “the band members were like brothers to me”. Truman’s Ridge made their first CD in 2009 and performed at festivals in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Due to health issues, Doris had to retire from the group but still continues to fill in at jams with musicians like “Lillie Capes and her Hello Dollies”, her favorite jam buddies from “Bluegrass Escape” and anyone else who needs a bass player!

Before Doris became an active musician she was an avid equestrian. She purchased what she described as the best horse she ever owned – a double registered buckskin quarter horse – from NIBA member Skip Sittig. He noticed a banjo in the corner of her house, asked if she liked bluegrass music, and before she knew it, she was attending her first jam at Harding. She then bought an 1890 German bass named “Truman” which had been played at a political convention attended by Harry S. Truman. Doris researched the history of this instrument and wrote an article on it which was published in “Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine” in January 2002.

It has not been all play and no work though. Doris served on the NIBA board for about eight years as treasurer, membership chairperson, and flier distributor. She has also organized three fundraisers at the Sandwich opera house to raise money for the Fox Valley Older Adults Association. In 2008 and 2009 she organized “Bluegrass in the Streets” in Sandwich. Even now, despite health issues, she is taking an active role on the NIBA board of directors. In 2005 Doris was awarded the “Ambassador of Bluegrass Award” by Terry Lease and the Midwest Bluegrass Association. In her acceptance speech for the Ambassador Award Doris stated “If all the people in the world could be as nice as the people in bluegrass, wouldn’t this world be a wonderful place.”

Race for Life - A Window Cleaners Niece

Ian Wicks of Window Washers would like to add this message:

"As many on here will know my three year old niece Summer was fighting for her life last year
and sadly died from Cancer just before Christmas last year. I am trying to get some sponsors for my wife as she is taking part in race for life to raise money for cancer research and I want to help beat her target." Pictured: "This is my Wife and Summer, time stamp wrong on camera!" "Any amount will help. Help me beat this target and help to find a cure for a this horrible disease that can happen to anyone young or old." "Last week should have been Summer's 4th birthday :'(
I cannot describe how this affected me and my family and the people that knew Summer, and my heart goes out to anyone that has or is going through this." You can donate HERE.

The history for people that do not know is:
"Summer at about 11 months old had a large mass on her arm, the hospital said it was just something cosmetic and sent her and her mum away to come back when she was 18 to have plastic surgery if needed. We went to the IOW where they live and the lump was massive I was praying it was not what I thought it was, she went back to a doctor and they called great ormond street hospital as an emergency and she was rushed up there (it was not cosmetic it was cancer and had spread into her little chest). When at Great Ormond street they found Summer had a tumor in her arm and had gone to her lymph gland and was now around her chest wall (makes me shake typing this) they amputated her lower arm and removed the tumor from her chest wall and removed lymph nodes.
She then was given radio therapy and chemo' for 6 months obviously loosing her hair in this time. the cancer kept growing, so she had another operation on her arm but this time they wanted to take away summers shoulder and the rest of her arm and part of her body but they said they wanted to try a high dose of treatment first, this went on and on, and in october last year she was given the all clear! She went to Disney-land to celebrate wearing her little princess dress, full of life.
She went back for a routine check-up in November last year and the doctors said it was back and there was nothing they could do and she had less than 4 weeks to live.
You could have knocked anyone of the family over with a feather, I shut my window cleaning business down and me and my wife went to the iow to spend as much time as we could with Summer, a charity gave her a specialy adapted bike and she loved it bless her, she went on it for three days, when we went to the iow she was well, happy her normal cheeky self, then the cancer took hold, she complained of belly ache, so they put her on morphine, she then stopped eating, and went down hill fast, but being the little fighter she was she hung in there and would not give up. I will not say more on this part as it is very upsetting reliving the nightmare we was living in, and how her mum coped I just don't know.
Carrying my nieces coffin out of the church is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and something I hope anyone would never have to go through, I have to say I was honoured to do it though carrying the most special little girl in the world, she really was a ray of sunshine in our lives..
This is why my wife is doing this race. I am sorry if this has upset anyone, and if anyone is going through this, you do not have to be alone I find it good to talk about it. Help others - every £1 donated helps."

Thanks, Ian Wicks. Window Washers.

Fridays Window Cleaning News

Bogus window cleaners take jewels in raid: A PAIR of crooks disguised themselves as window cleaners to steal more than £2,000 of jewellery from under the nose of an unsuspecting nanny. The duo knocked on the door of a house in Poets Road, Highbury, at about 3pm on Friday and told the au pair they had an appointment. They were in workman's overalls and carrying ladders so let one of them go upstairs to "check whether the windows needed cleaning inside or out". The au pair became suspicious and telephoned the owner of the house, a mother-of-three who was on a trip to the Islington Vue cinema in Upper Street. The mum told her nanny there was no such appointment and came rushing home - but the bogus workmen had already gone. And with them they had taken a selection of the mother's most expensive jewellery, including, gold, diamonds and pearls.
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Wiltshire householders scammed by "window cleaners": HOUSEHOLDERS in Wiltshire are falling victim to a window cleaning scam. Tricksters have called at homes in Swindon and Chippenham offering to clean windows but demanding payment up front. Although they provide receipts they fail to carry out the job and contact details on the receipts are false. Police spokeswoman Claire Usher said: "We are appealing for anyone who believes they have been a victim of this situation and has not yet contacted police to do so." Anybody with information should call 0845 4087000.
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California siblings charged with killing B.C. businessman: A brother and sister from California, charged this week with the 2007 murder of Tsawwassen businessman William George Dobbs, may face the death penalty. Robert Lee Dunson, 27, and Jackie Lynn Dunson, 32, were charged Tuesday in the U.S. "We've charged both with murder and we've alleged that the murder was committed during the commission of a robbery. In California that is a charge that makes the defendant eligible for the death penalty," said Michael Jeandron, spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office. Dobbs, 48, was found beaten to death by the side of a desert road near the town of Indio, in southern California near Palm Springs on Nov. 27, 2007. Dobbs (pictured) ran a window cleaning and janitorial service called Excelsior Buildings Maintenance, which had been in the family since 1910. The wealthy businessman was remembered as a generous, funny man. "He was always happy, the life of the party," stepdaughter Morgan Dawson told The Province in 2007.
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Padiham man 'sent home from hospital with broken back: Mr Johnson said: “I was riding my motorbike near my home when I hit the kerb and came off. “My back was really hurting, I could hardly breathe and I was screaming in pain.” Mr Johnson, who lives with girlfriend Sonia Grant, 26, and five-year-old daughter Olivia, was given an x-ray by doctors in Blackburn and told he had a broken bone in his spine. “They looked me over, sent me home, told me to do plenty of walking and told me get some rest,” he added. “But then when I went for my appointment at the fracture clinic in Burnley, they told me there were two breaks – one of which they had missed at Blackburn.” Mr Johnson was sent back to hospital for a week before being discharged. But in the meantime, Mr Johnson has been left in crippling pain, wearing a back brace, and not knowing if he will be able to return to work as a window cleaner. He said: “I really don’t know if I will make a full recovery and it is awful not knowing if I will work again.
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Not long after the new Jubilee Line underground station was built at Stratford in east London, construction workers noticed a mysterious film of white grease smearing the building's glass.
Resistant to the usual window cleaners, it baffled Bechtel project managers preparing for the underground station's opening. Eventually, after much head scratching, the substance was traced to a mayonnaise factory nearly two miles away - and a new heavy-duty wash was introduced. That salad dressing could disturb a multibillion-pound infrastructure project is a reminder of the range of unexpected difficulties that can confront project managers on complex civil engineering works.
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Collaboration for a better city: Students from Franklin High School helped clean up downtown Franklin on Thursday by washing windows and vacuuming empty storefronts. The community service effort by about 20 high school volunteers was part of the Collaboration project, started by volunteers from Choose Franklin who wanted to spruce up downtown in advance of Community Day on May 9. Three projects arose from the effort. The first project was to equip each downtown business with a flag to display in front of its store on Central Street. The second project will engage volunteers in a general cleanup of Central Street. The third project involves decorating and improving empty storefronts with artwork and visually pleasing materials to improve the aesthetic quality of the downtown area and have the downtown storefronts look full and beautiful. Pictured: Franklin High Schooler Courtney Hubbard helps out the Collaboration project on Thursday by washing windows in vacant downtown storefronts.
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Twin sisters Chrissy and Kim Conti and Andy Shaw will be cycling from Toronto to Niagara Falls in the Ride to Conquer Cancer, a fundraiser to support the Campbell Family Research Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. Each cyclist has to raise $2,500 to ride in the event that will take place from June 13-14. The Conti sisters are double trouble – literally. That is what the duo has dubbed itself for the 200-kilometer trek. The 25-year-old Burlington natives have a lifetime of volunteerism under their belt. Their stepfather had two kidney transplants, prompting the girls, at a young age, to canvass their neighbourhood for donations for the Kidney Foundation. When a friend’s mother overcame breast cancer, the girls were motivated to participate in a fundraising walk for the disease. The twins lost two grandparents to cancer, and now a close friend of theirs is battling skin cancer. They say cancer research is an issue close to their hearts. “We’re lucky to be from a family that is able to do these kinds of things,” said Kim. Each participant will be given a T-shirt, and a tent so they can camp out in Hamilton during the two-day ride. The sisters have appealed to family and friends for donations, and so far have raised about $500 each. Kim, who runs a window washing company, says the girls are starting to get creative about their fundraising tactics. “We were thinking of volunteering to clean the windows at a nursing home and maybe ask for donations there.”