British mum Jill Turner is breastfeeding her baby son Llewyn who was born in October last year. But Llewyn isn’t the only one drinking her milk. Turner expresses more than she needs, to give some to her father, Fred Whitelaw.
Whitelaw was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2015. He’s had two major operations to try to treat the cancer, as well as chemo. But the outlook for him is not good.
Turner, an admin assistant, was “devastated” by her father’s diagnosis. Then she read something that gave her an idea.
“I was researching online when I came across an article for alternative uses for breast milk,” Turner explains in Metro. “Since then my husband Kyle has used it on his eczema and we have also used it on Llewyn’s conjunctivitis. But when I mentioned to my family that it has links with cancer, they thought I was joking.”
Whitelaw was hesitant at first, but then realised he had nothing to lose. Turner bought a double pump, and her mum bought a small fridge for the bottles of expressed milk.
“For now, he has it in coffee, but I’m hoping he will also have it in his porridge if I can express enough,” Turner says. "So far he’s only been drinking it for a month, so we don’t know if it has helped in any way just yet. But he is having more tests done in a few weeks so it will be interesting to see what the results are.”
Another stash for the fridge/freezer using @myameda pump! #Ignoretheignorant #Amedapump #IronManFred #normalisebreastfeeding #Informedisbest pic.twitter.com/DZBYkJq6Ml
— Jill Turner (@Mrs_Jillybean) May 2, 2017