Beating the Silence Again Grace Gawler

In 2007 Katherine Kizilos wrote a feature article for the Age newspaper Melbourne. The article begins…” She survived her husband’s illness only to fall prey herself to disease but Katherine Kizilos finds that Grace Gawler used the experience to launch a new life.”Gawler is a name familiar to those who want

Photo : The Mebourne Age

to believe the human spirit conquers disease. Ian Gawler lost his leg to bone cancer but not his life and with wife Grace established in 1981 Australia’s first cancer support service, the Gawler Foundation. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE

My life has had a theme of  issues pertaining to silence – holding silence where appropriate, and breaking silence when essential!

My book Women of Silence (1994) was the first to open doors of communication surrounding breast cancer and emotional recovery – a little spoken of issue in those days; it formed the basis of breast cancer support groups in Australia.
Katherine Kizilos’ 2007 article  after more than 2 decades of silence was the first article to publicly raise the the issue of Ian Gawler’s remission from cancer being in some way associated with tuberculosis – a very important scientific connection to make in the interest of cancer patients. An opportunity to discuss this important topic resurfaced in 2010 when the (MJA) Medical Journal of Australia published my refute letter in response to an incorrect version of Ian’s recovery story that appeared in the MJA in December 2008, under the title “True Stories”. But then – more silence…. with most newspaper medical reporters refusing to comment, with one exception! Continue reading “Beating the Silence Again Grace Gawler”

Beating the Silence – The Age 2007 – Grace Gawler's Return of Media Presence

By Pip Cornall

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.

VIDEO- WOMEN OF SILENCE

Max Awarenness: Video – Women of Silence – An interview with Grace Gawler on Breast Cancer and Emotional healing.

THE EMOTIONAL HEALING OF BREAST CANCER - $25.00

Beating the Silence – The Age 2007 – Grace Gawler’s Return of Media Presence

By Pip Cornall

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.

VIDEO- WOMEN OF SILENCE

Max Awarenness: Video – Women of Silence – An interview with Grace Gawler on Breast Cancer and Emotional healing.

THE EMOTIONAL HEALING OF BREAST CANCER - $25.00