|
|
In
Spring 1994, 54-year old Michael Gearin-Tosh was diagnosed with incurable
multiple myeloma (cancer of the blood and immune system). The survival
prognosis cited was bleak – anywhere from a few months to 2-3 years. Because
the treatment offered – chemotherapy (Melphalan) was not a cure, and perhaps
due to Mr Gearin-Tosh’s pedantic and rather obstinate nature, he refused
cytotoxic treatment, adopted an extremely vigorous nutritional approach,
composed of the Gerson therapy, plus additional supplements, acupuncture
and visualization, and is still alive today, eight years later.
Now, Michael Gearin-Tosh is no ordinary
man on-the-street. He is an eminent and scholarly Oxford don of English
Literature. In fact, his book outlining his cancer treatment approach
is very much an entourage of the great and the good both from the orthodox
and complementary medicine worlds. His immediate team included, amongst
a fairly large supporting cast of characters, exceptionally good friends
Rachel Trickett (retired principal of St Hugh’s College), medical doctor
Christian Carritt and Carmen Wheatley DPhil, former pupil.
They set to work researching his type of
cancer, treatment approaches and appointments with leading oncologists
in the UK and America. In the book we are treated to the author’s whimsical
renditions of his consultations and communications with a host of consultants
including Professor Ernst Wynder (formerly of the Sloan-Kettering Hospital),
who made this pivotal comment to one of the author’s cast of friends “I
tell you one thing, boy,” he said. “If your friend touches chemotherapy,
he’s a goner.” A host of experts from the cancer world lined up to recommend
chemotherapy treatment to the author.
Meanwhile we are witness to the extraordinary
types of information and contacts provided to the author: a telephone
‘interview’ with Dr Nicholas Gonzalez, historical accounts of William
Kelly, a consultation with Jan de Vries, recommendations to read Leslie
Kenton’s book Raw Energy, Beata Bishop’s book A Time to Heal
and Integrated Cancer Care (Editor Jennifer Barraclough), delivery
of a juicer, referrals to a former friend who had adopted the Gerson therapy
and had survived, consultations with the Linus Pauling Institute, to name
but a few of the cast in this book. Along the way, the Bristol Cancer
Help Centre was contacted re Gerson (the receptionist said that they didn’t
do Gerson and hung up the phone), and we are with the author when he encounters
the enema bucket in a wholefood store in Paddington Street, London.
Michael Gearin-Tosh’s regime included, briefly:
the Gerson Therapy, orthomolecular oncology (Pauling/Hoffer high-dose
supplements, including Vitamins C, B, E, beta carotene, selenium, zinc,
calcium/magnesium and multi-vitamins, Bisphosphonates (for his weak bones),
Enzymes, Metabolic Typing, Acupuncture, Visualization and Breathing Exercises.
Interwoven in the author’s narrative are
titbits of his complicated and intriguing social and professional life,
his travels and travel companions, some of his nightmares (a French consultant
who told him never to mention the word ‘cancer’ again) and excerpts from
Primo Levi’s book about Auschwitz.
However, what ought to make the medical
establishment cringe with embarrassment and take note are that certain
of its practitioners were guilty of abruptness, rudeness, bullying attempts
to force treatment and insensitivity in discussing life and death matters
with patients.
Gearin-Tosh would probably have opted for
the chemotherapy had it made sense to him. But what this man had, most
invaluably, was a stubborn requirement to understand the rationale behind
the treatment (if there was no cure, then what was the purpose of undergoing
toxic treatment?), a good measure of common sense, and a distaste of being
rushed into treatment against his wishes.
He had the amazing good sense to tape record
his consultation with his Consultant, so that he could listen to it over
and over again when the shock of the death sentence wasn’t quite so numbing,
something with which Professor Robert Kyle (Mayo Clinic) concurs.
This book unusually includes, in addition
to Michael Gearin-Tosh’s account of his cancer odyssey, statements from
eminent clinicians Sir David Weatherall FRS (Weatherall Institute of Molecular
Medicine, University of Oxford), Professor Robert A Kyle (Mayo Clinic,
Rochester USA) and a detailed Case History by Carmon Wheatley DPhil, which
has been peer-reviewed by leading international experts. This Case History
describes the Gerson therapy in detail, theorizing how each component
in the author’s regime may act to counter cancer.
These cancer experts don’t understand how
or even if the author’s regime contributed to his survival, but state
that the Gerson regime ought to be subject to prospective clinical trials
to either prove efficacy, or to save patients “inconvenience, effort and
expense”. Why is it that so many people are so worried about cancer patients
wasting their time and money on diet and nutritional supplements – one
never hears them moaning about cancer patients going on holiday, buying
new clothes or spending money on eating out in restaurants.
Will this book push forward the case regarding
nutritional approaches to cancer? I would have thought that Michael Gearin-Tosh
speaks the language of the Establishment; however, this battle has been
waged for much of this century (read the majority of my Editorials in
Positive Health for my views on the issue). Most depressing were
the readers’ responses following its first serialization in The Sunday
Times in which cancer patients, relatives, carers and physicians expressed
their outrage at the publication of this patient’s unorthodox regime:
“I hope you thought long and hard about the effect on other myeloma suffers...particularly
those starting, in the middle of or completing ‘traditional’ treatment...
I am, of course, delighted he is still alive...but it seems irresponsible
and possibly cruel to print, even as reported conversation, something
like: “If your friend touches chemotherapy he’s a goner”. “...Desperate
people will try anything and cancer patients are often desperate, therefore
easy prey for woolly-brained mavericks, at best, and at worst, unscrupulous,
unethical charlatans who are prepared to take their last few pennies for
some false hope of cure.”
At the very least, the detailed Case History
prepared by Carmen Wheatley and peer-reviewed ought to be required reading,
along with this book, for all Cancer treatment practitioners.
|
