My name is Mano Guillemot and I grew up in a quaint village in the North West of France. My teenage years were troubled, and at the age of 19 I took a leap of faith to pursue a dream of living an inspiring life in London.
London life
I arrived with a rucksack on my back and I knew nobody. The era was the mid 1980’s. But within a few years I found my energy level were down. I cold only hold a part-time job. I made the best of it and developed a lifestyle that suited my energy levels and foggy mind. I had a sense that something was wrong without really knowing what.
Cleaning up
Fortunately, one day something switched inside me, told me to clean up my act and move on. I wanted a better life for myself. It was painful and challenging but I cleared the path in front me and came off all drugs and started to meditate.
Meditation became my medicine. It was a liberator. My sense of self and self-worth grew, I started my own business and developed a healthy life for myself.
My diagnosis of Hepatitis C
In my early 30’s, after a routine blood test, out of the blue, I was told I had contracted the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). How, this was a mystery. I had been vaccinated plenty of time in my lifetime, I had had minot operation under anaesthesia, I had been to the dentist like any one else. Who know?
Back then, Hepatitis C was not well understood as it was only discovered properly in 1989. It was a shameful illness to have, associated with addiction and HIV. I felt incredibly lonely and had no real support.
I know it can still be a lonely experience even today.
Period without treatment
I went to a liver specialist and was offered a gruesome treatment drug called Interferon. This had many side effects, one of them being a high rate of suicide for long term patients following that treatment. I decided to not to take the treatment. Instead, the specialist agreed to check my liver function every few years.
My ALT’s were stable for many years. I was using a healthy lifestyle with very little alcohol, a fairly healthy diet and taking various herbs and supplements, which seemed to work for me, I still felt under the weather of a liver with hepatitis c with low energy levels and a foggy mind.
Living in India for 6 month
Many years later, I moved to Devon and fell in love with a beautiful woman who had a passion for India. In 2012 we followed our dream to spend 6 months in the UK and 6 months in India and I continue to travel there every year. I got to know India very well, the healthcare there is very accessible.
New treatment available for Hepatitis C
In 2015 I heard about the new curable treatment for hepatitis C. This seemed like a miracle – take the medicine for 12 weeks and you are cleared with 95% chance of success.
I wanted to try it, but was told by my doctor in the UK that I did not qualify as I was still relatively healthy. The pharmaceutical company priced the drugs at £70,000 or $84,000 per 12 week course of treatment. The underfunded NHS in England set up a system of eligibility as to who will get treated.
I decided to research and see if I could buy the Generic medicine in India for myself.
Treatment from India
When back in India I looked for a chemist who could supply me with sofosbuvir and daclatasvir. It didn’t take too much work although not all chemists can get it. I bought both medicines for a total cost of £700 for a 12 weeks course, I overpaid a bit but I didn’t know it at the time. I was so grateful to even get my hands on the new medicine.
The response to the treatment
For my genotype 3a hepatitis C I was recommended a course of 24 weeks but I thought because of the money I would just try a 12-week course and take it from there. After two weeks of treatment my liver function was back to normal, after 12 weeks I tested for quantity of virus and it was not found.
A year later still nothing and now eight years later I tested again and I am negative on any presence of the hepatitis C virus in my blood.
The story ends here on this great note! I managed to heal my liver by getting rid of the hepatitis C virus and now can help others do the same.
What I do now
Now in 2024 I have decided to help others access the treatment.
I know the systems of eligibility does change over the years but I know there are still people out there being denied treatment on eligibility: Are you ill enough? How big is the pot of money available to treat HCV this year? What’s the price tag on the medicine?
Despite the claims to rid the planet or UK or USA of the virus by such and such date, it is happening excruciatingly slowly. The medicine is available in large quantity and the quality is there.
The only hurdle is the price.
Even if the price has gone down a bit it, which it has at £39,000 for a 12 weeks course in the UK, it is still a drain on the NHS. After 8 years there should be barely anyone left with the virus if they really wanted to heal the world as they claim to want to. Instead there is a drip feed of medicine only given to a part of a vast group of people who need it. Sad!
See here about what you can do for yourself regarding an accessible treatment.
This website is dedicated to help the category of people with Hepatitis C who have been left out , let down by the system because they are not ill enough yet deeply affected in their life by the hepatitis C virus.
I am available for support to anyone who feel they need it. My email is: mano @hepatitis-c-treatment-and-medicine.center
Do you want to know more about the service I offer?
See here how to take care of your liver with my tips, research and experience.
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