Tag: stories that heal

Conquering Cancer – Survivor’s Secrets: Review – A Cancer Patient’s Companion Guide – Grace Gawler

Bob Ellal was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma four times in the early to mid-nineties (he’s been clear of cancer for 12 years)

Full Review of ‘Conquering Cancer—Survivor’s Secrets’- eBook by Bob Ellal

Bob Ellal was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma four times in the early to mid-nineties (he’s been clear of cancer for 12 years) and is well qualified as a reviewer for this eBook.

 Keep it simple. Hard to do when one is first diagnosed with cancer. Anxiety, fear, and stress flood the body, mind and spirit. One is confronted by sheer information overload revolving around one question:

Should I undergo traditional chemotherapy/radiation with its debilitating side effects—or check out the myriad alternative therapies that populate the Internet? What should I do?
One can become paralyzed into not taking action–which wastes valuable time and only adds to the stress of the diagnosis. And ultimately, stress is a killer. What’s the answer?

Grace Gawler Crossroads of recovery
crossroads of recovery

In “Conquering Cancer—Survivor’s Secrets,” Grace Gawler answers this question. Not with “miracle cures” or New Age notions of merely adopting a superficial positive attitude and everything will work out. “Conquering Cancer” takes a cancer patient to the alpha point: getting one’s mind, body and spirit in sync to cope with the diagnosis, and then getting a handle on the strategy for dealing with it. In other words, you have to get your head on straight before you can tackle the greatest challenge of your life.

Through her many years of consulting with over ten thousand cancer patients, she’s observed that there are three stages of acceptance that survivors process through:

  1. The Will to Live. Facing one’s mortality is terrifying. We all want to live—and the first reaction to a cancer diagnosis is to ask “Why me? Did I cause my cancer somehow?” And many never quite get rid of those sentiments—bells gonging in the back of the mind that continuously resurface to drown out one’s resolve.

 The survival mechanism kicks in and one declares: “I’m going to beat it by force of will.” The result is often a frenzied schedule of juicing, ingesting supplements and scurrying around to get information on the latest cure—which is mentally and physically exhausting and produces an immense amount of stress. Even people who use meditation and visualization get the attitude that they must “hurry up” to de-stress. Which causes more stress and defeats the purpose?

  1. Letting Go. One comes around to accepting the diagnosis, relaxes, takes a step back and lets go of anxiety and fear. The cancer patient faces his or her emotions, acknowledges them, then proceeds with the business of getting well—but without the anxiety and guilt. Perhaps patients join support groups and begin to relax enough to meditate and visualize not with hell-bent intent, but with awareness. The mind relaxes and the body relaxes, allowing one’s immune system to recalibrate and aid in the recovery process.
  2. Letting Be. At this stage, survivors realize that they are living with cancer; that it is a process they must work through. The striving and “sweating things out” are in the past—one achieves a degree of self-mastery of his or her own life. Not focusing on journey’s end, but each present moment. And ultimately living with cancer frees one from the bounds of the “nutshell of bad dreams” that poisons the present. A new positive attitude emerges that comes from an inner resilience—not an outward and superficial “happy face” that conceals one’s true fearful emotions.

  I recommend this book highly as the “alpha point” for anyone diagnosed with cancer. Realizing that cancer survival is a process will help patients “seize the day” and ultimately arrive at a positive omega point

Bob Ellals website is: http://www.bobellal.com/
Purchase your eBook copy of Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets at http://www.gracegawler.com/institute

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1y8QhnfKo8]

Conquering Cancer – Survivor's Secrets: Review – A Cancer Patient's Companion Guide – Grace Gawler

Bob Ellal was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma four times in the early to mid-nineties (he’s been clear of cancer for 12 years)

Full Review of ‘Conquering Cancer—Survivor’s Secrets’- eBook by Bob Ellal

Bob Ellal was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma four times in the early to mid-nineties (he’s been clear of cancer for 12 years) and is well qualified as a reviewer for this eBook.

 Keep it simple. Hard to do when one is first diagnosed with cancer. Anxiety, fear, and stress flood the body, mind and spirit. One is confronted by sheer information overload revolving around one question:

Should I undergo traditional chemotherapy/radiation with its debilitating side effects—or check out the myriad alternative therapies that populate the Internet? What should I do?
One can become paralyzed into not taking action–which wastes valuable time and only adds to the stress of the diagnosis. And ultimately, stress is a killer. What’s the answer?

Grace Gawler Crossroads of recovery
crossroads of recovery

In “Conquering Cancer—Survivor’s Secrets,” Grace Gawler answers this question. Not with “miracle cures” or New Age notions of merely adopting a superficial positive attitude and everything will work out. “Conquering Cancer” takes a cancer patient to the alpha point: getting one’s mind, body and spirit in sync to cope with the diagnosis, and then getting a handle on the strategy for dealing with it. In other words, you have to get your head on straight before you can tackle the greatest challenge of your life.

Through her many years of consulting with over ten thousand cancer patients, she’s observed that there are three stages of acceptance that survivors process through:

  1. The Will to Live. Facing one’s mortality is terrifying. We all want to live—and the first reaction to a cancer diagnosis is to ask “Why me? Did I cause my cancer somehow?” And many never quite get rid of those sentiments—bells gonging in the back of the mind that continuously resurface to drown out one’s resolve.

 The survival mechanism kicks in and one declares: “I’m going to beat it by force of will.” The result is often a frenzied schedule of juicing, ingesting supplements and scurrying around to get information on the latest cure—which is mentally and physically exhausting and produces an immense amount of stress. Even people who use meditation and visualization get the attitude that they must “hurry up” to de-stress. Which causes more stress and defeats the purpose?

  1. Letting Go. One comes around to accepting the diagnosis, relaxes, takes a step back and lets go of anxiety and fear. The cancer patient faces his or her emotions, acknowledges them, then proceeds with the business of getting well—but without the anxiety and guilt. Perhaps patients join support groups and begin to relax enough to meditate and visualize not with hell-bent intent, but with awareness. The mind relaxes and the body relaxes, allowing one’s immune system to recalibrate and aid in the recovery process.
  2. Letting Be. At this stage, survivors realize that they are living with cancer; that it is a process they must work through. The striving and “sweating things out” are in the past—one achieves a degree of self-mastery of his or her own life. Not focusing on journey’s end, but each present moment. And ultimately living with cancer frees one from the bounds of the “nutshell of bad dreams” that poisons the present. A new positive attitude emerges that comes from an inner resilience—not an outward and superficial “happy face” that conceals one’s true fearful emotions.

  I recommend this book highly as the “alpha point” for anyone diagnosed with cancer. Realizing that cancer survival is a process will help patients “seize the day” and ultimately arrive at a positive omega point

Bob Ellals website is: http://www.bobellal.com/
Purchase your eBook copy of Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets at http://www.gracegawler.com/institute

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1y8QhnfKo8]

Conquering Cancer with Grace – Grace Gawler’s New eBook

Please scroll below for sample pages and reviews from my new eBook
Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
The subject of this eBook is how you can learn to value-add to your recovery.

Cancer Survival
Conquering Cancer Survivor’s Secrets

For most of my working life I have investigated key elements that enable cancer patients to survive & thrive or prolong their life way beyond expectation. One theme that holds true for thousands of survivors and thrivers was their ability to use the experience of cancer to transform their lives in order to survive and thrive! In other words, losing your life in order to find your life!
When I began working in the field of cancer more than 35 years ago there was an appalling lack of information available for patients and caregivers – with no computers, the world was different place for the ‘seeker’ of options! The internet has brought wonderful additions such as access to this eBook technology, however, as a cancer patient, one click of a mouse; can instantly transport you to the world of confusion, information overload and elevated stress responses as you sift through the maze of ‘magic-bullet’ cancer cures. Information overload can generate fear, causing overwhelm or emotional paralysis due to too many options – too many things to do. This often goes hand in hand with financial stress caused by too many supplements and resources. It is a mine field for the uninitiated and unsuspecting cancer patient. Take care—scams abound!

As long as the focus stays just on alternative, complementary or orthodox medicine and various combinations of those modalities – there will remain suffering for patients and families. It is imperative that first-line humanistic medicine is incorporated to complete the holistic model. Health professionals need to play a part in creating a new paradigm of care for cancer patients. Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets is about that paradigm shift.

Read latest reviews 
Four-time cancer Survivor and author Bob Ellal has this to say about Conquering Cancer…
“I think it’s marvellous, extraordinary, as it approaches a cancer patient’s attitude on many levels. I think you’re spot on: that’s the starting point, and the continuous point. This is an important book as it advises people to discuss their emotions, acknowledge them, then get on with coping and perhaps finding ways to participate in their own recovery.  I would recommend this book highly as the ‘alpha point’ for anyone diagnosed with cancer. “

Jeff Hutner – New Paradigm Digest writes in his blog…
http://newparadigmdigest.com/5165/conquering-cancer-with-grace/

Sample read –  pp 63-65  – Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
 Establishing or re-Building Personal Boundaries

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps the most underestimated contributor to ill health in my three decades of experience is a person’s lack of clear and definite boundaries. Healthy boundaries are a very important part of our emotional health and our general wellbeing. Cancer patients or those with other enduring illness will inevitably need help with boundary issues.

 A boundary is a limit set by you either by past conditioning or by your empowered intention. These self-limits when established determine what is identified as self and what is identified as not self.

A boundary is also described as your ‘choice field’ where you choose who or what you let in and who or what you keep out. Others describe a boundary as a semi-permeable, invisible, resilient but flexible membrane that surrounds us. In its healthy state it bends and flexes as our mind decides what is healthy to allow into ‘our space’. An interesting analogy is that our cell walls perform the same function in protecting us from invaders and take-over bids by rogue cells!

Boundaries may have been learned or not learned in your family of origin or they may have been altered as you travelled through life. Boundaries can be non-existent and this is often the case with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) because when we become dispirited or separated out from life it will reflect in the way we deal with others and the illness itself. For example a patient who is feeling hopeless and helpless may give up because they feel daunted, fragile and boundary-less. This can be related to stage one in the three stages of healing model.
The opposite can also be the case where a patient builds solid ‘emotional walls’ in order to survive—for example resilient coping when the patient pushes on, declining help from others. Whatever way the pendulum has swung, learning to create or recreate healthy boundaries has huge benefits in how we live our life.

 When you cannot contain your own energy within your own boundaries or limits then others can become personal ‘space invaders’ Patients have described this as a sense all the energy just bleeding out of them. Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy was aware of this phenomenon and often told clients to “beware of the vibe suckers!” These he said are the people who can invade ‘your space’, and if you were feeling good beforehand, once they leave, you feel spent and drained. In that situation, an unhealthy energy exchange has just taken place between the two of you.
Many patients tell me they feel as if they have ‘disappeared’ when consulting with their oncologist. This is not a good time for absence of boundaries and is often the source of many miscommunications between doctors and patients. I cannot over emphasise the importance of taking a scribe or recording a consultation with the oncologist’s permission of course. Later make notes and listen and re-listen, ask questions before making decisions.

How to identify your boundaries or lack of them and the boundaries of those around you?
If you have healthy boundaries you will be an empowered person who knows and speaks their mind, has self-mastery, charisma and can very politely say “no” and mean it without feeling guilty. As well you will not merge or get over-involved in the affairs of others so that you take on their problems in a personal way. Your relationships will build respect and an ease with being direct.

If you have a boundary issue you will notice:   

  1.  Fatigue and the associated energy drain when under challenge or with others. This is a major signal that boundaries are fragile and vulnerable. This is often experienced where there are power struggles and control issues in relationships.
  2.  Indecision, inability to focus, forgetfulness and excessive daydreaming.
  3.  If you have been trying to meditate: attempts are often thwarted as you tend towards drifting, falling asleep or feeling scattered and overwhelmed. There is often a feeling of being drained or jumpy after meditation rather than feeling energised.
  4. There are often feelings of “being beside yourself”, disconnected, numbed and feeling as if one is functioning on automatic pilot.
  5.  You can become overwhelmed when under pressure or for some people so walled off that they become unreachable.

The issue of boundaries could fill an entire book – however if you see yourself in these few pages, there are some self-help steps you can take, but there is no substitute for seeking therapy such as professional help of a counsellor, psychotherapist or psychologist.

To purchase your eBook copy – Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
Please visit my online shop at www.gracegawler.com or www.gracegawler.com/institute

Conquering Cancer with Grace – Grace Gawler's New eBook

Please scroll below for sample pages and reviews from my new eBook
Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
The subject of this eBook is how you can learn to value-add to your recovery.

Cancer Survival
Conquering Cancer Survivor’s Secrets

For most of my working life I have investigated key elements that enable cancer patients to survive & thrive or prolong their life way beyond expectation. One theme that holds true for thousands of survivors and thrivers was their ability to use the experience of cancer to transform their lives in order to survive and thrive! In other words, losing your life in order to find your life!
When I began working in the field of cancer more than 35 years ago there was an appalling lack of information available for patients and caregivers – with no computers, the world was different place for the ‘seeker’ of options! The internet has brought wonderful additions such as access to this eBook technology, however, as a cancer patient, one click of a mouse; can instantly transport you to the world of confusion, information overload and elevated stress responses as you sift through the maze of ‘magic-bullet’ cancer cures. Information overload can generate fear, causing overwhelm or emotional paralysis due to too many options – too many things to do. This often goes hand in hand with financial stress caused by too many supplements and resources. It is a mine field for the uninitiated and unsuspecting cancer patient. Take care—scams abound!

As long as the focus stays just on alternative, complementary or orthodox medicine and various combinations of those modalities – there will remain suffering for patients and families. It is imperative that first-line humanistic medicine is incorporated to complete the holistic model. Health professionals need to play a part in creating a new paradigm of care for cancer patients. Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets is about that paradigm shift.

Read latest reviews 
Four-time cancer Survivor and author Bob Ellal has this to say about Conquering Cancer…
“I think it’s marvellous, extraordinary, as it approaches a cancer patient’s attitude on many levels. I think you’re spot on: that’s the starting point, and the continuous point. This is an important book as it advises people to discuss their emotions, acknowledge them, then get on with coping and perhaps finding ways to participate in their own recovery.  I would recommend this book highly as the ‘alpha point’ for anyone diagnosed with cancer. “

Jeff Hutner – New Paradigm Digest writes in his blog…
http://newparadigmdigest.com/5165/conquering-cancer-with-grace/

Sample read –  pp 63-65  – Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
 Establishing or re-Building Personal Boundaries

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps the most underestimated contributor to ill health in my three decades of experience is a person’s lack of clear and definite boundaries. Healthy boundaries are a very important part of our emotional health and our general wellbeing. Cancer patients or those with other enduring illness will inevitably need help with boundary issues.

 A boundary is a limit set by you either by past conditioning or by your empowered intention. These self-limits when established determine what is identified as self and what is identified as not self.

A boundary is also described as your ‘choice field’ where you choose who or what you let in and who or what you keep out. Others describe a boundary as a semi-permeable, invisible, resilient but flexible membrane that surrounds us. In its healthy state it bends and flexes as our mind decides what is healthy to allow into ‘our space’. An interesting analogy is that our cell walls perform the same function in protecting us from invaders and take-over bids by rogue cells!

Boundaries may have been learned or not learned in your family of origin or they may have been altered as you travelled through life. Boundaries can be non-existent and this is often the case with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) because when we become dispirited or separated out from life it will reflect in the way we deal with others and the illness itself. For example a patient who is feeling hopeless and helpless may give up because they feel daunted, fragile and boundary-less. This can be related to stage one in the three stages of healing model.
The opposite can also be the case where a patient builds solid ‘emotional walls’ in order to survive—for example resilient coping when the patient pushes on, declining help from others. Whatever way the pendulum has swung, learning to create or recreate healthy boundaries has huge benefits in how we live our life.

 When you cannot contain your own energy within your own boundaries or limits then others can become personal ‘space invaders’ Patients have described this as a sense all the energy just bleeding out of them. Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy was aware of this phenomenon and often told clients to “beware of the vibe suckers!” These he said are the people who can invade ‘your space’, and if you were feeling good beforehand, once they leave, you feel spent and drained. In that situation, an unhealthy energy exchange has just taken place between the two of you.
Many patients tell me they feel as if they have ‘disappeared’ when consulting with their oncologist. This is not a good time for absence of boundaries and is often the source of many miscommunications between doctors and patients. I cannot over emphasise the importance of taking a scribe or recording a consultation with the oncologist’s permission of course. Later make notes and listen and re-listen, ask questions before making decisions.

How to identify your boundaries or lack of them and the boundaries of those around you?
If you have healthy boundaries you will be an empowered person who knows and speaks their mind, has self-mastery, charisma and can very politely say “no” and mean it without feeling guilty. As well you will not merge or get over-involved in the affairs of others so that you take on their problems in a personal way. Your relationships will build respect and an ease with being direct.

If you have a boundary issue you will notice:   

  1.  Fatigue and the associated energy drain when under challenge or with others. This is a major signal that boundaries are fragile and vulnerable. This is often experienced where there are power struggles and control issues in relationships.
  2.  Indecision, inability to focus, forgetfulness and excessive daydreaming.
  3.  If you have been trying to meditate: attempts are often thwarted as you tend towards drifting, falling asleep or feeling scattered and overwhelmed. There is often a feeling of being drained or jumpy after meditation rather than feeling energised.
  4. There are often feelings of “being beside yourself”, disconnected, numbed and feeling as if one is functioning on automatic pilot.
  5.  You can become overwhelmed when under pressure or for some people so walled off that they become unreachable.

The issue of boundaries could fill an entire book – however if you see yourself in these few pages, there are some self-help steps you can take, but there is no substitute for seeking therapy such as professional help of a counsellor, psychotherapist or psychologist.

To purchase your eBook copy – Conquering Cancer – Survivors Secrets
Please visit my online shop at www.gracegawler.com or www.gracegawler.com/institute

Grace Gawler’s Story – Grace, Grit and Gratitude – A Memoir

Appreciation –  Olivia Newton John – thank you for allowing me to use such apt and beautiful track for this video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS1ZYnDGIRI]

Grace, Grit and Gratitude is a story of courage and survival through repeated and horrendous adversity, my own life-threatening condition that required 20 surgical procedures, the effects of separtion/divorce when ill then coping with a teenage family and facing the prospect of imminent demise. I have also recorded in the book an accurate account of my shared time with Ian Gawler – when I was his prime 24/7 caregiver at the age of 21. 
At that time I had little awareness of how life would unfold and that I would become so intimately became involved in a very famous cancer recovery story. 

Caregivers: It is rather unfortunate that Ian has played down the care-givers role in his recovery…A few years ago one Abc radio interviewer Melbourne 774 introduced Ian as the man who single-handedly conquered cancer. I had hoped Ian would correct the statement – but he did not. Little media time is given to caregivers…. honest acknowledgement of the efforts and unseen (and often unspoken challenges) that caregivers experience. We are often invisibilised – but our contributions to humanity and care are essential in a community. When Ian was very ill – at his most critical point  – it was not diet or meditation or lifestyle that pulled him through his darkest night of the soul – but love, compassion, proactivity, faith, hope and belief of his caregiver.

In an article in Woman’s Day in the late 70’s Dr Ainslie Meares praised Grace Gawler for her part in helping her husband to live. He said, “The support he had from her first as his girlfriend and later as his wife, has been very remarkable. She is very sensitive to his needs and feelings and has spent hours and hours massaging him and helping him with his meditation.”
Ian Gawler backs that. “I had to battle against negativity a fair bit, especially early in the piece, when I was so sick. But there was never anything negative about Grace. She would always give me a good old kick in the pants and get me going again. I am very fortunate to have her.”

More than 3 decades have passed since Ian Gawler was told he was clear of cancer. We were together for 23 years –  had 4 children during that time, co founded the Gawler Foundation and created the Yarra Valley Living Centre. In 1997 Ian left the family, we then divorced and he later married Dr Ruth Gawler  – a GP who now works at the Gawler foundation and assists Ian with his private seminar and merchandising company. Ian retired this year.
Our story that led to Ian’s recovery was complex and once it had been made public we carried the extra responsibility of making sure that it was told accurately and truthfully. As Dr Linda Calbresi from The Australian Doctor magazine recently wrote: ‘ we had
Recently the Australian  published an article based on a refute letter that I had written to the Medical Journal of Australia after belatedly coming across a rewrite of Ian’s story in that journal…a version that was full of clinical time-line errors, non factual material and some serious omissions. The MJA published this version December 11 2008 under the banner of “True Stories” and although the patient was not named in the article, it was clearly Ian. It was a  former patient that alerted me to the story after she had seen it reproduced on the Gawler Foundation’s website…she was sure that some of the information was not correct especially the reference to Ian having strictly adhered to a vegan diet. As a recovered patient herself who had attended our earlier programs – she was surprised to read this because she Little did she know that this error was just the tip of the iceberg.

References:

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/first-wife-disputes-cancer-guru-ian-gawlers-survival-story/story-e6frg8y6-1225935666765

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/189_11_011208/jel11032Cancer
Authors: Dr Ruth Gawler & Prof George Jelinek

Source: 

 http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/50/0c06d750.asp

In an article in Woman’s Day in the late 70’s

Ian Gawler backs that. “I had to battle against negativity a fair bit, especially early in the piece, when I was so sick. But there was never anything negative about Grace. She would always give me a good old kick in the pants and get me going again. I am very fortunate to have her.”

Grace Gawler's Story – Grace, Grit and Gratitude – A Memoir

Appreciation –  Olivia Newton John – thank you for allowing me to use such apt and beautiful track for this video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS1ZYnDGIRI]

Grace, Grit and Gratitude is a story of courage and survival through repeated and horrendous adversity, my own life-threatening condition that required 20 surgical procedures, the effects of separtion/divorce when ill then coping with a teenage family and facing the prospect of imminent demise. I have also recorded in the book an accurate account of my shared time with Ian Gawler – when I was his prime 24/7 caregiver at the age of 21. 
At that time I had little awareness of how life would unfold and that I would become so intimately became involved in a very famous cancer recovery story. 

Caregivers: It is rather unfortunate that Ian has played down the care-givers role in his recovery…A few years ago one Abc radio interviewer Melbourne 774 introduced Ian as the man who single-handedly conquered cancer. I had hoped Ian would correct the statement – but he did not. Little media time is given to caregivers…. honest acknowledgement of the efforts and unseen (and often unspoken challenges) that caregivers experience. We are often invisibilised – but our contributions to humanity and care are essential in a community. When Ian was very ill – at his most critical point  – it was not diet or meditation or lifestyle that pulled him through his darkest night of the soul – but love, compassion, proactivity, faith, hope and belief of his caregiver.

In an article in Woman’s Day in the late 70’s Dr Ainslie Meares praised Grace Gawler for her part in helping her husband to live. He said, “The support he had from her first as his girlfriend and later as his wife, has been very remarkable. She is very sensitive to his needs and feelings and has spent hours and hours massaging him and helping him with his meditation.”
Ian Gawler backs that. “I had to battle against negativity a fair bit, especially early in the piece, when I was so sick. But there was never anything negative about Grace. She would always give me a good old kick in the pants and get me going again. I am very fortunate to have her.”

More than 3 decades have passed since Ian Gawler was told he was clear of cancer. We were together for 23 years –  had 4 children during that time, co founded the Gawler Foundation and created the Yarra Valley Living Centre. In 1997 Ian left the family, we then divorced and he later married Dr Ruth Gawler  – a GP who now works at the Gawler foundation and assists Ian with his private seminar and merchandising company. Ian retired this year.
Our story that led to Ian’s recovery was complex and once it had been made public we carried the extra responsibility of making sure that it was told accurately and truthfully. As Dr Linda Calbresi from The Australian Doctor magazine recently wrote: ‘ we had
Recently the Australian  published an article based on a refute letter that I had written to the Medical Journal of Australia after belatedly coming across a rewrite of Ian’s story in that journal…a version that was full of clinical time-line errors, non factual material and some serious omissions. The MJA published this version December 11 2008 under the banner of “True Stories” and although the patient was not named in the article, it was clearly Ian. It was a  former patient that alerted me to the story after she had seen it reproduced on the Gawler Foundation’s website…she was sure that some of the information was not correct especially the reference to Ian having strictly adhered to a vegan diet. As a recovered patient herself who had attended our earlier programs – she was surprised to read this because she Little did she know that this error was just the tip of the iceberg.

References:

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/first-wife-disputes-cancer-guru-ian-gawlers-survival-story/story-e6frg8y6-1225935666765

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/189_11_011208/jel11032Cancer
Authors: Dr Ruth Gawler & Prof George Jelinek

Source: 

 http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/50/0c06d750.asp

In an article in Woman’s Day in the late 70’s

Ian Gawler backs that. “I had to battle against negativity a fair bit, especially early in the piece, when I was so sick. But there was never anything negative about Grace. She would always give me a good old kick in the pants and get me going again. I am very fortunate to have her.”

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 An opportunity to explain MJA errors

Visit www.gracegawler.com or http://gracegawler.com/Institute/
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. The MJA took a total of one year to deliberate on the facts I had provided before publishing my refute article.  Fortunately I had kept original photos and documents that prove my case.  You can view my refute letter by selecting the link below:
‘Patients at Risk from Inaccurate Clinical Reporting in a High-Profile Story: Comment and Corrections’ 20 September 2010 MJA Volume 193 Number 6 20 September 2010- pp371-372 http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/193_06_200910/letters_200910_fm-1.html
Recently I met with Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke whose daughter Monique tragically died last year from advanced secondary breast cancer. A believer in natural therapies approaches to cancer, she avidly read self-help books and used natural therapies to alleviate her cancer symptoms for some time. She did not believe in mammograms. By the time she reached hospital – it was too late. Devastating for loving parents to endure.
The Satori case from Perth reported in the Australian newspaper last Saturday is another chilling report and a tip of the iceberg in alternative cures for cancer that are flooding the community! 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cancer-patient-smelled-of-spices/story-e6frg6nf-1225948551756
Over the past few years I have seen an alarming increase in emaciated and debilitated cancer patients on vegan diets – some while on chemotherapy and others who have been following the natural therapies path. I have seen in my practice some shocking tumour masses befitting 3rd world countries where treatments are not available. The Cancer Council reported the following in an article by Jill Stark March 2010 the Melbourne AGE: Continue reading “The Gawler Foundation Conference An opportunity to explain MJA errors”

Tips From a Four-Time Cancer Survivor-Grace Gawler Reports

A regular visitor to my blog, Bob Ellal has a website and a true story worth reading. Bob’s remission was hard-earned – now 12 years after being diagnosed with stage four lymphoma in 1991 he was given six months to live. He read everything he could about people who had survived supposedly terminal illnesses. One common thread emerged— says Bob: “They utilized the mind/body connection as a complement to Western allopathic treatment. For the next six months, I was given double doses of CHOP chemotherapy to destroy the rampant disease that littered my pelvis—and that had fractured my hip.” Bob incorporated visualisation methods  into his his cancer treatment program.
He adds: “At the end of six months, against all odds, I was cancer free. My oncologist was shocked. But over the following five years the lymphoma cancer would return three times.” 
Few books and websites mention the challenge of dealing with setbacks and their psychological affect on patients. Bob’s shares the strategies that assisted him during these times and his spirit of survival shines through as he partners with allopathic medicine and CAM to achieve the best result possible – his survival! I recommend a visit to Bob’s website and his book for anyone going through cancer – particularly men. The book is insightful, inspiring, candid and oozes with honesty of someone who has walked the path, battled the adversities and not given in. Highly recommended! Visit Bob’s website for a great read about cancer survival. You can read sections of his book online for free as well as ordering online. the book is available for download on Smashwords for free. It’s also on Kindle for $2.99 or in hard copy. 
http://www.bobellal.com

Gawler Diet – Vegan, Raw, the Gerson Diet? Grace Gawler Comments

Last Saturday I was asked to give an impromptu talk and join a panel Q&A session at a health & wellness seminar on the Gold Coast. It was an excellent information afternoon and clearly demonstrated both the general public’s interest and confusion around natural therapies, supplements and self-help methods. Inevitably, at these functions, questions about raw food and vegan diets for cancer patients along with questions about the Gerson Diet are asked. Participants at these days are often surprised when I answer that in the majority of cases, I have not seen cancer patients respond well to raw food diets – especially vegan raw food diets. As well, although cases of remission have been reported; personally, I have not seen remissions brought about by the Gerson Therapy or raw food regimens. Because my name is Gawler, people always ask me about raw foods and the many dietary approaches used to ‘cure’ cancer. 
Many ask me about Ian Gawler’s recovery from cancer often having been told by a health professional that his remission was due to meditation, positive thinking and adhering to a vegan diet. These stories are not accurate, and when taken out of context and without the whole story; they can be dangerously misleading.

February 1976

Ian’s recovery involved so much more; however like a ‘Chinese whisper game’, this amazing recovery story which occupied more than 23 years of my life has been so often misreported, even by the Gawler Foundation itself – that it is no wonder so many cancer patients are confused.   Continue reading “Gawler Diet – Vegan, Raw, the Gerson Diet? Grace Gawler Comments”

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