With cancer gone, man preaches good health

Scott Toney is on a mission to help as many people as possible get fit and lose weight — and he isn’t letting a little thing like follicular lymphoma stop him.

When doctors diagnosed the cancer in the 38-year-old Army veteran in May 2011, they said it had progressed past the point of being curable, according to Toney.

They gave him five to 12 years to live, and the fitness fanatic was forced to suspend his Makeover Bootcamp, which had run in Suffolk for two and a half years.

But now, with his cancer in remission, Toney’s starting his fitness business up again.

Toney said he had visited four prestigious cancer treatment centers in a quest for the best treatment — MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Hampton Roads-based Virginia Oncology Associates Cancer Treatment Center and VCU Massey Cancer Center in Richmond — and had a lymph node sent to Duke University for screening.

The combined bill was in the six-digits, he said.

“They said the chemotherapy would not cure me, it would only delay the inevitable,” Toney said.

Amid his months-long search for the right treatment, Toney decided to try a different approach and embarked on a Biblical-based diet of organic foods.

“I went to a couple of different healing services — I was willing to try alternative methods,” he said. “They laid hands on me, prayed for me — two different churches.”

But Toney finally decided on Massey Cancer Center for chemo. After undergoing CT and CAT scans there, he claims doctors approached him with startling news.

“They said, ‘Sorry, we think we may have mixed your scans up with someone else’s,’” he said. “My prior scans were lit up all over (indicating tumors).”

But Toney said his scans hadn’t been mixed up — the cancer had left.

“He (the director of radiology) said we’re looking at a medical mystery,” he said. “He said, ‘Your cancer is gone.’

“I attribute it to prayer. I feel there was something divine happening there. When I walked out of the hospital, I said, ‘I think I have been healed by God.’”

Toney has begun accepting registrations for the recommencement of his boot camp at Hampton Roads Executive Airport on April 23, which he will run with assistant Marylyn McLoughlin.

He said the airport is an “excellent location” for the exercise regime. “There’s so much here to work with,” he said.

The six-week fitness course costs $99, with hour-long sessions twice or three times a week, as well as advice on diet and lifestyle. Toney is waiving the fee for cancer sufferers.

“The primary focus for most people taking the boot camp is to lose weight and get fit,” Toney said. “I push every single person … but obviously a 20-year-old can be pushed a little harder than a 60-year-old.”

For more information, visit www.makeover-bootcamp.com or call 402-9756.