Ian Gawler Melbourne Age… Cancer experts challenge Gawler's 'cure' – Grace Gawler comments

December 31, 2011 – Chris Johnston senior writer and Julia Medew Health Editor have written a well considered article about Ian Gawler’s cancer ‘remission’ in today’s Age newspaper. Having been Ian’s 24-7 carer and then his wife who saw him through his entire illness, I can only agree with the findings of the two professors quoted in the Age story. Retrospective views in combination with current knowledge must lead to a view that considers scientific knowledge and clinical facts in the absence of hard data. It is important not become focused on an ideology & be open to accepting new evidence and critique…Carl Sagan quote: “Exceptional claims call for exceptional evidence.” is very appropriate. Professors Haines and Lowenthal have indeed presented exceptional evidence in this case.

Grace Gawler – First wife disputes….The Australian Oct 2008

The article is gaining media momentum around the country. For those of you who are regular subscribers to this blog; you are no doubt aware that the Medical Journal of Australia published a refute letter authored by me in 2010 as a response to an inaccurate review of Ian Gawler’s remission story titled “True Stories” MJA Dec 11 2008. The authors of the published manuscript, Dr Ruth Gawler and Professor George Jelinek had reported a previously incorrect clinical timeline, with incorrect dates  along with serious errors and omissions. The famous photograph of Ian’s chest wall  was incorrectly dated – I have the originals. After many attempts to open a dialogue, the authors failed to respond…there was a ‘cocoon of silence’!  Unfortunately, my refute letter was smoke-screened and deemed by media as “quarrels between ex wives” in The Australian newspaper (Oct 2008) while the Australian Doctor reported the published letter quoting the “Duelling Mrs Gawlers”. These were the only 2 follow up articles at the time. A surprise for a subject so important in the public interest and given Ian Gawler later admitted in the Australian Doctor that he knew Ainslie Meares had the timeline of his story wrong – an error of 19 months! Later on his personal blog – Ian Gawler cleverly worded that he had never followed a vegan diet. However, cancer patients in the public domain were never privy to the disclosures.

The real true story therefore did not get to the most important group of people; cancer patients who should know the facts before making informed decisions about what treatments to take on board. Fortunately, my letter alerted two prominent oncologists who took my refute letter seriously and followed their investigations through to today’s exclusive press release to the Melbourne Age which reads:

“AN EXPLOSIVE new medical report has cast doubt on whether Melbourne alternative therapies guru Dr Ian Gawler ever suffered the secondary cancer from which he has claimed for 30 years to have cured himself.

The online report in the Royal Australian College of Physicians’  Internal Medicine Journal says Dr  Gawler, Australia’s most famous cancer survivor and founder of the Gawler Foundation, had advanced tuberculosis rather than the secondary bone cancer he was told he had in the late 1970s….Read more by selecting the link to the Melbourne Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cancer-experts-challenge-gawlers-cure-20111230-1pfns.html

To read more about this intriguing story select the following link. http://gracegawler.com/Institute/?page_id=3454

My Memoirs – ‘Grace, Grit and Gratitude’ – was published (self published) October 1st 2008 after Curtain University’s Black Swan Publishing lost funding for the project. They had listed it for their Blockbuster Christmas release a couple of years prior. The book had been in process for about 8 years and unlike The Dragon’s Blessing, Ian Gawler’s Biography authored by Guy Allenby; Grace , Grit & Gratitude covers areas Allenby omitted and gives a open and frank discussion about the role that TB had likely played in Ian’ Gawler’s recovery. Anomalies and the atypical pathway of his metastases was always a question for me – I knew that his TB diagnosis had  something to do with this extraordinary remission  – but there was non one willing to entertain or discuss the issue. At last – entering 2012, there are some answers for this atypical medical case in which I was so intimately involved.  Grace, Grit and Gratitude is available in soft cover or as a downloadable eBook.

A book that inspires the best in us – whatever the circumstances.

Ian Gawler Melbourne Age… Cancer experts challenge Gawler’s ‘cure’ – Grace Gawler comments

December 31, 2011 – Chris Johnston senior writer and Julia Medew Health Editor have written a well considered article about Ian Gawler’s cancer ‘remission’ in today’s Age newspaper. Having been Ian’s 24-7 carer and then his wife who saw him through his entire illness, I can only agree with the findings of the two professors quoted in the Age story. Retrospective views in combination with current knowledge must lead to a view that considers scientific knowledge and clinical facts in the absence of hard data. It is important not become focused on an ideology & be open to accepting new evidence and critique…Carl Sagan quote: “Exceptional claims call for exceptional evidence.” is very appropriate. Professors Haines and Lowenthal have indeed presented exceptional evidence in this case.

Grace Gawler – First wife disputes….The Australian Oct 2008

The article is gaining media momentum around the country. For those of you who are regular subscribers to this blog; you are no doubt aware that the Medical Journal of Australia published a refute letter authored by me in 2010 as a response to an inaccurate review of Ian Gawler’s remission story titled “True Stories” MJA Dec 11 2008. The authors of the published manuscript, Dr Ruth Gawler and Professor George Jelinek had reported a previously incorrect clinical timeline, with incorrect dates  along with serious errors and omissions. The famous photograph of Ian’s chest wall  was incorrectly dated – I have the originals. After many attempts to open a dialogue, the authors failed to respond…there was a ‘cocoon of silence’!  Unfortunately, my refute letter was smoke-screened and deemed by media as “quarrels between ex wives” in The Australian newspaper (Oct 2008) while the Australian Doctor reported the published letter quoting the “Duelling Mrs Gawlers”. These were the only 2 follow up articles at the time. A surprise for a subject so important in the public interest and given Ian Gawler later admitted in the Australian Doctor that he knew Ainslie Meares had the timeline of his story wrong – an error of 19 months! Later on his personal blog – Ian Gawler cleverly worded that he had never followed a vegan diet. However, cancer patients in the public domain were never privy to the disclosures.

The real true story therefore did not get to the most important group of people; cancer patients who should know the facts before making informed decisions about what treatments to take on board. Fortunately, my letter alerted two prominent oncologists who took my refute letter seriously and followed their investigations through to today’s exclusive press release to the Melbourne Age which reads:

“AN EXPLOSIVE new medical report has cast doubt on whether Melbourne alternative therapies guru Dr Ian Gawler ever suffered the secondary cancer from which he has claimed for 30 years to have cured himself.

The online report in the Royal Australian College of Physicians’  Internal Medicine Journal says Dr  Gawler, Australia’s most famous cancer survivor and founder of the Gawler Foundation, had advanced tuberculosis rather than the secondary bone cancer he was told he had in the late 1970s….Read more by selecting the link to the Melbourne Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cancer-experts-challenge-gawlers-cure-20111230-1pfns.html

To read more about this intriguing story select the following link. http://gracegawler.com/Institute/?page_id=3454

My Memoirs – ‘Grace, Grit and Gratitude’ – was published (self published) October 1st 2008 after Curtain University’s Black Swan Publishing lost funding for the project. They had listed it for their Blockbuster Christmas release a couple of years prior. The book had been in process for about 8 years and unlike The Dragon’s Blessing, Ian Gawler’s Biography authored by Guy Allenby; Grace , Grit & Gratitude covers areas Allenby omitted and gives a open and frank discussion about the role that TB had likely played in Ian’ Gawler’s recovery. Anomalies and the atypical pathway of his metastases was always a question for me – I knew that his TB diagnosis had  something to do with this extraordinary remission  – but there was non one willing to entertain or discuss the issue. At last – entering 2012, there are some answers for this atypical medical case in which I was so intimately involved.  Grace, Grit and Gratitude is available in soft cover or as a downloadable eBook.

A book that inspires the best in us – whatever the circumstances.

Gawler and Jelinek – MJA Cancer Patients at Risk with Errors of Consequence

 Visit Grace Gawler’s personal website at www.gracegawler.com

Thankyou Healthyliving.middaily for publishing this MJA report http://healthyliving.middaily.com/the-gawler-foundation-conference-opportunity-to-discuss-flawed-mja-report.html

As stated in “healthyliving.middaily” – I too believe a public enquiry needs to be held into the 11 Dec 2008 MJA errors authored by Ruth Gawler and George Jelinek – not my preference but if my diligent attempts to discuss, mediate and secure a public statement have failed, then it must be achieved through other channels. As I have said before, patients usually don’t read medical journals and they are the ones who need to be informed.
The waters of communication and transparency have become very muddied indeed. I emailed detailed proof to the authors of the MJA 2008 article hoping they would make a public statement – but, no reply. Ruth Gawler and George Jelinek work for the Gawler Foundation – however the Gawler Foundation believes that the MJA article has nothing to do with them?  This is even more amazing because the Foundation uploaded the MJA 2008 link to their website on 10 December and it has been there since.  http://gawlerfoundationmedia.com.au/2008/12/ Note – The day before their article in MJA was officially published.
The new-look Gawler Foundation bases their programs on the content of the 2008 article in question – the article that is incorrect! So they all need to get the story right because it is told around the world via the internet, at their national support groups, conferences, in books, workshops and most importantly now – in medical journals. See blogspot thesecondsight
http://thesecondsight.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-facts-meet-merchandising.html

I have spent time emailing and faxing my irrefutable proof to the CEO of the Gawler Foundation. In response she posted a letter on the gawlerfoundationmedia site. It fails to address the issues but of great concern is her last sentence.  “These articles are in no way helpful to the important work of the Foundation nor to those people suffering from cancer.”
Well, if letting cancer patients and doctors know that incorrect material has been published in a reputable medical journal when it comes to this issue of a high profile cancer remission such as Ian Gawler’s, I would think it to be very helpful indeed!   
Despite the challenges I remain undaunted in my duty to get this medical maze sorted out. I am hopeful that A Current Affair who filmed an interview with me in early October will eventually go to air…it is currently deferred until they can interview Ian and Ruth Gawler and or George jelinek. This week video footage relevant to the clinical timelines ( taken in the Philippines between March 1976 – May 1979)  has been subject to complaint and removed from you tube – seemingly with no recourse from me as the owner and with permission from all to be filmed including Ian. As well my email has been corrupted and still in process of restoration. And now the Gawler Foundation is threatening defamation via a legal letter requesting that I immediately cease publishing material defamatory of the Foundation. I ask – Is the truth defamatory?
The Yarra Valley Living Centre was my vision for cancer patients & I devoted years of my life to establishing it.  As Gawler Foundation co founder, ex director, therapist and the person who was there 24/7 for years for Ian Gawler as dedicated caregiver, I could never have imagined that my own Foundation would threaten to sue me for being involved with misreporting a part of my own story that, of necessity ran parallel with Ian’s.  Now that takes some inner processing!
The following is reported on Healthyliving.middaily
“Cancer patients are amongst our most vulnerable community members. Fear driven by horror stories of chemo suffering and words for alt/med like ‘ cut, burn and poison they put faith in alternative cancer cure stories.

So when significant errors about a high profile alternative cancer cure story are found in the prestigious Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) article by Dr Ruth Gawler and Prof George Jelinek from the Gawler Foundation about the cancer healing history of Australia’s most famous cancer patient, Ian Gawler (IG) it is cause for a public enquiry…”  Read more at
http://healthyliving.middaily.com/the-gawler-foundation-conference-opportunity-to-discuss-flawed-mja-report.html

 visit my personal website www.gracegawler.com

Ian Gawler – Is Bemusement the Appropriate Response for Cancer Patients and Caregivers?

More at www.gracegawler.com

For more than 3 decades, Australia’s most famous recovered cancer patient has travelled under the medical radar without his medical history being questioned – that is until now.

Health, wellbeing and aspiring to assist people with life challenging illness has been a life-long passion. My interest in healing was I believe genetic – a product of my mother’s Irish side of the family. Going back some 52 years to my first day at primary school, I was the only child with wholemeal salad sandwiches, I was vegetarian and had to manage a lot of teasing. My Irish genes served me well and I developed a doggedness for standing up for myself, for what I knew was right and what I knew was right for me. I was also heavily influenced by my health and lifestyle conscious uncle Leo White – alias Kid Young, an Australian champion boxer who was terrific bloke as well as a mentor. I knew that I had a vocation early in life. This manifested initially through healing and veterinary work – I worked as a part time nurse when I was at high school and met Ian Gawler when he came as a locum vet. He offered me a job at his clinic and eventually a relationship blossomed – but within a few months he was diagnosed with bone cancer and had a leg amputated. The rest is history or should I say now, ‘his-story’.
The ‘her – story’  – my important role in his recovery, seems to have been relegated to the ‘his-story’ books. Continue reading “Ian Gawler – Is Bemusement the Appropriate Response for Cancer Patients and Caregivers?”

The Gawler Foundation Conference Opportunity to Discuss Flawed MJA Report

Visit www.gracegawler.com or http://gracegawler.com/Institute/
The Gawler Foundation Conference An opportunity to explain MJA errors

The Gawler Foundation’s annual conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel Melbourne this weekend November 12 and 13.  I trust that this could be an opportunity for speakers such as Professor Ian Olver from the Cancer Council and the MJA article’s authors, to discuss and disclose to the public, health professionals and the cancer community, why such significant errors in the timelines and photographs relating to Ian Gawler’s cancer recovery were altered and published in Australia’s most prestigious journals – the Medical Journal of Australia. Read more at…http://gracegawlermedia.wordpress.com/

ABC Compass Message Board – Debating Ian Gawler's Cancer Healing Story

During the three years I worked with Grace Gawler and her cancer patients I’ve already seen too many good people making poor choices based on misinformation and misreporting of the Ian Gawler Cancer Healing story. Truth is crucial for people whose lives hang in the balance. They must be able to  depend on accurate information. The least I can do is help Ian’s former wife Grace, tell it as she saw it – especially with regard to the role meditation and vegan diet played in his cure.

In the interest of truthful data so patients can make informed choices I offer the link to a discussion after Ian’s appearance on ABC TV- Compass _ A Good Life –

Pip Cornall

http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=87&m=8887&dm=1&pd=2&am=9137

ABC Compass Message Board – Debating Ian Gawler’s Cancer Healing Story

During the three years I worked with Grace Gawler and her cancer patients I’ve already seen too many good people making poor choices based on misinformation and misreporting of the Ian Gawler Cancer Healing story. Truth is crucial for people whose lives hang in the balance. They must be able to  depend on accurate information. The least I can do is help Ian’s former wife Grace, tell it as she saw it – especially with regard to the role meditation and vegan diet played in his cure.

In the interest of truthful data so patients can make informed choices I offer the link to a discussion after Ian’s appearance on ABC TV- Compass _ A Good Life –

Pip Cornall

http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=87&m=8887&dm=1&pd=2&am=9137