Integrative cancer and oncology news with articles and the latest news on cancer.
Because we are now quarterly, we have a terrific lot to say for ourselves which is why this issue is bigger than ever - 52 pages - and we still have trouble packing everything in!
We are very proud to feature the story of Marsha Hunt’s battle with breast cancer; her approach is as individual as she is and although we wouldn’t necessarily recommend all her methods, our policy has always been to do what feels right for you...and she’s certainly a good example of that.
In particular we admire the nonchalant way Marsha deals with losing her trademark abundant hair. It shows she has a real grip on the things that really matter at this crucial stage in her life.
In this issue we publish the first part of Chris Woollams’ Four Pillars of Cancer. Long-term readers may remember the same theme in the very first issue of icon, and he has now expanded it into the most comprehensive guide available to prevention and taking responsibility for our own health. So comprehensive, in fact, that the whole story will be told over four issues of the magazine. Make sure you keep reading.
Still on the subject of prevention, you will find information on our very first Prevention Conference in London on November 17th 2005. Definitely not one to miss.
Congratulations are in order to our popular columnist Patricia Peat who gave birth to a son, Alexander George last month. She was actually finishing this month’s column on the day the baby was due to arrive but fortunately he wasn’t in too much of a hurry!
We were all very sad to hear about the death of Michael Gearin-Tosh, a great friend of icon and CANCERactive who has been featured many times in this magazine. Having been given six months to live after a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, he survived for many years by guts and determination and by following a tough regime based on the Gerson therapy. He died, not of cancer, but of a virulent blood infection, at a time when, apparently, his cancer test results were very good.
Below, Chris Woollams pays his personal tribute to a most remarkable man.
Lindsey Fealey
Michael Gearin-Tosh
Michael Gearin-Tosh was, quite simply an inspiration to us all. He showed everyone with cancer that you do not have to accept the status quo of orthodox medicine and its gloomy statistics. And that by being open-minded, doing your homework and then being disciplined on a course of action you can give yourself seven or eight times more life expectancy than the world can offer.
But let us be clear. Here was an exceptional man who was charming, intelligent and with a wonderful command of the English language. He chose to undertake the Gerson Therapy but not to the total exclusion of orthodox medicine, although he saw little point in taking "poisonous drugs" that would probably only extend his life by a year or so at a cost to both his general well-being and lifestyle. He became a founding patron of CANCERactive and believed fervently in an integrated approach to treating cancer. The best of all that is available.
I first met him when he was speaking to a group of doctors. I was asked spontaneously to comment on his choice of self-treatment and offered that I could see why the Gerson Therapy might have a strong beneficial effect with multiple myeloma, indeed any sort of lymphoma/leukaemia/blood cancer, because it is essentially a wonderful detox and we know that such cancers are more likely caused by poisons.
Michael Gearin-Tosh was, quite simply an inspiration to us all
I then stated that, for example, farmers have a far higher incidence of multiple myeloma because of the pesticides they use. This was all greeted by howls of protest from medical professionals around the room.
At this point Michael, who had been calmly sitting on stage sipping from his thermos flask of self-prepared fruit and vegetable juices, raised his six foot plus frame from his chair, looked carefully at the whole audience and said, slowly and deliberately in the voice of eminent Oxford don: "Christopher is absolutely right".
No-one uttered another word. The presence had spoken.
How ironic that, in the end, he did not succumb to cancer but to an unrelated infection.
CJW