Henry Jeffreys: No, having cancer did not heal my life [View all]

I'm not generally a fan of the Spectator, but this article is really good:

...Others were less helpful. One woman at work, even before offering any sympathy, wanted to know what alternative therapies I would be doing, and seemed offended that I had put my trust in the oncology department at Barts. A writer I know called Felicity Carter had a similar experience when diagnosed with NH Lymphoma: ‘I got lots of advice about consuming vast quantities of fruit and veg to “boost the immune system”. As if a carrot is any match for malignant cells whose speed of division is exceeded only by foetal cells.’

Because cancer treatment is so unpleasant, and often ineffective, it leaves a vacuum to be filled by the likes of Noel Edmonds and his ‘negative energy’. The late journalist John Diamond wrote a book called Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations examining this nutty, predatory world. Professor David Colquhoun continues the fight on his website dcscience.net. He notes one woman, Barbara Wren, who claims ‘to have cured thyroid cancer by applying external compresses, half an hour with castor oil and half an hour with your own urine’. Aussie blogger Belle Gibson built a career on curing her cancer through healthy eating until it turned out that she had never had cancer at all.


....Its subtitle is ‘How Cancer can Heal your Life’ and the author claims one can grow and learn from the illness. This is perhaps the biggest lie of all: that having cancer gives you a kind of wisdom. Not long after going back to work, I remember the artist Sebastian Horsley asking me whether I was now a better person. I thought about it and realised I hadn’t changed. Cancer didn’t bring my whole life into focus or make me count my blessings. Horsley agreed; as a former heroin addict people expected him to have a hard-won wisdom which he simply didn’t have. He died a few years later from a drug overdose. Felicity Carter said that when she told a hospital psychologist that ‘work is central to my life and I was eager to get back to it, she accused me of “learning nothing” from my illness’.

I was fortunate in that my treatment was successful and I have been clear for ten years. Most aren’t so lucky. If someone you know has cancer they need support and love, not advice from magazines and bestselling books. Sympathetic family, friends and strangers (someone gave up their seat on the tube with a quiet ‘you look like you need it more than me’) are a great help but it’s doctors and nurses they need. Please don’t pester them about alternative therapies, don’t send them an electrical pulse kit and don’t expect them to emerge as a saint. Just be thankful they’re still alive.



http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/no-cancer-not-heal-life/