Review
What do you do when you are informed out of the blue that you have cancer and that unless chemotherapy is started immediately you will die within months? Many people would panic but not Michael Gearin-Tosh. A 54-year-old Oxford lecturer and lifelong procrastinator, he spent weeks consulting different specialists, medical journals and papers, receiving conflicting opinions as to whether he should have chemotherapy. All agreed on one thing - that there was no cure for his myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow), only treatment. Yet one specialist stated unequivocally that if he touched chemotherapy he would be 'a goner'. Diagnosed in June, the author finally decides to start chemotherapy at the end of August. He then swiftly reverses this decision on receiving a tape from an American specialist on 'The Metabolic Approach to Cancer Therapy'. Going against the advice of a world authority on myeloma who states it's crucial to start chemo at once, he embarks instead on a strenuous regime derived from the radical Gerson treatment: detoxification, juicing and coffee enemas, backed up by injections of liver juice, acupuncture and Chinese bone breathing exercises. Blessed with a seemingly endless cornucopia of friends, the author is helped both by their continuing research and practical support and by his own enormous discipline and determination. He does have his despair and black days but doesn't dwell on them. Given a prognosis of at best, two to three years, he is still alive - without chemotherapy - eight years later. Gearon-Tosh asks: 'Are people who refuse treatment 'crazy' as doctors have written? Or would chemotherapy have killed me by now?' This isn't a book with all the answers and he doesn't claim his route would be right for everyone. It has raised a vociferous raft of criticism, underlining not only the deep divisions between alternative and orthodox medicine but the terrible predicament of patients who must choose between them. The book emphasizes how very little is still known about the workings of the human body. It reveals something of the complexity of cancer research and discusses a possible paradigm shift in the growing recognition that our emotions are inseparable from our physiology. The writing is lucid, often lightly humorous and pitches up interesting insights along the way from such diverse sources as Vaclav Havel, Chekhov and Queen Elizabeth I. A full case history of the patient is included, together with details of his treatment. Given that cancer now touches so many of our families and friends, this is a book that everyone should have on their shelf. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
At the age of 54, Michael Gearin-Tosh discovered he had bone marrow cancer. This is the story of his quest to manage and overcome his illness; his determination to not to be coerced into joining programmes of invasive treatments; and his resolve to stand up to the NHS, specialists and colleagues who encouraged him to follow the conventional route as a cancer patient. The author selected a number of regimes and devised his own routine and diets, and six years on he still survives, despite being told he should "expect to die soon". This is not a "how-to" book, but an account of one man's quest to listen to his inner voice of intuition.