- Samantha Wisnevitz believes Professor Justin Stebbing saved her life
- The lawyer had breast cancer that spread to her liver and bones
- Thought she would never marry her fiance Jason
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Do you know a health hero? The Daily Mail in association with This Morning and Lloyds Pharmacy is asking you to nominate special people in the healthcare sector who’ve made a real difference to your life, or to a loved one.
Five finalists will each receive an all-expenses paid VIP trip to London, staying at a five-star hotel and attending our Gala Dinner where the finalist chosen as Health Hero of the Year will win a luxury break worth up to £5,000.
To make a nomination, fill in the coupon below. Here, ANGELA EPSTEIN tells one nominee’s story...
Samantha Wisnevitz believes the word 'hero' isn't an adequate accolade for the doctor she feels gave her back her life.
'He was almost warrior-like,' she says. 'He didn't pity me as some hopeless case. He made it clear he was taking my cancer on.'
And take it on he did. Three years later, thanks to the tireless compassion of Professor Justin Stebbing, from the London Oncology Clinic, Samantha is still alive.
His determination, kindness and refusal to be cowed by the cancer Samantha had been told would kill her, has earned Professor Stebbing a nomination for the Daily Mail Health Hero award.
Samantha Wisnevitz with Dr Jason Stebbing - for whom she has voted in the Daily Mail Health Hero awards - at his Harley Street practice
The pair met in August 2010. Samantha, a lawyer for an investment bank, had been busy preparing for her wedding day in two months' time.But then a routine check-up brought all her plans to a terrible halt. Samantha was told the breast cancer she thought she'd beaten three years earlier had not only returned, but had now spread to her liver and bones.
'The consultant said I probably had less than two years left to live,' says the 33-year-old from London. 'I was shocked. One minute I was planning my life, the next I was facing the prospect of dying. 'I felt like in the doctors' eyes I was a lost cause. My fiance, Jason, was with me and afterwards we just clung to each other.'
Fast forward three years and Samantha is happily married and continuing to work full-time.
Samantha had her right breast removed in 2007 after developing cancer, and was undergoing regular check-ups when her consultant said the disease was back. 'The timing was awful,' she says. 'The oncologist I usually saw was on holiday. Not only was I going to die, but the person who might be able to buy me a little time through treatment wasn't even there.'
Samantha Wisnevitz was given two years to live by doctors when her breast cancer spread to her liver and bones, then she met Professor Jason Stebbing who she believes saved her life
Seeing her so upset, one of the doctors told Samantha about Professor Stebbing, a leading oncologist who had a reputation for 'never giving up', and rang him on her behalf. Half an hour later they were talking on the phone.
'I will never, ever forget that phone call. This calm, reassuring voice said: "Forget two years. You have years."
'He made me feel like I was back in control. It was so different from the way I had been spoken to before.'
Devastated, Samantha assumed she would have to call her wedding off - how could she get married when she was so seriously ill?
'Professor Stebbing told me under no circumstances must I cancel my wedding - even though it was due to take place in South Africa. And he promised to devise a chemotherapy regime which would ensure I wouldn't lose my hair for my big day.
'I was blown away by his determination to give me my life back, he insisted I carry on as normal. It was as if cancer was an irritation that would have to fit round my life.
'I was blown away by his determination to give me my life back, he insisted I carry on as normal. It was as if cancer was an irritation that would have to fit round my life'
'What makes him such an outstanding doctor - and human being - is he has always seen me as a real person. Not just doing the job, saving a life, but recognising medicine is about giving the patient the strength to go on.
'I can text him any time about the most trivial things - recently I wanted to know if I could get an eyebrow tattoo since I have lost mine permanently as a result of the chemo. I was worried it might get infected but he came back to me to say there'd be no problem. It wasn't vital but it mattered to me, and when you have cancer, the little things that can boost self-esteem are vital.'
'What makes him such an outstanding doctor - and human being - is he has always seen me as a real person. Not just doing the job, saving a life'
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When it came to her treatment - a combination of hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and other drugs - he's involved her in every decision, even discussing dosages.
Samantha's cancer is, in her words, 'sleeping' - kept under control with Avastin, a drug which aims to suppress the cancer's growth, supplemented once a fortnight by a visit to Professor Stebbing, who administers intravenous treatment with chemotherapy and anti-oestrogen drugs.
His determination not to give up hope has helped Cathy Turner, too. The former magazine publisher, 44, from London was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer 12 months ago. She'd undergone surgery to remove a grapefruit-sized tumour but the operation had to be halted because the tumour was wrapped around vital blood vessels, making it too dangerous to remove.
Cathy says: 'I was devastated. I expected to wake up from the operation and the cancer would be gone. That's when I th ought I'd die. But one of my doctors got in touch with Professor Stebbing and he called that night to say it was going to be fine, that chemo would shrink the tumour. He said in this non-negotiable way: “I can deal with this.�'
Samantha's cancer is, in her words, 'sleeping' - kept under control with Avastin, a drug which aims to suppress the cancer's growth
A few days later doctors tried to put a tube into Cathy's chest for intravenous chemotherapy and burst her lung - it was 9pm on a Saturday and Professor Stebbing was at home but 'came racing to the hospital to reorganise my care and supervise the pain regime I needed,' says Cathy.
'He held my hand and promised me things would be all right. You cannot imagine what a difference this made. I was in pain, terrified, shocked by having failed surgery. This man made me feel I was more than just another patient. I almost felt I was his only patient.
'You can feel horribly alone when you have cancer. When a doctor of his skill and ability holds your hand through the horrible times, it makes you feel you are truly being taken care of.'
A single mother with two children - Archie, nine, and Henry, seven - Cathy says Professor Stebbing, a husband and father, has shown special understanding over her anxieties about the future.
WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?
To make your nomination, tell us in no more than 400 words why you think your candidate should win.
Send your nomination to: Health Hero Awards c/o Good Health, Daily Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT. Or email: healthheroes@dailymail.co.uk
You can nominate online at dailymail.co.uk/healthheroes.
The closing date for entries is midnight on Friday, April 19, 2013.
The editor’s decision is final.
There will be five finalists selected by judges for the outstanding difference they’ve made to people’s lives.
Each of the finalists will be honoured with an all-expenses paid VIP trip to London, staying in a five-star hotel, and attendance at the Healt h Hero Awards Gala Dinner.
The prize for the Health Hero Of The Year is a luxury break up to the value of £5,000.
Cathy says: 'What crushes me most about this damned disease is I am a mother. Professor Stebbing knows I need to be here for my children and he often refers to my boys when he encourages me about the future.
'I listen to him and I trust him. Brilliant consultants may be able to perform extraordinary feats of medicine, but I've never met one who was also such a rare human being.'
Hilary Craft, 55, a businesswoman from Manchester, first saw Professor Stebbing in 2010 when it was discovered her breast cancer had spread to her liver. She assumed she was 'finished'. Professor Stebbing took a different view, telling her: 'We're going to attack this.'
Three years later, Hilary is not only still working but has set up a charity, Action Against Cancer, with Professor Stebbing, to help fund his research at Imperial College and Hammersmith Hospital into cures for the disease. Recently his team discovered a cancer-causing gene related to breast, gastrointestinal, lung and brain tumours.
'What I do is more than a job, it's my purpose in life,' says Professor Stebbing, 42. 'My patients are human beings. I want them to live and feel control.'
 The treatment is a mixture of the new, the tried and tested and the groundbreaking. It is the tailor-made mix Professor Stebbing puzzles and labours over - which may explain his refusal to accept the prognoses of other doctors.
'But I understand not all of them will make it. If this happens, I find it very touching when a family come to me and say they are grateful for the care I gave their loved one despite the outcome.'
His ambition is simple: 'I want to make cancer feel more like a long-term disease, similar to diabetes, in that if you're not cured from it then at least you can live with it.'
For Samantha, it's this that makes Professor Stebbing a real heal th hero. 'I haven't thought about death since I met him. All I think about now is life.'
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