A moving story of ‘alternative’ cancer treatments

It is well known that alternative therapists are sought out by vulnerable cancer suffers and those that love them, but I hadn’t realised that lurking amongst this dubious ‘alternative’ crew were ‘real’, qualified doctors.

My eyes were opened reading a moving piece by cellist Steven Isserlis about his partner Pauline, who succumbed to a virulent form of cancer in May 2010. Daily Telegraph 21 March 2011.

Like many desperate people Pauline turned to ‘alternative’ treatments after mainstream medicine could do no more.  She“came to believe” that she could be helped by alternative treatments after researching magazines, newspapers and the internet.

What made me sit up and take even more notice however, was that ‘alternative’ ‘holistic’ qualified medics are active in this field, offering ‘searing ‘ courses of pills (up to 200 a day) and unproven chemotherapy treatments where drugs are injected directly into tumours.  Of course, I cannot say whether these medics are misguided or quacks, but they flourish … and appear to be unregulated.

Read the full, hard-hitting piece here:  At the mercy of a cancer 'guru'.  It was obviously a terribly difficult piece to write, but I am glad I was able to read it.

Barry Sheene, still the most famous British racing motorcyclist 30-plus years after his last world championship win, was struck down with throat cancer and turned to ‘alternative’ therapies.  I met Barry a few times and his toughness, determination and focus were legendary and very real.  But he ended his life on a diet that, apparently, consisted of little more than beetroot juice.  No one could have predicted how the disease would have progressed – or not – if he had applied those powerful personal qualities to a conventional course of cutting edge treatment, however.

Gloria Hunniford, Radio and TV personality lost her daughter Caron Keating to cancer in 2004 and has written about how she told how she fell under the influence of alternative therapists - some of whom were charlatans.  How sad.  How tragic..

Quackwatch is a brilliant and constantly updated website alerting visitors about the risks of ‘alternative therapies’; whether put forward by out-and-out fraudsters, the deluded or – now I have learned – medically-qualified doctors.