A determination to tell the accurate version about Australia’s most famous recovered cancer patient, Ian Gawler, and to uphold ethical standards for therapists at the Gawler Foundation she co-directed, have cost Grace Gawler dearly.
Few people knew what happened when Grace Gawler disappeared from the Gawler Foundation along with her regular media appearances. Horrendously ill just days after her marriage abruptly ended, she found herself in the position of many of her patients. But unbelievably she was without support! With three children at home her financial struggle now began and her survival was severely threatened. Remarkably even twenty severe surgeries over the next 13 years and compromised finances has not damaged her spirit and has only empowered her work with cancer patients. This test in overcoming adversity enabled her to ‘walk a mile in cancer patients shoes.’
In the short space of time immediately post marriage, all forms of adversity slammed Grace. Soon, even her best selling book, Women of Silence, had its contract rescinded and copyright returned. Next, Grace found herself silenced by the media in Australia. In contrasts, while visiting overseas for life saving operations between 2002 -5, Grace experienced no such media silence and lectured in England, Ireland, and Holland to full and enthusiastic audiences.
Beating the Silence in The Age, 2007, was the only significant media coverage Grace has been able to secure since leaving the Gawler Foundation until the recent Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) 2010 article and somewhat sensationalized coverage in the Australian on Frid, 8, 2010. The Age article, Beating the Silence tells more of Grace’s remarkable journey.
As Hemingway said …’Courage is Grace under pressure’ Nothing could be more accurate about Grace’s tenacity over decades to correct inaccurate versions of the story she was so intimately involved win. The driving force was a moral imperative that cancer patients need accurate information on which to make treatment decisions.
Grace Gawler, a vegetarian from age five, went on to work in a veterinary clinic while still at junior high school. Thus the vegetarian interested in health and natural treatments became grounded in science, pathology, bio-chemistry, anatomy and so on. She had a desire for all things natural including an interest in natural cures for cancer in animals. Over the years, when appropriate, she experimented with natural medicine as a complement to conventional veterinary treatments. Eventually she concluded that both systems of medicine need to be utilized for the best outcome. Thus was born her integrative approach.
It followed that Grace’s cancer work, which began when her boyfriend, Ian Gawler, lost his leg to bone cancer, was a blend of both forms of medicine – conventional and alternative. Now with 35 years of cancer experience behind her, Grace describes her work as integrated cancer support medicine and is known for this stance within the medical community.
But not every cancer practitioner practices integrative medicine – there is still too much ‘either/or’ medicine. So what is needed to end the polarization between the cancer healing medicines? This is a topic we’ll be tackling in our new Grace Gawler Institute for Integrated cancer Solutions. Continue reading “Integrated Cancer Medicine requires Integrated Participants – part 2”
Although a tad sensational with an image of quarreling wives – Adam Cresswell has written a courageous article that reflects the truth of Australia’s most famous cancer remission story.
To be 100% clear, this is not personal in any shape or form. What has happened over the years is a morphing and misreporting of Ian Gawler’s story so that it resembles virtually nothing of the truth of what actually occurred. The story is still amazing and it still offers hope – but there is a public responsibility to tell it accurately. I addressed these errors in the MJA 20 September 2010.
I believe that sound nutrition is important for cancer patients and I have always taught the balanced view both when I was at the Gawler Foundation and since. Many suffer gross malnutrition from bizarre diets; especially vegan diets. The more advanced the cancer – the sicker the patient can become. I also endorse the practice of relaxation therapies – but extending meditation into a curative form as proposed in the MJA 2008 version of the story is simply not responsible. Continue reading “Grace Gawler – The Medical Journal of Australia article reported in the Australian by Adam Cresswell”
By Pip Cornall – Grace and Ian Gawler worked as a close knit team for three years to achieve his famous remission from bone cancer in 1978. This was remarkable in those days.
BUT – from the moment the first incorrect telling of their story appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) followed by an article in the Adelaide Advertiser – THINGS went from bad to worse. The MJA article gave it credibility.
The victims were the myriads of cancer patients who tried to emulate the incorrect version – namely that meditation and vegan diet cured his bone cancer after all other conventional treatments failed. Grace was deeply concerned that the story she was intimately involved in had been so misreported.
Over the decades the volumes of cancer patients following the ‘myth’ grew because of massive media coverage. Grace tried to set the record straight but the media refused to tell her story.
NOW – 32 years later – The Australian, the nations primary newspaper, has run her corrected account of their cancer healing story – albeit as papers do – somewhat sensationalized – portrayed as a fight between wives.
Nevertheless – Grace is elated – the truth is finally told – it is not personal – it is a moral neccessity to tell the correct story. Because the story was incorrect from the outset oncologists and practitioners like Grace have to pick up the pieces when emaciated, immune compromised patients limp in to our practices after extreme diets and long meditations have failed – the time spent in ‘experimenting with such ‘alternative’ treatments is critical because all the while the cancer spreads – click here to read the article.
Chapters of Grace’s self published book – Grace Grit and Gratitude are available in past posts on this site – they detail what actually happened
For more information see www.gracegawler.com – press media kit
By Pip Cornall – Grace and Ian Gawler worked as a close knit team for three years to achieve his famous remission from bone cancer in 1978. This was remarkable in those days.
BUT – from the moment the first incorrect telling of their story appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) followed by an article in the Adelaide Advertiser – THINGS went from bad to worse. The MJA article gave it credibility.
The victims were the myriads of cancer patients who tried to emulate the incorrect version – namely that meditation and vegan diet cured his bone cancer after all other conventional treatments failed. Grace was deeply concerned that the story she was intimately involved in had been so misreported.
Over the decades the volumes of cancer patients following the ‘myth’ grew because of massive media coverage. Grace tried to set the record straight but the media refused to tell her story.
NOW – 32 years later – The Australian, the nations primary newspaper, has run her corrected account of their cancer healing story – albeit as papers do – somewhat sensationalized – portrayed as a fight between wives.
Nevertheless – Grace is elated – the truth is finally told – it is not personal – it is a moral neccessity to tell the correct story. Because the story was incorrect from the outset oncologists and practitioners like Grace have to pick up the pieces when emaciated, immune compromised patients limp in to our practices after extreme diets and long meditations have failed – the time spent in ‘experimenting with such ‘alternative’ treatments is critical because all the while the cancer spreads – click here to read the article.
Chapters of Grace’s self published book – Grace Grit and Gratitude are available in past posts on this site – they detail what actually happened
For more information see www.gracegawler.com – press media kit
By Pip Cornall – extracts from Grace Gawler’s memoirs – Grace, Grit and Gratitude – self published 2008 – are available on my blog
Grace wrote the book to ‘To Tell the True Story’ that the media would not publish – free downloads available on Google Books
Ainslie Meares 1978 Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) article gave medical authority to the inference that mediation cured Ian Gawler’s bone cancer after conventional treatments failed. Grace Gawler’s 2010 MJA article proves he and another 2008 MJA article inverted timelines – to make it appear meditation and a vegan diet cured his cancer. Grace shows, with photo evidence they both got it wrong! Click here
By Pip Cornall – extracts from Grace Gawler’s memoirs – Grace, Grit and Gratitude – self published 2008 – are available on my blog
Grace wrote the book to ‘To Tell the True Story’ that the media would not publish – free downloads available on Google Books
Ainslie Meares 1978 Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) article gave medical authority to the inference that mediation cured Ian Gawler’s bone cancer after conventional treatments failed. Grace Gawler’s 2010 MJA article proves he and another 2008 MJA article inverted timelines – to make it appear meditation and a vegan diet cured his cancer. Grace shows, with photo evidence they both got it wrong! Click here
The following extracts from my memoirs Grace, Grit and Gratitude (self-published Oct 2008) aims to set right the long held concept that meditation and a vegan diet played a major role in Ian Gawler’s cancer cure.
For many years I have been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to correct published accounts of our story, however the true story as revealed, may hold many more possibilities, inspiration and research options for those going through the cancer experience.
To clarify, Ian first saw Ainslie Meares 12 December 1975 – when a bony metastasis was diagnosed in his right groin. Ian spent 6 weeks under Meares meditation directives – deteriorating significantly during that time; so much so that we abandoned his groups and his technique; choosing to explore other options. There has been much confusion about this point because in 1978 Meares erroneously reported Ian’s medical history, distorting the timeline and making it appear that Ian had attended his sessions when his cancer was widespread. Many may have seen the now famous pictures first published in You Can Conquer Cancer. These are not pictures taken when Ian first saw Meares (Dec 1975) but were taken July 1977 – 19 months after he first saw Meares. At that time Ian was quite well – but was carrying an enormous tumour load.
Meditation and diet had not impacted the cancer growth – but perhaps there was a silent healer within; unknown to us until Ian’s remission June 30 1978. More about that later.
In brief Meares’ error has provided the foundation for the volumes of misreporting of Ian Gawler’s remission.
February 1976:
Regarding Meditation-From my memoirs
“…..Ian and I knew how bad it was ‘24-7’, and that he would soon die meditating if we did not do something else, so that day marked the ending of our formal relationship with Ainslie Meares. I did not see him again, but Ian kept in touch with him from time-to-time.
While meditation is a wonderful tool that supports patients in many ways, it did not play the most significant role in Ian’s remission. How do I know? Simply because I was there, I was present before, during and after his cancer and believe my view to be accurate. During our darkest days when Ian’s prognosis was two to three weeks to live, an emaciated, pain riddled and rapidly deteriorating Ian kept hoping that Meares’ technique would be the turning point.
Our lives became a hellish continuum of sleepless nights, enemas and eventually morphine when the pain was beyond the pail. Weeks passed and as he tried and tried to meditate, day by day he became immobile, more ill and in greater pain such that I had to confront Meares on the ‘just keep meditating’ issue.
Ian had followed reluctantly but he knew that although meditation was helping him spiritually, it was not having the desired affects physically. He so much wanted to believe that meditation could cure; but the facts spoke for themselves; his condition was deteriorating at an alarming speed and had we not tried out other treatments at that time; he would certainly have died.
Ian in Philippines March 1976
We went on to discover the pathways of acupuncture and alternative medicine with a qualified general practitioner, which thankfully brought the first small window of pain relief. Ian’s pain had clearly become his disease and while it continued, he deteriorated so that all other therapies apart from large doses of love had little benefit. His pain absorbed every ounce of energy he had so that there was nothing left to assist his healing.”
After Ian’s remission in 1978:
PP 218-219 Grace, Grit and Gratitude
“An article that appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia saw our lives take a dramatic turn when a wave of media mayhem began due to an article titled ‘Regression of Osteogenic Sarcoma Associated with Intensive Meditation’ that appeared in The Medical Journal of Australia. (October 21, 1978)
The report summarized our healing journey in a few paragraphs and came as a complete surprise to me—I had not known about the release and publication, and felt flabbergasted by its content. The article begins “The patient aged 25 underwent a mid thigh amputation for osteogenic sarcoma, 11 months before he first saw me 21/2 years ago. He had visible bony lumps of about 2 cm in diameter growing from ribs, sternum and the crest of the ileum, and was coughing up small quantities of blood in which he said he could feel small spicules of bone…. etc.”
The article caused a media sensation, proposing a link between intensive meditation and remission of Ian’s cancer. However, as I was an intimate part of Ian’s cancer journey from the beginning and his sole carer, I could not make any sense of Meares’ version of our story.
Throughout Ian’s journey, I had documented and kept photographic records. My memories as the person who carried the daily loads during Ian’s illness were vivid, and I have no doubt that Ian’s history would have turned out differently, had we not moved on and incorporated other therapies other than meditation. I believe, as did doctors at the time, that his obituary, rather than an abstract about his recovery would have followed, had we not visited the Philippines. The supportive care, faith and love in action that we found there, inspired Ian; reconnecting him with his will to live, no doubt an element that helped him to survive.
I felt a weighing disappointment inside my body as I read the published case report, as if someone had reached into my chest and ripped out my heart. It was too late, our arduous healing journey now broadcast to the media, was an unacceptable misrepresentation that no doubt would be difficult to correct. I was angry that no one had consulted or informed me about the appearance of the abstract nor given the opportunity to review it before publication. I did not know what to do when our efforts were misreported and trivialised. Torn between acquiescence and accuracy, I had an ethical crisis. It was too late!
As predicted, the media soon ran the meditation cures cancer story while I became a voice lost in the wilderness. My concern was for the cancer population and their carers, a desperate group I had come to know well. I knew that patients and partners would try to replicate our story and I knew the unspoken hardships and pitfalls they would endure if they tried to assume our roles. Without our veterinary/medical knowledge, we could not have managed our situation—nor could we have made the crucial choices required when let down by therapy after therapy that failed us. More coming soon….
In Grace’s 35 years of cancer work she has seen increasing numbers of farmer patients and their wives with pesticide and heavy metal residues proven by diagnostic tests (blood, urine, hair analysis). Many of them have become cancer patients. So the article from Biological Farmers of Australia website is a great reminder to revise our interest in organic farming and eat like our grandparents ate – pesticide free.
Buy Organic for 20 good reasons:
1. Reduce chemical runoff and residues in drinking water, waterways and coastal areas. Runoff is the main cause of diminishing marine life, animals and plants. Approximately 30 000 tonnes of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators are used each year in Australia (OzProspect, 2003).
2. Restore soils for productive cropland and secure the future of Australian agriculture. Forty-eight per cent of Australian croplands have topsoils that are marginally acidic or worse (Land & Water Australia, 2001). Organic farming systems are based on the principle of land and soil regeneration and best environmental practice. Continue reading “Buy Organic for 20 good reasons – Biological Farmers of Australia”
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”
