"a brain and some shoes are essential for marathon success, although if it comes down to a choice, pick the shoes. More people finish marathons with no brains than with no shoes."
I take this to mean that for success one has to make several choices, not necessarily between the good and bad, but between the good and even better or best. Her story may be found here
I question "what is the best choice for me and Jan". That is if we have any choice, as we are "committed" to the UK NHS treatment route.
I still struggle with the whole issue of conventional cancer treatment. I have said I see radiotherapy as the con trick of the century, and now have serious doubts about Tamoxifen, the drug Jan is on for the next 2 years. To explain this I am not saying the conventional treatments do not work at all, it is just their effect is so minimal I doubt they are worth it. I have already posted rather old but learned research showing that for the simple breast cancer such as Jan has a placebo is more effective than radio or chemotherapy. In other words the conventional treatment can do positive harm.
I read Professor Sir Richard Peto's work, I regard him highly as probably one of the UK's top cancer authorities, I used his research when studying asbestos induced cancers in industry. Yet even in 2007 he only claims a 3% benefit from chemotherapy for breast cancer which is why we would reject chemotherapy if offered.
So I looked at similar treatment for bowel cancer. Guess what, just a 5 - 6% gain! That figure comes from a BBC report which says in more detail "Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are increasingly being used to treat bowel cancer once surgery has been carried out, especially in more advanced tumours, and may increase survival by 5 to 6 per cent."
On a positive note I see they report this. "British surgeons pioneering a technique known as total mesorectal excision claim to have one of the lowest recurrence rates in the world, with the cancer returning in only five per cent of cases." As most bowel cancer treatments claim a 50% recurrence, a drop to 5% is a ten fold reduction. Read their claims and copies of their published evidence at Pelican Cancer Foundation." Amy runs the marathon today to raise money for this work. I rate it, it talks about precision surgery, something so lacking it Jan's treatment so far, and why in my opinion Jan now needs radiotherapy to mop up the mess left behind.
What else needs discernment?
Christian cancer cures:
I looked in more detail at this site which claims to be Christian. I agree with its questioning of conventional treatments, but I question:
- is this guy really a christian? Too much jars on me.
- why does he give no facts, one has to buy his book?
When I compare the extracts of his book with learned university papers that are all free I question it. But I will keep reading. This site has info for free, it is run by a mormon missionary with no medical training. Sad the mormon gives out for free what looks like similar information. I hope I find them better than my initial impression.
Christian TV:
Last Friday evening we watched the "Healing School" that promises certain healing if only we will visit South Africa. I doubt that. Is God a racist or limited by geographic boundaries?
So we switched to UCB. We thank God for UCB, so often finding their broadcasts helpful. On Friday evening we watched and heard a talk by Margaret Stunt. I had never heard of her before, a lively mature lady talking to a convention of over 1000 young people. Half way through her talk she mentioned she had breast cancer two years ago. Very encouraging to us, how many people in the UK even admit to having had breast cancer? I believe God guided us to her broadcast. Oops, she emigrated three months ago from London to South Africa!
Christian books:
Sorry to say, I had recommended Janet Thompson's book "Dear God they say it is cancer". On reading in more detail it shares experiences of 44 American breast cancer sufferers. But their experience does NOT match the UK, treatments differ, and they are NOT cancer experts. I found it sad that when I research "chemo brain" Janet's book has one lady who blames her "chemo brain" on Tamoxifem. I believe this could unnecessarily scare us when Jan is just starting Tamoxifen. But nowhere in the scientific papers can I find such evidence, I suspect the lady is confusing chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, they are both "pills". So Janet's book is dropping to the "may do more harm than good" category for us in the UK.
The answer
God is sovereign. The maker of the universe can control cancer, take it to him in prayer.
God gives us and calls us to use a "sound mind". I will still research, I am becoming more and more an organic fruit and veg case coupled with exercise. I will skip today's marathon, and will be guided by university professors rather than health food cranks and religious nuts.
I find some support for this need for discernment in this book extract by a christian Professor here. Quoting the second letter to Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 it says, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".
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