Chris Woollams Quack Watch
This little section of our charity web site is my personal corner dedicated to exposing those people and companies who come between people touched by cancer and their ability to access accurate cancer and health information. As far as I am concerned, they are quacks; indeed Black Quacks, because they put the survival of cancer patients at risk and threaten them with an earlier death than they could achieve if the used the research information available.
For example, I have received many, many e mails from people who see the misinformation spun by the Skeptics in the UK as dangerous dogma that can only put their lives in danger. Several object greatly to the Skeptic view that cancer patients are vulnerable and need to be protected. As a Medical Barrister wrote to me recently, I find it deeply insulting that these idiots think the day I developed cancer I also lost my brain faculties.
So if its to be Chris Woollams Quack Buster, then so be it.
I used to have a website (www.junkscience.co.uk) which is still in existence, but I have passed on. More and more, the junk, the mythology, the misinformation and even the downright lies of the cancer industry will be exposed there, whether it is reports from the World Health Organisation saying that the whole drugs chain is riddled with fraudulent practices from top to bottom, or its a Skeptic who is secretly collecting your e mail addresses for private gain, when you go to read what he or she writes.
Exposing the real quacks
Sadly, a number of individuals, companies and other organisations say things or do things which mislead cancer patients.
This may involve serious, even fraudulent practices as dreadful as attempting to bribe Doctors and Nurses to use a particular drug. However, it may involve far less illegal matters where someone merely over-claims the benefits of a product.
Another example might be where people with no qualifications in medicine or biological sciences band together to agree with each other and portray certain Complementary or Alternative Therapies as worthless, un-researched or even bogus, when actually, if they did their homework and were up to date on their research, they would find that increasingly some do have quality research behind them and to say otherwise is inaccurate and comes between patients and finding ways of increasing their personal odds of survival.
The American Cancer Society issued a report in 2012 stating that since 2006 there had been an explosion in research into complementary therapies, and that there was now overwhelming evidence that complementary therapies such as diet, weight control and exercise that could increase survival and even prevent a cancer returning. This report has been endorsed by the NCI in America.
Yet there are people in denial. One Professor who is forever making ludicrous claims against CANCERactive and me, writes on his blog
‘remember that "integrative"…
is a euphemism for quackery’.
Chris Woollams Quack Buster
Anyone who makes claims that prevent a patient learning the Whole Truth, is potentially endangering their survival.
False claims, illegal acts, endangering patients - this is all part then of our definition of QUACKERY. And over the coming years we invite anybody from any walk of life to submit articles or claims to us (with evidence) and we will endeavour to publish them on junk science. It will now replace this personal corner of this CANCERactive website, although it is something that I feel strongly about, as did both Catherine and Becky Simpson.
Lets be clear. How can people, some with fictitious names, others with no science training make claims about cancer treatments that might potential prevent someone from surviving longer, or even prevent their cancer returning? It beggars belief.
Especially when some of these people are in it for private gain.
To repeat, anyone who comes between a patient and the Whole Truth is eligible as a Black Quack in this section and on Junk Science. Companies and individuals effect their own entry by their actions.