Sean Doherty

It is with great sadness that we inform you that Sean P. Doherty, 46, of Milford, NH, passed peacefully on Monday, September 21, 2015 at the Community Hospice House in Merrimack, NH. He was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer in August 2014,despite having no family history, and no risk factors, no significant symptoms beyond fatigue. He mentioned to his primary care doctor at his annual physical that he had been increasingly tired so the doctor ordered some routine bloodwork and it turned out he was very anemic. That led to a colonoscopy, and at the time of diagnosis he already had 25 tumors spread through his lungs, liver and lymph nodes. He chose to have surgery to remove the primary tumor but opted not to do chemo because he carried a mutation that made the newer treatment ineffective and with chemo 50% of patients with his stage of cancer are gone in six months. Instead he did naturopathic treatments like high heat sauna, hyperbaric oxygen, many supplements, DCA and vitamin C intravenously and the Ketogenic diet. He looked and felt amazingly good up until a few weeks before he passed. He kept an online blog of his journey at Caringbridge.com, where he started writing "bad Haikus". He travelled extensively during the last year, going to the Dominican Republic, Harry Potter World at Universal Orlando, Florida, Reno, Ottawa, Canada, St. John, USVI, Lake George, NY. He drove back and forth the ten hours to New York six weeks before he passed! He left no stone unturned and left nothing unsaid between he and his family and friends.

Sean leaves behind his devoted wife of 17 years, Christine Doherty, N.D., and their beloved 14 year old daughter, Celeste. He and Christine met when he was doing his first Masters in Vancouver, B.C. and dated long distance for 5 years while she completed her Naturopathic doctorate at Bastyr University in Seattle. He is also dearly missed by his sister, Sharon Stewart & her husband Ford, and his nephews, Cameron, Nolan, and Zachary of Maplewood, NJ. He spent a lot of wonderful time in Canada with his in-laws, Dr. George & Joanne MacDonald, on the family farm where Christine grew up, and at their nearby cottages, often bringing American friends with him. He was very close to his brother in law, Grant MacDonald & his wife Kathryn all of Cantley, Quebec. He and Grant once spent a week building a potato gun, which initially just vaporized the potatoes, but with a little adjusting they were able to launch potatoes a 1/4 mile into the Gatineau river. He is survived by his mother, Marie and was predeceased by his father, Dr. William Doherty, who passed in 2007 from a brain tumor.

Sean was brilliant, and his quick, dry wit kept everyone who could keep up with him, laughing. Sean earned his first degree, a B.A. in Biology, at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He then completed Masters degrees in both Oceanography, and Oriental Medicine. People would constantly be surprised by how intelligent he was, his IQ was in the top 2%. He would joke that his epitaph should be: "He was smarter than he looked". He owned and practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine at Balance Point Natural Medicine, in Milford, NH for ten years, and he practiced and owned Nashua Natural Medicine in Nashua NH for seven years before moving to Milford, he worked with his wife, Christine. Sean helped hundreds of infertile couples create families, and he relieved pains of all kinds for thousands of people. He truly made the world a better place. He did his Masters in Oceanography at the University of British Columbia, his research on plankton was part of an international study of carbon flux between the atmosphere and the oceans and was titled " Carbon flux in Heterotrophic and Autotrophic Nanoflagellates in the Subarctic Pacific." He went out to sea to gather samples in the same dangerous areas depicted in the television shows about crab fishing. He moved from Vancouver to Seattle briefly, then to San Francisco where he went to acupuncture school at the Pacific College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He had a board specialty in acupuncture orthopedics, which involves an extra year of study in mainstream orthopedic practices.

Sean was a man of many talents, he liked to tinker in his antique colonial house built in 1782, doing anything from carpentry, to plumbing, to electrical. He was very athletic, he had a black belt in Tang Su Do Karate, he rode several century bike rides for charity, and he had just done two seasons of triathlons before he was diagnosed last year. As a teen he liked to do heavy weight lifting, at one point being able to squat 450lbs and bench press 250lbs. Once he carried a cast iron bathtub up a flight of stairs by himself. He was known by some as "mannequin man" as he could buy a suit right off the mannequin, and it would fit him perfectly, without alterations! Sean also played both classical and folk guitar and loved to sing with his friends and brother in law Ford. He had itchy feet and loved to travel- he drove cross country twice, once with Christine, once with Celeste. He travelled extensively to Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and around the Caribbean.

In lieu of flowers, he requested that donations be made to the "Sean Doherty Donation Fund" towards his daughter, Celeste's, education, please mail checks to Balance Point Natural Medicine, 354 Nashua St, Milford, NH, 03055. A celebration of his life will be held at the Radisson Hotel, 11 Tara Blvd., Nashua, NH on Saturday, October 17th, at 1:30. He will be greatly missed, will live forever in our hearts and leave his friends and family all thinking- "What would Sean do?" when faced with a challenge. He will be buried in Milford, NH and he chose the following words as his epitaph "Life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone, kindness in anothers trouble and courage in your own" Adam Lindsay Gordon