"I went home to die," said Gemma (pictured), from Sutton Coldfield.
"Doctors came to my bedside and said 'the treatment is making you worse, there's nothing more we can do for you'.
"They said I could either go into a hospice, stay in hospital or be looked after at home. I was suicidal."
Doctors believe the intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy she was given for the tumour must have had a delayed effect.
But Gemma insists her survival has nothing to do with hospital treatment and is adamant that homeopathy saved her life.
She was persuaded to see Erdington homeopath Janice Butcher, initially to see if she could alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy.
By then she had already been through radiotherapy and the steroids she was on were so strong that she put on four stones in four weeks.
"It was awful," said Gemma. "I didn't recognise myself in the mirror - my face was like a balloon.
"My hair fell out, I had double vision, the shivers and I was really cold.
"I'd never heard of homeopathy and I was a real doubting Thomas. I thought, how can flowers help me? I've got cancer."
But when doctors at London's St Bart's Hospital explained there was nothing more they could do, Gemma turned to Janice as a last resort.
"I couldn't do anything for myself," said Gemma, who was forced to move from London to her parents' home in Bewdley so that they could look after her.
"Doctors told my parents that the nicest way I could go was to slip into a coma." The homeopath prescribed 30 different remedies to take daily and although it took months to get her strength back Gemma slowly began to recover.
Within a year of leaving hospital she was fit enough to return home to London.
After completing three years training to become a qualified homeopath Gemma has now returned to the Midlands to run a business based in Birmingham Road, Sutton Coldfield.
"At one point my opticians could see the tumour wrapped around the optic nerve but now they can't see it at all," she said.
"I still have slight problems with my sight but I'm 99 per cent better.
"Now I want to help other people. I don't want to treat cancer patients at the moment because I feel I need more experience for that but I'm treating people successfully for asthma, eczema and digestive problems."
To contact Gemma telephone 0121 605 1290. Homeopath Janice Butcher can be contacted on 0121 682 2527.
There are several homeopaths in and around Birmingham and the Midlands. The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths publishes a register of fully qualified homeopathic practitioners who are bound by the ARH Code of Ethics and Practice. For a free copy of the register e-mail info@a-r-h.org or phone 08700 736339.
